Object: Knife (Bronze Age)
Period: Bronze Age to BRONZE AGE (-1275 to -800)
Material: Copper alloy 
Found: Upavon, Wiltshire, Wiltshire (South West)
Discovery method: Metal detector
Length: 85 mm
Thickness: 2.8 mm
Weight: 14.2 g
Description: Bronze Age bronze double-edged tanged and riveted knife of Middle to Late Bronze Age date



The cast knife blade is fragmentary by the tang and top of the blade (with a surviving length of 85.0mm and weight of 14.2g). The tang (48mm long) is narrowest and thinnest at the butt (10.6mm wide and 0.9mm thick) which has a slight indent at the centre. Below the butt is a sub-circular perforation (4.0mm – 4.3mm diameter positioned 5.3mm below the butt). The sides of the tang are straight and gently divergent towards the top of the blade (reaching a width and thickness of 14.9mm and 2.8mm respectively). Both tang faces are convex across their widths, producing a sub-rectangular section. The knife widens to the blade at the shoulders, where the knife has a maximum width (of 18.8mm), below which it narrows (for 20mm) before the blade edges appear to have been near-parallel sided (with a minimum width at the break of 8.9mm and a thickness of 1.5mm). The blade has a mid-ridge at the break, producing a lozengic section. Towards the top of the blade, the mid-ridge bifurcates to form a triangular panel, corresponding with the widening of the blade edge to the shoulders. The blade edge is damaged but blade facets are partially preserved on both sides. There is no clear evidence for blade damage that is contemporary with the use of the blade. The blade and tang now have a gentle bend across their length. The surface has numerous linear striations beneath the patina, running across both tang faces (at an angle of 20° – 40° to the vertical axis of the tang) resulting from coarse finishing. The blade have coarse, irregular striations running along the top of the blade and the suggestion of finer striations running off the blade edges. There is a possible punched mark at the top of the mid-ridge and a corresponding dent at the same position on the opposite face, suggesting that the blade was punched while resting on edge. The surface has a dark-green to black patina with a white deposit on the tang, concentrated around the perforation.   



Tanged and riveted knives are recovered in a variety of forms from the Middle Bronze Age onwards, though western British examples are not common. Studies (Pearce (1983), Knight et al. (2015) and Rowlands (1976, Pl.35)) illustrates two shouldered tanged knives with single rivet holes from Southern Britain, one from the River Thames, Berkshire, and another from Horningsea, Cambridgeshire. Rowlands considers tanged and riveted knives as belonging to the later Middle Bronze Age (Penard phase c.1275-1150BC). Comparable examples have been closely linked with Late Bronze Age material. Examples are present in the Grays Thurrock hoard, Essex (Turner 2010, No.02/134), and the Reach Fen hoard, Cambridgeshire (Smith 1956, GB.17 3(3) No.43), both of which are part of the Carp's Tongue complex in the Ewart Park phase (1000-800BC). In Wales a tanged knife, without a perforation was recovered in the Rossett Hoard, in association with a socketed axe and gold bracelet fragments.
Subsequent action: Returned to finder