Object: Spearhead (Bronze Age)
Period: Bronze Age to BRONZE AGE (-1500 to -1100)
Material: Copper alloy 
Found: Llantwit Fardre, Rhondda Cynon Taf, Rhondda Cynon Taf (Wales)
Discovery method: Metal detector
Length: 150.1 mm
Weight: 45.6 g
Description: Middle Bronze Age bronze socketed spearhead of Davis’ (2012)[1] Group 6: Developed side-looped, unclassified (Greenwell and Brewis (1909)[2] Class IV (or socket-looped)) spearheads and of later Arreton, Acton Park, Taunton or early Wilburton metalworking (c. 1500 – 1100BC), of Needham’s (1996)[3] Periods 4-5 



The spearhead is incomplete missing the tip, much of the blade edge and with some damage to the socket mouth (with a surviving length of 150.1mm and a weight of 45.6g). The truncated socket is sub-circular (with a maximum internal diameter of 14mm and an external diameter of 17.6mm - 18.5mm). The socket retains some of the sediment and has a depth of 75, possibly with sediment or corrosion at the base. The socket has two clear ridges, which develop into prominent mid-ridges on along the blade. The sides of the socket have integral loops, only one of which survives and is flat-topped of linear form (13mm long by 3mm wide), which begin 28mm from the socket mouth at present. The perforations beneath the loops are slender and oval (5.5mm long and 2.8mm high). There is a weak ridge on both sides running from the loop to the blade, giving the top of the socket a sub-lozenge section. Only a small part of the blade survives (with a surviving length of 88mm and maximum surviving width of 5mm) but the slender convergent form may suggest a flame-shaped blade. No detail survives on the small fragment of surviving blade edge. The tip is missing and is likely to have broken in antiquity. The spearhead has been neatly finished with no casting flashes evident. The surface of the spearhead is partially-preserved but with the surface now flaking and with a mid to dark brown patina. 



Group 6, side-looped spearheads have a long-lived production, spanning the end of Arreton in the Early Bronze Age to Wilburton at the beginning of the Late Bronze Age. A side-looped spearhead of Davis’ (2012) Group 6, Type A was found in the Thames at Mortlake, now in the Museum of London[4], and had remnants of the wooden shaft surviving. The shaft was radiocarbon dated by Needham et al (1997, DOB 31)[5] to 1680 – 1400BC (with 95% confidence). A Group 6, Type D spearhead from Tormarton, Gloucestershire has two radiocarbon dates (1390 – 1010BC and 1310-1057BC) (Davis 2012, ibid. p 7). Most Group 6 spearheads however are likely to date from Acton Park and Taunton industries. Damage to the spearhead makes typological identification uncertain but the comparatively long and slender form with a suggested flame-shaped blade may suggest a Group 6C spearhead, which have a largely South-Eastern British distribution.  





[1] Davis, R., 2012; The Early and Middle Bronze Age Spearheads of Britain, Praähistorische Bronzefunde Abteilung V. Band 5.



[2] Greenwell, W. & Brewis, W.P. 1909, The origin, evolution and classification of the bronze spear-head in Great Britain and Ireland, Archaeologia 61: 439-472



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



[4] Accession number: A11811



[5] Needham, S., Bronk Ramsey, C., Coombs, D., Cartwright, C., Pettitt, P.; 1997; An Independent Chronology for British Bronze Age Metalwork: The Results of the Oxford Radiocarbon Accelerator Programme; Archaeological Journal 154, p. 55-107
Subsequent action: Returned to finder