File:Bronze Age palstave (FindID 266582).jpg

English: A copper-alloy palstave of Late Bronze Age date. This piece was probably made around 800 BC, as part of the Carp's Tongue Complex within the Ewart Park phase of metalwork (equivalent to Needham's Phase 7).

The artefact is sub-rectangular in plan, the width expanding slightly towards the end of the blade and at the attachment end. The blade is short, most of the surfaces being occupied by the socket, which on each side takes the form of two flanges overhanging a recessed strip. Contained within the socket are traces of a dark blue residue which may be a corrosion product resulting from the reaction between the copper and that of an associated, possibly organic, material. Located approximately one third of the way along one of the narrower faces is a cast attachment loop. On this surface, and on the opposing surface, there is also a longitudinal casting seam.

The surfaces of the palstave are corroded but there are small patches of the original surfaces surviving. The object measures 65mm long, 21.3mm wide and 12mm thick. The weight is 31.92g.

The majority of parallels have come from founder's hoards, including that found at Shoebury, Essex (Smith 1958). Other examples have been found at Swalecliffe, Minnis Bay, The hundred of Hoo and Langdon Bay, Kent; Addington Park, Surrey; Carlton Rode, Norfolk; Westow, Yorkshire; Longeville Picardy, Venat or Saint-Yrieix, and Xermanenil Nancy, France (P. Reavill, pers. comm.). Keith Muckleroy (1980: 106-109) discusses the distribution of these continental axes and suggests that the large number of continental types of metalwork found in south-eastern Britain is due to a recycling trade between Kent and France for raw materials.