Object: Flanged Axehead (Bronze Age)
Period: Bronze Age to BRONZE AGE (-1700 to -1500)
Material: Copper alloy 
Found: Madron, Cornwall, Cornwall (South West)
Discovery method: Metal detector
Length: 58 mm
Thickness: 11 mm
Weight: 103.4 g
Description: Incomplete cast copper alloy long-flanged axehead with a crescentic blade that has worn to rounded terminals, dating from the Early Bronze Age. The blade is trapezoidal in plan, triangular in profile, tapering towards the cutting edge, and rectangular in section at the broken edge. The blade is incomplete and would have expanded to a crescent shape with pointed ends orginally. The blade narrows towards the broken end, which is below where the transverse stop ridge would have been, stopping the haft or handle from sliding down the blade when the axe was being used. There are seven transverse ridges and grooves surviving on one of the faces of the axe, between the flanges and above the crescentic blade, which range in length from 18 mm to 32 mm and are each about 4 mm wide. The surface of both faces is very pitted and there are patches of green corrosion product within some of these pits. 



Flanged axes decorated with transverse grooves and crescentic blades can be found during the Arreton metalwork phase of metalworking assemblage V, which corresponds to Needham's (1996, 122) Period 3 (c.2000-1700 BC), such as the Class 5 axe illustrated in 'The Circulation of Metal in the British Bronze Age: The Application of Lead Isotope Analysis' (Rohl & Needham 1998, 127, fig.28, no.87).



Schmidt & Burgess (1981) illustrate a similar flanged axe with wide transverse grooves on the blade from Staxton in North Yorkshire in plate 33, no.411, which is classified as a Type Arreton long flanged axe and dated from the Arreton metalwork phase.



An example of a local Arreton flanged axe with the area above the crescentic blade decorated with incised transverse bands is illustrated in Pearce (1983) on page 615, pl.54, no.427.



The Arreton metalwork phase now dates from c.1700-1500 BC (Matt Knight pers comm).
Notes: Report by Matt Knight:



This is the lower blade of a small axe with the remains of low flanges extending onto the blade and an expanding crescentic cutting edge. There are four transverse grooves separated by five ridges on one face, spread between the flanges close to the break. There are the faint remains of the same decoration on the opposite face. These range in length from 8-32mm and are each about 4mm wide. It has been suggested these are destructive but the regular spacing and fine nature suggests they were decorative. The axe has broken below any possible transverse bevel so it is difficult to definitely identify, but the overall form of the axe is suggestive of Needham's Class 5, dating to the Arreton period.



Due to the corroded nature, it is difficult to identify definite signs of preparation and use. It is likely that the flanges were hammered up and the cutting edge had been worked to shape. The ridge and grooves are consistently patinated indicating these were deliberate decoration.



The axe has broken unevenly in antiquity across the middle of the blade, through the flanges. The break is consistently patinated/corroded and there are at least two macroscopic casting inclusions present in the break, which would have influenced the breakage. The ridge and grooves are situated very close to the break, raising the possibility that this was a deliberately destructive act, with the grooves representing failed strikes. However, it is more likely that the axe may have broken while incising the decoration.
Subsequent action: Returned to finder