Object: Flat Axehead (Bronze Age)
Period: Bronze Age to BRONZE AGE (-2200 to -2000)
Material: Copper alloy 
Found: Landulph, Cornwall, Cornwall (South West)
Discovery method: Metal detector
Length: 64 mm
Thickness: 9.5 mm
Weight: 170.57 g
Description: Cast copper alloy blade from a flat axe, trapezoidal in plan with a splayed crescent-shaped blade. In profile it is broadly lentoid, with slight tapering edges, and in section, at the broken butt end, it is rectangular. The blade is flaring to the edge and the blade facet is bevelled from hammering. The long side-edges of the axe are slightly flanged. The broken edge would have continued to taper towards the butt end. The blade edge is uneven with perpendicular nicks across the edge which show that it was used in antiquity. There is no evidence of any form of incised or cast decoration present on the surface of the axe, and the surface is not very corroded or pitted, with a few marks and strikes such as a linear shallow groove on one side, caused by damage prior to deposition (Laura Ratcliffe pers comm). There is also a circular depression that has been caused by a gas bubble forming when the axe was cast.



The length is 64 mm, the width of broken end is 39 mm and the width of the blade is 66 mm, the thickness of the broken end is 9.5 mm and the thickness of the blade edge is 4 mm.



Similar flat axes on the database can be seen in DENO-93FB17, SUR-E3F467, LANCUM-3324F7, LANCUM-6507C2 and LVPL-851560.



Even though it is incomplete, the remains of this flat axe compares well to other examples from the Migdale tradition of the early Bronze Age, dating from c.2200-2000BC.



Pearce (1983) illustrates a similar example of a slender Migdale type flat axe on page 400, Plate 1, No.6, from Tregonjeeves Quarry in Cornwall, and broad Migdale type flat axes from Harlyn Bay, Cornwall and Hemyock and Kentisbeare in Devon, on pages 418, 443 & 446, Plates 12, 31 & 33, Nos.98c, 243 & 259, which are associated with the Migdale metalworking tradition of the Early Bronze Age, c.2200-2000 BC.



These axes all fit within the earliest phases of metal working in Britain, metalworking stage II, which corresponds to Needham's (1996) Period 2 (c.2350-2050 cal BC). This means that they are dated, broadly, to the same period as Beaker pottery, barbed and tanged flint arrowheads, copper halberds and gold lunulae.



Reference:



Needham, S. (1996) Chronology and Periodisation in the British Bronze Age. Acta Archaeologia, vol 67, pp.121-140



Schmidt, P.K. & Burgess, C.B. (1981) The Axes of Scotland and Northern England. Prahistorische Bronzefunde. Abteilung IX. Band 7. C.H. Beck'Sche Verlagsbuchhandlung, Munchen. pp.46-47.
Notes: Report from X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF) spectroscopy analysis (set to copper / zinc) by Kathryn Moore at Camborne School of Mines:



balance 55%



iron 0.575%



copper 19.61% +/-1.08%



tin 24.04% +/-1.85%



zinc 0.034%



arsenic 0.584%



lead 0.027%



The high tin reading for the Migdale axe is simply a result of the formation of tin-rich corrosion products on the surface of the axe. The arsenic content appears to be about right (Dr Peter Northover pers comm).
Subsequent action: Undergoing further examination at a museum