Object: Palstave (Bronze Age)
Period: Bronze Age to BRONZE AGE (-1400 to -1275)
Material: Copper alloy 
Found: Tintagel, Cornwall, Cornwall (South West)
Discovery method: Metal detector
Length: 133 mm
Thickness: 23 mm
Weight: 183.35 g
Description: Incomplete cast copper alloy high-flanged, side-looped, mid-ribbed, South-western palstave dating from the Taunton phase (c.1400-1275 BC) of the Middle Bronze Age. The palstave has worn high side flanges with long extensions, their highest point being above the stop ridge, with the base circles of the side-loop on either side of the stop ridge, and a broad blade that is triangular in plan. The squared-off protruding stop ridge produces a rectangular aperture in plan and the worn down side flanges are lozenge-shaped in profile.The stop is 11 mm wide and 9 mm deep on both sides and the thickness of the worn side flanges together, front and back, is 23 mm. Below the stop ridge the narrow blade is parallel to the exterior in plan, at 20 mm wide, and inset from the stop ridge in profile and 10 mm thick, and starts to expand into the triangular blade after 10 mm towards the cutting edge which is 55 mm wide and 2 mm thick. The blade has a central mid rib which is 4 mm wide and 68 mm long, and two raised edges, 4 mm thick, following the slightly curved edge of the blade to a length of 80 mm. The two bases of the side loop project outwards 1 mm from the surface of one side of the palstave and are 5 mm in diameter and 8 mm apart. The casting seam below the loop as been chiselled away, but there is still a raised seam above it, and another seam on the opposite side of the hafting end of the palstave. The entire surface of the palstave is corroded and pitted and the cutting edge of the blade is damaged and subsequently corroded so it is difficult to determine how much the edge was used and resharpened.



Schmidt & Burgess (1981) illustrate similar narrow side-looped palstaves with mid-ribs and side ribs and triangular blades from Keighley, Yorkshire and Greyfriar's Church, Dumfries in plate 61, no.836, which is unclassified as it is just a blade but possibly South-western, and no.841, which is referred to as a South-western type of palstave and compared to items produced during the Ornament Horizon of the later Middle Bronze Age such as a palstave in the Taunton hoard (c.1400-1275 BC) on pp.141-143.



Knight, Ormrod & Pearce (2015) illustrate palstaves with side loops, squared-off stop ridges and side and central ribs on the blade from Shapwick, Dorset and Dorset county on p.93, pl.20, nos.290 & 340 which are referred to as early types of palstaves with midribs.



Savory (1980) illustrates two similar side-looped, broad-bladed palstaves, missing their flanges, from the Cemmaes hoard found in Montgomeryshire in Wales, on p.179, fig.31, nos.2 & 5, which are referred to as South-western palstaves and named the Cemmaes phase of metalwork in Wales which is the same as the Taunton phase (c.1400-1275 BC) of the Middle Bronze Age in the South West.



Moore and Rowlands (1972) illustrate two similar side-looped, broad-bladed, high-flanged palstaves found near Salisbury and at Carlton, Dowton, Wiltshire on page 53, plate VIII, nos.23-24.
Subsequent action: Returned to finder