File:Bronze Age socketed gouge (front, side and back views) (FindID 145195).jpg

English: A complete cast copper alloy socketed gouge, dating to the Late Bronze, between c. 1150 – c. 800 BC (length: 69mm; diameter at mouth 17.5mm; width at gouge end: 14.5mm; thickness at gouge end: 8mm; weight: 36.5g).

The gouge (used as a wood-working tool) is sub-rectangular in plan, with a circular and slightly flared socketed terminal at one end. At the opposing end, the curved blade edge is ‘C’ shaped in section with an elongated triangular or ‘V’ shaped groove on the upper surface of the gouge. This groove (length: 37mm) commences 33mm from the open socket and gradually increases in depth and width towards the blade terminal. At 8.5mm below the open socketed mouth of the gouge, there is a single moulded ridge running across the artefact’s circumference. There is a casting line still visible to the left and right down the length of the artefact and at either side of the triangular or V’ shaped groove, therefore clearly indicating that this artefact was cast in a mould. These casting lines interrupt the single moulded ridge below the socketed mouth. Overall, the artefact is in a slightly worn but good condition with a dark brown patina. There does not appear to be any wood surviving in the socket of the gouge.

Two similar examples are illustrated in Watson, P, 1993, ‘Catalogue of British and European Prehistoric Metalwork in Birmingham City Museums’, BAR British Series 233. One of these examples is decorated with ribbing (No. 72), and the second (No. 73) is undecorated.

Another similar example is illustrated in Smith, R, A, 1920, ‘British Museum: A Guide to the Antiquities of the bronze Age in the Department of British and Medieval Antiquities’, page 47, fig 33 amongst other finds that were also discovered at Heathery Burn Cave, co. Durham. Although the gouge V-shaped recess is longer, there is a similar single moulded ridge below the open socketed mouth of the artefact.

According to Pearce, S, M in the 1983 publication ‘The Bronze Age Metalwork of South Western Britain Part I’, page 43, socketed gouges ‘appear to have begun in the Wilburton phase, and continued as part of the tool repertoire until the end of the Bronze Age’, although most socketed gouges can be dated to the Ewart phase between c. 1000 – c. 800 BC.