Object: Flat Axehead (Bronze Age)
Period: Bronze Age to BRONZE AGE (-2050 to -1700)
Material: Copper alloy 
Found: Norton Canes, Cannock Chase, Staffordshire (West Midlands)
Discovery method: Metal detector
Length: 107.8 mm
Thickness: 13.7 mm
Weight: 213 g
Description: An incomplete Early Bronze Age cast copper alloy developed flat axe. The axehead is 107.8 mm long, with a transverse butt, approximately 21mm wide, and a body which gently expands in width towards the blade. There is a broadly straight transverse bevel visible approximately half way down one side of the axehead. The other side has a less complete surface, and no bevel is visible. The axehead has gentle pointed-oval shaped flanges at the edges of the body, which are concave in section, and are cast or hammered. The flanges are slightly thicker than the body of the axe, and are a maximum of 13.7mm thick approximately half way down body of the axehead. In section, the axehead has broadly flat sides which curve up at the edges towards the concave flanges. The blade is splayed, one side more markedly than the other, with a maximum width of 51.5mm. The blade has a curved cutting edge. The axehead weighs 213g. The surface of the axehead has a dark brown patina, but this is incomplete in parts. Where the dark brown patina is incomplete, there is a light green pitted surface. No decoration is visible on the axehead. Schmidt and Burgess (1981, p.59) trace the development of the flat axe in Britain and Ireland. They identify the trend, "...from broad, simple, triangular forms with splaying sides and flat, even slightly convex, unembelleshed faces, to increasingly narrow forms, with ever-straighter sides that diverge less and less, approaching and even attaining, the parallel sided form typical of flanged axes. The trend is towards slightly dished faces, the edges of the faces are worked up into slight flanges, and a median bevel is an increasingly common feature. Decoration...becomes a commonplace..." Schmidt and Burgess (ibid.) explain that these developments were in part a function of changing hafting methods - the knee handle, with forked angled end required a narrower shape to fit snugly between the prongs of the fork. Furthermore, dished faces and raised edges made the seating more secure, and the median bevel reduced the tendency of the axe to be driven up into the fork. The axehead described in this record is similar to axe reference 361 identified by Schmidt and Burgess (ibid. plate 31 and p66). This is a developed flat axe of type Bandon. Schmidt and Burgess (ibid, p65) state that: "Bandon axes are notably smaller than other advanced flat axes, usually under 130mm in length. They have straight, parallel or near parallel sides which curve out suddenly just above the blade to a widely expanded crescentic cutting edge. The butt tends to be fairly straight often with square corners. Raised edges or dished faces are usually present...A median bevel is usual..." They add that decoration is characteristic of Irish examples in particular, and they show a trend towards proportionately thicker and shorter forms, having much in common with true flanged axes. The developed flat axe is within Needham's (1996) period 3 (2050-1700BC).
Subsequent action: Returned to finder