File:Ingot fragments (profile) (FindID 517239).jpg

English: Cast copper alloy Late Bronze Age 'metalworkers' hoard consisting of twelve objects: one copper alloy socketed axe, one flanged blade of another socketed axe, two incomplete copper alloy plano-convex ingots, seven fragments of copper alloy plano-convex ingots and one notched flint flake.

The socketed axe has a slightly flanged blade and three parallel ribs on each face, with a rectangular socket in plan, that is it is aligned with the blade. The collar is 10 mm deep with a side loop on one side of the collar with a casting seam that continues down the side of the axe and which is also pronounced on the other side. This suggests that the axe is unfinished as these side seams have not been filed flat. The blade fragment has slightly turned-up corners, so that the side edges of the blade are at right angles to the body of the axe, but generally, the blade and lower body were probably not wedge-shaped. The shape of both axes and the decoration of three ribs on the more complete specimen suggest that both axes date from the Late Bronze Age and were part of the Ewart Park metalwork assemblage, dating from c. 950-850 BC.

Three-ribbed socketed axes are very common in the Late Bronze Age, and some of the groups clearly differ from one another, and also have a very regional distribution, such as the South Wales and Yorkshire Types. The complete axe from the St Buryan hoard, however, seems to be a generic Late Bronze Age socketed axe with parallels widely spread throughout East Anglia, South East England and South England. They regularly occur in Late Bronze Age hoards (e.g. Manton Preshute, Wiltshire) and, rarely, in excavated settlement contexts (e.g. The Breiddin, Powys; Traprain Law, East Lothian).

The ingot fragments are circular in plan and plano-convex in profile and are likely to be contemporary with the axes in date. Late Bronze Age metalwork hoards from Kent and East Anglia usually include copper-alloy ingots or scrap metal and the association is not unusual. Locally, this hoard can be compared to a Late Bronze Age ingot hoard from Porthcothan, St Merryn, which was analysed and published by Dr Peter Northover and two similarly small Late Bronze Age metalworkers hoards from Tregonning, Breage, which are also dated from the Ewart Park phase.

The notched flint flake with a scraper edge at the distal end is crude and utilitarian which is typical of the Late Bronze Age when earlier flint tools are being re-touched and re-used.

Dimensions (length x width x thickness) and weights are as follows:

1) socketed axe: 107 x 47 x 39 mm and 314.9 g

2) socketed blade: 43 x 58.6 x 18 mm and 110.95 g

3) plano-convex ingot: 117 x 69 x 41 mm and 919.05 g

4) plano-convex ingot: 83 x 71 x 32 mm and 743.9 g

5) ingot fragment: 46 x 42 x 31 mm and 274.35 g

6) ingot fragment: 60 x 46 x 25 mm and 236.55 g

7) ingot fragment: 64 x 39 x 25 mm and 185.55 g

8) ingot fragment: 52 x 36 x 25 mm and 163.6 g

9) ingot fragment: 49 x 41 x 22 mm and 140.05 g

10) ingot fragment: 47 x 39 x 20 mm and 129.15 g

11) ingot fragment: 46 x 43 x 25 mm and 87.3 g

12) flint notched flake: 50 x 42 x 13 mm abd 26.55 g

The dimensions recorded below are solely for the socketed axe.