Object: Palstave (Bronze Age)
Period: Bronze Age to BRONZE AGE ( to )
Material: Copper alloy 
Found: Clifton upon Dunsmore, Rugby, Warwickshire (West Midlands)
Discovery method: Metal detector
Description: Primary / Early Bronze Age copper-alloy Group II palstave (1500-1300 BC): The blade of the palstave is sub-trapezoidal in plan with slightly concave sides, and flared blade tips. On one face of the blade there is a feint single mid rib which appears to continue to the mid section of the blade. The other face, where they may have been a mid rib, there is an off-centre low-relief score mark or damage, but this is not recent. The edge bevel to the blade is 16.58mm deep. The cutting edge appears to be symmetrical. The sides of the blade are concave in plan, and this curvature stops at the junction of the blade and flange side. The edges of the blade, on both faces, are slightly raised with flanges running down the flaring blade. In profile the blade is sub-triangular with the widest section being before the stop ridge. Both sides of the blade have a feint trace of a casting seam.



The palstave, on both faces, has a prominent stop-ridge which is rectangular in plan. Before the stop ridge, on one face, there is a small, shallow depression which is probably not a shield-shaped/pattern decoration. The flange sides are a sub oval in profile with casting seams.



In plan the septrum is rectangular and the butt has a broken corner, and this is not a recent break. The patina of the break appears to match the surface of the palstave. On one face of the septrum there is a small patch of active corrosion which is in a slight depression, and appears to reveal a void beneath this patch of corrosion.



The two faces of the palstave have differing corrosion products occurring, one side has a dark brown patina with some encrustation. The other face has a mottled grey and green matte surface. On one side face there is fresh metal visible due to recent damage.



The palstave measures 153mm long from the blade cutting edge to the butt, 70.36mm wide from one blade tip to the other, and 28.48mm thick across the stop ridges. It weighs 402g.



The palstave is an early/primary example and is classified as a Group II type, probably associated with the Acton Park II and Taunton metalworking assemblages. Needham Period 5, Burgess Metal Working Stage VIII and IX. These group of palstaves date to the Middle Bronze Age period, and can be narrowed down to 1500-1300 BC



Peter Reavill comments '... Looking at Burgess and Schmidt - we could probably suggest, using their typology, that this is a Early Palstave Group II - Early Mid-ribbed Type Liswerry. Being similar to an example from Whinfell, Cumbria (p127 cat no 794 plate 58) and Roundhay, West Riding, Yorkshire (ibid: 794a) In the discussion they say that Liswerry implements have elegant narrow form similar to the earlier flanged axes - they tend to have narrow bodies blade sides that diverge little from the butt and then flare to form widely expanded blade with deeply curved cutting edge and defined blade tips. Further they have flange extensions that descend well down the blade conjoining with a well-defined chamfered cutting edge - and the mid-rib is also long. (ibid 126)'.



Regarding the nature of the surface condition of the palstave, this may be reflecting deposition conditions. Peter Reavill suggests that the iron stained patina may have occurred if deposited in a waterlogged area, or at least had been recovered from an archaeological strata at the junction between the plough and undisturbed sub-soil where an iron pan was formed.
Subsequent action: Returned to finder