File:Bronze Age hoard (FindID 154085).jpg

1. Socketed axe, South-Eastern class A. Complete. Double mouth moulding, sub-square mouth with rounded corners. The axe is wedge-shaped in profile and almost rectangular in plan. The upper mouth moulding is worn and chipped. The cutting edge is expanded and there are slightly developed blade tip hollows. The blade edge and blade tips are missing due to corrosion damage. There are curving striations along the same plane as the blade edge on both sides of the cutting edge and lower blade. Internal ribs on both faces. The casting seams are barely visible on both sides and on the loop. The loop is semi-circular with an oval perforation. It extends from the lower mouth moulding for 23.7mm and is 10.78mm wide. The original surface of the axe is abraded and survives in patches with a dark green patina. Exposed abraded or pitted surfaces are light green with some patches of bright green corrosion product. One side of the axe is notably more abraded and corroded (when viewed with the loop to the right). The axe has been left with the socket full of earth. Colchester museums have taken an x-ray which indicates that some organic material, possibly leather, survives within. Length: 80.32mm; External mouth dimensions: 38.78mm x 37.4mm; Internal mouth dimensions.: 29.22mm x 27.52mm; Width of blade: 44.6mm; Width at mid-point of the body: 27.96mm; Weight: 174.27g.

2. Copper-alloy ring; complete. The ring is of uneven thickness, broadening significantly for approximately one third of the circumference. There is a casting sprue at the centre on the outside of the wider edge. The object is heavily abraded and little of the original surface survives, which obscures whether the ring is narrower due to wear. Small patches of original surface do survive with a mid green patina. Otherwise, the exposed surfaces are lighter and brighter green. There are patches of cobalt blue corrosion product. External Diameter: 20.18mm; Internal Diameter: 10.24mm; The broader portion is 7.56mm thick and 6.58mm wide and the narrower portion is 4.86mm thick and 4.24mm wide; Weight:7.46g.

3. Sheet gold circular disc; flat in section. The disc has an integral down turned flange. It has four circular perforations. The disc is torn along one small portion of the edge across one of the perforations. The disc was perforated with an instrument from one side only and no efforts were made to remove the burrs created as a result of this process. Both the front and reverse of the disc are plain. The reverse has tiny flecks of copper-alloy on its surface, presumably where it was in close contact with a copper-alloy object (see notes below). Diameter: 31.14mm; Thickness: 1.04mm; Weight: 1.20g.

4. Socketed knife, Thorndon type. Incomplete. The socket is rectangular in plan and elliptical in section. It is damaged and has a rough diagonal break on both sides of the socket, from just below one top corner to the opposite lower corner. One circular perforation remains intact on one face of the socket, the opposite perforation has been bisected by the break. The integral blade extends from the top of the socket and is lentoid in section. The blade edges are missing and the exposed sides are now heavily chipped and worn. The blade is truncated and terminates with a diagonal break. The blade has straight sides. The original surface of the object survives and has an olive-green patina and the exposed edges are bright green. Lemgth: 98.82mm; Blade Length: 73.66mm;It is 21.56mm wide across the socket and 16.3mm wide across the blade. It is 10.6mm thick at the socket and 4.22mm thick at the blade. It weighs 29.48g.

This small hoard of artefacts dates to the Ewart Park phase of the Late Bronze Age which suggests a date of deposition towards the end of the period, around 1000-800 BC.

The main body of the hoard (nos. 1-3) was found at a depth of approximately 35 cm and at the point where the plough soil meets the underlying clay. The finder cannot recall which way up the axe was facing. The copper alloy ring was set approximately 1cm behind the axe and the gold disc approximately 1cm behind the ring, all on the same level. It is possible that the disc 'capped' the socket of the mouth, with the copper alloy ring 'sandwiched' between. This might account for why there are traces of copper alloy on the underside of the disc. The socketed knife (no. 4) was found approximately 15cm away from the main body of the hoard, at a depth of about 20cm in disturbed plough soil. It is possible that it was deposited close to the nucleus of the hoard but not within the same deposit, and was thus more prone to disturbance.