Object: Flat Axehead (Bronze Age)
Period: Bronze Age to BRONZE AGE ( to )
Material: Copper alloy 
Found: Llanddeiniolen, Gwynedd, Gwynedd (Wales)
Discovery method: Metal detector
Length: 178.78 mm
Thickness: 16.37 mm
Weight: 518.3 g
Description: Description: 



(I am grateful to John Llywelyn Williams for the following description & discussion)



The find comprises two fragments of a copper alloy flat axe.



The larger blade fragment was initially thought to be all that survived. This fragment represents the lower half of the axe which has been severed from the butt end at a slight angle. The surface is of a generally uniform mid-brown colour with significant patches of green mottling signifying active corrosion. The fragment is slightly asymmetric in plan with one side gently concave and the other side continuing in a straighter line to the blade termination. The blade forms a shallow crescent with an abraded, irregular cutting edge, possibly from use in antiquity but accentuated by decay. Both points of the blade are missing and may have suffered from more recent damage. The surviving width of the blade is 85.4mm. The axe faces are both flat, producing a rounded rectangular body in section with a width at the break of 38.9mm and a maximum thickness of 16.3mm. One face of the axe fragment is pitted whilst the reverse face is smooth and exceptionally well preserved and may show evidence of the grinding and polishing undertaken to produce the completed object.



The second fragment was found several days after the discovery of the main blade fragment and was found some 4m away. It is a mid-green colour with dark grey surface mottling possibly representing soil staining. The two faces are fairly smooth but with noticeable scattered pitting. It is nearly rectangular in plan though the edges do converge slightly towards one end. The wide end is 38.91mm wide and the narrow is 29.62mm wide. The edges are rounded and again quite pitted, and they thin rapidly towards the narrower end of the fragment. The narrow end is quite thin (3.76mm) and is curled over at its extreme tip probably due to damage. The wide end is a broken edge and is very irregular. On one face the edge is fairly straight but on the other face it intrudes into the fragment body suggesting a significant wedge of metal is now missing. The corrosion on the break surface is quite powdery suggesting recent active decay.



Discussion:



The axe fragments probably belong to a single 'Migdale' type axe. The close correspondence of the measurements of width and thickness at the break, and the fairly regular, contiguous shape in plan formed by the two fragments would seem to support this.



Early Bronze Age flat axes of type 'Migdale' (Schmidt & Burgess, 1981, p 35-44)1 belong to 'Metalworking Assemblage III', corresponding to Needham's (1996)2 Period 2 -3 and probably dating to c. 2,200 - 1,900BC (though the typology of axes is currently under review). The Coed Bolyn axe is the first Migdale example from Gwynedd, if not from the whole of the area north of the Dee - Wynion river divide with the exception of the two Anglesey axes from Talwrn and the unprovenanced example possibly from  Llangaffo.



The most significant feature of the axe is its large size. The average length of the 24 complete Migdale type axes from Wales is 14.2cm with a blade width of 8.1cm (21 axes). In the Welsh corpus the only axe of comparable size is the complete example in the Oxwich hoard from the Gower peninsula (Swansea) with a length of 18cm, and a blade width of 13.3cm.



A second significant feature is the break that has divided the axe approximately in half. On the blade fragment, the break is clean and straight although it has produced a weak discontinuous peripheral lip on one side with a small projecting tail at the terminal end. This would suggest that the object has been bent, and snapped under pressure to leave the slight accretion on the lower side.



This 'clean' sharp break may also indicate deliberate breakage. Clean breaks of this type have been reproduced under experimental conditions. A bronze axe placed in a bonfire and heated to approximately 900ºC may be snapped if beaten while red hot over a projecting ledge to produce the slight underside lipping described above (David Chapman, Ancient Arts Ltd. pers. comm.).



Axes may be broken up in antiquity as part of a recycling programme. However this axe does not appear to have been crudely smashed.There is growing evidence that axes and axe fragments were buried in significant and deliberately chosen locations near to water courses, springs, bogs or in areas associated with other prehistoric activity.



However the break on the butt fragment of this axe is of a completely different character. The edge on one face is fairly straight and regular but the edge on the other face has a large wedge of material missing; torn or broken away. The regular edge is a fair match for the break on the main blade fragment, but the other edge does not match at all and there is no matching lip. This suggests that either the original breakage was not as clean and precise as at first thought, or that the butt fragment has been subjected to later secondary damage. As the two fragments were found approximately 4m apart, it is likely that they have been disturbed at some time, possibly by ploughing, and it may be that the butt break was further modified at this point.



1 Schmidt, P.K. & Burgess, C. 1981; The Axes of Scotland and Northern Ireland, Praähistorische Bronzefunde Abteilung IX, 7. Band 7



2 Needham, S. 1996; Chronology and Periodisation in the British Bronze Age , Acta Archaeologica 67, p. 121-140



3 Davis, Mary, 2016; National Museum Wales - SEM EDS analysis of a sample of the EBA flat axe: PAS 2015-29-002 & 005
Subsequent action: Returned to finder