Object: Palstave (Bronze Age)
Period: Bronze Age to BRONZE AGE (-1150 to -950)
Material: Copper alloy 
Found: Penkridge, South Staffordshire, Staffordshire (West Midlands)
Discovery method: Metal detector
Length: 126.2 mm
Thickness: 23.93 mm
Weight: 279.8 g
Description: An almost complete copper alloy palstave axe with an incomplete side loop. The palstave axe is dated to the Bronze Age period, dating from circa BC 1050 - BC 950.



The palstave is lozenge shaped in profile with a broadly rectangular blade end and triangular butt end in plan. The blade of the palstave has broadly parallel sides that flare slightly to form a crescent shaped cutting edge. The cutting edge measures 30.01mm in width and is 13.11mm thick. The blade is blunt and has been heavily worn, the cutting edge is now lost. The palstave was possibly reground several times owing to the lack of expanded blade at the edges. The widest section of the palstave is at the stop ridge. Below the stop ridge on one face the axe has been decorated with three vertical ridges or ribs which are converging. The opposing face has no evidence of similar decoration although the surface is very worn.



The rear part of the axe (from the stop ridge to the butt) is broadly triangular in plan and profile and rectangular in cross section. The butt of the axe is narrowed and incomplete. The butt end measures 18.25mm in width and is 7.74mm thick. The septum (the area between the flange facets and the stop ridge) is square in plan and measures 27.02mm in width. The side loop is incomplete and measures 27.9mm in length externally and is 11.9mm in length internally. Only the base of the loop remains on both sides which are broadly circular in section. The object has a mid-green coloured uneven patina. Abrasion caused by movement within the plough soil may have resulted in the loss of some of the original surface detail.



Scmidt and Burgess, (1981), illustrate similar examples which fit the Type Nettleham, plate 67, no 930, which fits with Wilburton and Penard assemblages of the Middle and Late Bronze Age and fits with Needham Period 5-6 Metalworking Assemblage X, dating it to the period BC 1050 -BC 950. This marked a transition between palstaves and socketed axeheads. Other examples have been recorded on the PAS database including (WMID-306462) discovered in Staffordshire and (LIN-709F56) discovered in Nottinghamshire. Good parallels can also be seen from Hockenhul, Cheshire (LVPL-B27017) and also a mixed hoard of Late palstaves and socketed axes from Amport, Hampshire (HAMP-4DE734 etc). The nature of this hoard suggests this form of decorated axe has a potentially long life (well into the Ewart Park phase of the later Bronze Age (1000-800 BC). A distinctive pattern on their distribution has not been produced, however, Evans (1881) identifies a number of this form of axehead being discovered in the Welsh Marches specifically from Llandysilio (Denbighshire) and Fronheulog, Merionethshire (ibid: p92-93).



The object measures 126.20mmin length, is 32.32mmwide at the stop ridge. It has a maximum thickness of 23.93 mm at the stop ridgeand weighs 279.8 grams.



Schmidt, P. K. and Burgess, C. B., 1981. The axes of Scotland and Northern England Munchen : C.H. Beck'sche Verlagsbuchhandlung
Subsequent action: Returned to finder