File:Bracer (profile) (FindID 402125).jpg

English: Polished stone bracer, rectangular in plan and lozenge-shaped in profile and section, with three perforations at each end for attachment to leather or textile to protect the wrist from the backlash of the bow string. This type of bracer, flat with lentoid section and six holes, is classified as a Type B3 (Ann Woodward pers comm) within the pre-exisiting Atkinson typology (see Clarke, 1970, Vol.2, p.333, Fig.429, Appendices 3.1 & 3.2).

The bracer is made of grey-green, very fine grained metamorphic rock, which is harder than a steel point, greater than 6 on the Mohs scale (Simon Camm pers comm). "The bracer compares well morphologically with one of the amphibolite bracers from the river Thames at Sonning (see Clough & Cummins, 1988, p.143, No.67, Ser.1510), and another amphibolite example that is unusually dark in colour, from Sittingbourne, Kent (see Clarke 1970). I think that this bracer must be another amphibolite one, though darker than nearly all of them. They often appear to have changed over time to a paler shade of blue-green" (Fiona Roe pers comm). Amphibolite is a metamorphic rock composed chiefly of amphibole with minor plagioclase and little quartz.

"In original use bracers such as these date from the Beaker period, probably between c.2500 - 2000 cal BC, although some have been found in Early Bronze Age graves, where they were probably heirloom items. Some bracers may have served to protect the wrist from the rebounding bow string, when they were found on the inner face of the forearm, but a significant number were found on the outside of the arm, or rather higher up than the wrist. The current view is that many of them would have been valuable items which were mounted on the outer arm where they acted as highly visible signs of status. They may also have served to symbolise the traditional importance of archery. These ideas were reached independently by our own research project, and by a team working in Leiden, Netherlands. The latter is published in PPS 74 (1978) by Harry Fokkens et al. There is also our own preliminary Leverhulme project paper: Woodward et al, which appeared in Antiquity 80 (2006), pp.530-43" (Ann Woodward pers comm). In this paper there is a similar bracer from Brandon, Suffolk illustrated on page 531, Fig.2, (h).