File:Bronze age palstave (FindID 460076).jpg

English: A cast copper alloy / bronze lower blade fragment from a palstave dating from the Middle Bronze Age (1500-1150 BC). The blade is broken below the stop ridge and there is no evidence to suggest whether this fragment is from a looped - or unlooped palstave variant. The break is old and patinated; however, the edges are relatively clean and unabraded suggesting that the damage is pre-depositional. There is little trauma evidence, such as stressed metal fractures, on the body of the blade suggesting that the break could be deliberate rather than accidental. Both faces of the axe have single central swollen ribs that extend to a point above the blade facet. On one face the rib is much better defined and extends lower than that on the other. The shape of the fragment is sub-triangular in plan and triangular in profile; the cross section at the break is lozenge (sub-rectangular). The sides of the axe gently expand from the break to the blade facet where the tips of the blade protrude markedly. The cutting edge is crescentic and relatively well defined, however it has been rolled in the ploughsoil and the cutting edge is lost. From the asymmetric shape of the cutting edge, differential wear, possibly through use or sharpening can be seen with one tip being much more worn than the other. The presence of the blade facet would suggest that this differential wear was not a product of abrasion in the ploughsoil but an artefact of use. The casting ridges / seams on the sides of the axe have been trimmed and hammered smooth; they are most evident on one edge rather than the other. The palstave is a mid green colour with a slightly abraded patina; there is no evidence of active corrosion present although a thick heavy patina has not developed.

The axe measures 58.1mm length, is 36.0mm wide at the broken edge, 68.9mm wide across the expanded cutting edge, and 16.0mm thick at the break. It weighs 190.93 grams.

Similar examples to the blade profile can be seen in: Savory, 1980; Catalogue of the Bronze Age collections in the National Museum of Wales; Unlooped Palstaves (Shield-pattern and mi-rib variants) entry 151 from Ceulan-y-maesmawr, Cardiganshire or 160 from Crickhowell, Breckonshire. Burgess and Schmidt, 1981: The axes of Northern Britain also have a number of similar palstaves in their catalogue. The closest parallels can be seen in the classification Early Palstaves Group II: Early Midribbed Palstaves variant Type Chepstow. And Group III: Low Flanged Palstaves variant type Carleton Group II - Early Midribbed Palstaves (to which this example is best compared) dates to the Acton Park metal working tradition which is dated to the first phase of the Middle Bronze Age (MBA I) 1450-1250 BC. The distribution of metalwork from this phase is most common in North Wales and the Marches / Welsh Border areas.