Object: Gouge (Bronze Age)
Period: Bronze Age to BRONZE AGE (-950 to -750)
Material: Copper alloy 
Found: Conwy, Conwy, Conwy (Wales)
Discovery method: Metal detector
Length: 86 mm
Diameter: 20.2 mm
Weight: 46 g
Description: Late Bronze Age copper alloy socketed gouge.



The socketed gouge is near-complete and has broken in antiquity at the mouth. The gouge may be judged slender with a maximum external diameter at the mouth of 20.2mm (15.6mm internal). The gouge has an overall length of 86.0mm and weighs 46.0g. The mouth is simple and has no mouldings around it. The gouge has a subtle collar 12mm deep. The sides of the gouge are gently concave and converge towards the blade edge. The casting seams are high and have undergone minimal finishing. The gouge groove begins 31mm from the mouth. The blade edge has been lost and it is now unclear weather the blade originally expand at the sides. The blade has a width of 14mm. Sharpening striations are evident running off the blade edge (at 90 degrees) on the face and are angled (at approximately 45 degrees) on the rear of the blade. The gouge generally has good surface survival and has a black or pale green patina. Areas of active bronze corrosion are present at the mouth and on the blade. Savory (1980, pp 55) suggests that earliest socketed gouges such as those that occur in the Guilsfield hoard have multiple mouth mouldings, whereas later gouges tend to have a broad flat collar.
Notes: This gouge is part of a hoard of five objects, found around 1975. The hoard consists of two palstaves (NMGW-632296; NMGW-759FC0), a socketed axe (NMGW-75C4F7), and a blade of an uncertain object (NMGW-7621D3).



This hoard can be fairly confidently dated to the Late Bronze Age, resolution within this time period however, is problematic and requires metallurgical analysis to resolve.



David Coombs (1971, 251ff.; 2001, 288) presented a four category typology based on the shape and style of socketed gouges in south east England. This gouge might be most accurately placed within his Class I category, which is characterised by a plain collar and narrow blade. Classes of gouges are difficult to distinguish chronologically, but can be broadly dated to the Late Bronze Age, particularly the Wilburton-Ewart Park metalworking phases (c.1150-750 BC), though different forms continue in use into the Early Iron Age. Savory (1980, 55) has suggested that simple mouth mouldings on socketed gouges suggest a later date within the type, probably implying a Ewart Park date for the gouge, within Needham's (1996) Period 7, dated to c. 950-750BC.



The palstaves (NMGW-632296; NMGW-759FC0) are suggested as being of 'Guilsfield' type and suggest manufacture during the Wilburton metalworking industry. Wilburton metalworking corresponds to Needham's (1996) Period 6 and is dated to c. 1150-950 BC. The socketed axe (NMGWPA 2005.93.3) of Type Gillespie can be dated from late Wilburton to Ewart Park (Schmidt & Burgess 1981, 193), although Wilburton associations are known (ibid.).



The highly tentative parallel drawn between the blade fragment NMGWPA 2005.93.5 and the Acton Park hoard may present a slight possibility of an earlier association dating to the later Middle Bronze Age and of Acton 2 metalworking stage, corresponding to Needham's (ibid.) Period 5 and dated to c. 1500-1150BC. However, the blade may also plausibly represent the lower part of a tanged chisel, such as those seen in the Late Bronze Age hoards from Penwyllt, Powys, and Brogyntyn, Shropshire (Savory 1980, No.284(9); No.288(3)). It is the Identifier's opinion that these complex dating issues may only be resolved through metallurgical analysis to identify the alloying group as outlined by Northover (1980).
Subsequent action: Returned to finder