Object: Hoard (Bronze Age)
Period: Bronze Age to BRONZE AGE (-1000 to -800)
Material: Copper alloy 
Found: Llantilio Crossenny, Monmouthshire, Monmouthshire (Wales)
Discovery method: Metal detector
Description: Late Bronze Age hoard of two socketed axes and one spearhead.



1. South Wales type socketed axe



Dimensions: length (including runner stub) 101.8mm; length (excluding runner stub (99.6mm); blade width 45.3mm; width below loop 39.4mm; external mouth dimensions 49.6 by 47.5mm; internal mouth dimensions 31.0 by 30.3mm; dimensions of runner stubs (1) 8.6 by 3.4mm; height 0.3mm; (2) 9.9 by 3.9mm; height 1.2mm; (3) 8.8 by 4.0mm; height 2.2mm; (4) 8.2 by 4.6mm; height 0.1mm; depth of socket approx. 72.0mm; weight 370.8g.



This is a complete socketed axe of slender proportions, however with a blocky rectangular, tending towards square, shaped cross-section. The sides are slightly divergent and near straight, but with a very slight concave curve and there is virtually no expansion at the blade end. The axe has a prominent out-splayed mouth moulding with a narrow loop descending from its underside. Three near parallel ribs descend from the moulding on each face, extending a little over half way down each face. These ribs are prominent, but discontinuous towards the base on one face, suggesting imperfections in flow and casting, or a mould-half which was old when used. The axe has a near square body cross-section with extremely angular and crisp face-edges. The axe has a deep front-back mouth, almost square, and the mouth top is heavy and wide. The external shape and internal aperture of the mouth are virtually sub-square with rounded corners. Four projecting runner-stubs, two very prominent and untrimmed, are present around the mouth, each 90 degrees apart, indicating the use of a four-runner casting technology. The casting seams down each side are sharp and prominent and were never hammered or filed down after casting. The faces of the axe, have very slight and indistinct, rounded and shallow hollows across them and down to near the blade edge, indicating that this axe retained the contours of its mould and was never hammered or worked up for use. On one lower central face, there is a larger circular depression with rougher surfaces. This is not an impact scar and appears to be a minor casting flaw or imperfection in the mould. There are linear striations visible on the non-worked or hammered blade margins, running parallel with the blade edge. This suggests cursory preparation of the axe, which was never used as a tool before it was buried. The original surfaces of the axe have survived exceptionally well and have a brown patination. Small patches of eroded surface are evident on the sides, around the mouth and on the blade edge, and these have a grey-green patina.



2. Yorkshire type socketed axe



Dimensions: length 69.6mm; blade width 40.2mm; width below loop 27.8mm; external mouth dimensions 32.6 by 30.7mm; internal mouth dimensions 23.1 by 23.0mm; depth of socket approx. 53.0mm; weight 97.9g.



This is a small and complete socketed axe with a flared blade. The sides of the axe are divergent and with concave curved form, expanding more markedly near the blade edge. The axe has a double mouth moulding with a flared trumpet form and thickened mouth top. On each face, three wide-spaced, well-defined and short ribs descend from the lower mouth moulding. The ribs are slightly divergent and extend less than one third of the length of each face. A wide loop emerges from the lower mouth moulding. The axe has a sub-rectangular cross section and the face edges are rounded, while the mouth is deep and square with rounded corners. On the inner mouth is a narrow line of projecting excess metal from the casting, though the edges are rounded, possibly rapidly hammered or filed down. Casting seams are narrow but prominent down each side, with little effort to hammer or file these down. In side view, it is apparent that one mould-half was deeper than the other, as the casting seam is off the centre line. One upper face has a shallow depression across its surface, suggesting a slight imperfection in the shaping of the mould. Along the blade bevels there are surface striations running parallel with the blade edge, while slightly higher up the blade faces are striations running at ninety degrees to the axis of the blade edge. These suggest the axe was prepared for use. Original surfaces are well preserved on this axe, with a brown patination. There are small patches and pits of eroded surface on the lower faces and along the blade edge, which have a green patina.



3. Plain Pegged Spearhead, with lanceolate leaf-shaped blade



Dimensions: surviving length 104.3mm; surviving length of blade approx. 87.0mm; surviving maximum blade width 44.6mm; external diameter of socket at break (side to side) 25.8mm; surviving length of socket below blade 14.8mm; distance peg-hole below blade approx. 11.5mm; surviving depth of socket approx.73.0mm; surviving weight 49.9g.



A Plain Pegged spearhead with a lanceolate leaf-shaped blade, broken across the socket near the line of the peg-hole. The midrib has a slight rounded ridge along its central length on both faces, giving its cross-section a sub-lozengic shape at the break. The midrib tapers slightly near the lower blade, giving slightly concave edges. The blade edges are eroded and no blade bevels can now be seen. The blade surfaces have many longitudinal striations parallel with the line of the midrib, suggesting the blade was prepared and sharpened in prehistory. Three-quarters of the break edges on the socket are soil covered, suggesting a break in antiquity, however there is also a fresh break on one side where the wall is thinnest, indicating a recent break during retrieval of the artefact from the ground. On each side at the break, the upper sides of the peg-holes are visible, suggesting they once had a diameter of 4-5mm. In side view, the blade is slightly bent, hinting that the spear may either have been damaged in use or forcibly bent and perhaps broken, before burial. On one upper midrib face, there is a corroded hole through the wall into the socket interior, where the midrib wall was particularly thin. Original surfaces have a brown patina. The tip, blade edges and part of the socket break have green corroded surfaces, as does the corroded hole in the upper midrib wall.
Notes: One of the two socketed axes reported may be identified as a South Wales type socketed axe (No. 1, above). The combination of out-splayed mouth, high placed and narrow loop, blocky rectangular form, four-runner casting technology, ribs descending from the underside of the collar and poorly finished state following casting are all diagnostic elements, in combination helping to identify it to this type (e.g. Needham 1981, 31; Northover unpublished, 259-60; Burgess 2012, 239 & Fig. 1). This axe has a particularly deep front-back mouth dimension, tending towards a sub-square shape, rather than typical rectangular form, normally with a long-axis from side to side. This deep mouth and long slender form may suggest an axe that was cast, used and buried towards the end of the Ewart Park phase of the Late Bronze Age (c. 850-800 BC), since axes with deep front-back mouth dimensions generally become typical attributes of axe types used during the late Ewart Park and Llyn Fawr phases of the Late Bronze and Earliest Iron Ages.



South Wales type socketed axes are a frequent and dominating element within Ewart Park hoards of Late Bronze Age date across south-east Wales (e.g. McNeil 1973, Fig. 9; Moore 1978; Savory 1980, 49, 120-2; Needham 1981; Gwilt 2004). Here, around forty hoards now contain at least 150 examples, making it the core area within Britain for their burial within hoards. Approaching fifty single finds of South Wales Type socketed axes have also been discovered in south-east Wales. They are also frequent smaller presences in contemporary hoards across mid and north-east Wales, south western and England, southern England and northern France, with occasional outliers in northern Britain and Ireland (McNeil 1973, 61-4; Moore 1978; Needham 1981, 55-66; Burgess 2012, 241-4 & Fig. 2).



The second socketed axe (No. 2, above) in this hoard group may be identified as of probable Yorkshire type. This axe has widely spaced, short and divergent ribs descending from a mouth moulding, with a prominent and everted collar. In addition a wide loop emerges from the lower mouth moulding. The axe is sub-rectangular in cross-section and the mouth and socket plan is deep and square. All of these features are diagnostic of the Yorkshire type (Schmidt & Burgess 1981, 223). This is a small and slender example of the type, with a flared blade, however can be paralleled within the range of known examples of the type (e.g. Schmidt & Burgess 1981, 224, 227, 229-30, 234-5; Cats. 1368, 1404, 1438, 1448, 1517, 1543, Pls. 89, 91, 93, 97 & 98).



Yorkshire type axes are most commonly found in Yorkshire and Lincolnshire, though there is a scatter known in East Anglia and Scotland (Schmidt & Burgess 1981, 223). These axes are found in hoards dating to the Ewart Park phase of the Late Bronze Age, most commonly in Yorkshire, Lincolnshire East Anglia and Borders, but with occasional examples also known in Carp's Tongue hoards across southern England of Ewart Park date (Schmidt & Burgess 1981, 237-8). One possible Yorkshire type axe has been identified within the Stogursey, Somerset hoard (McNeil 1973, 49 & 56, Cat. 17 & Fig. 3; Schmidt & Burgess 1981, 238), while one socketed axe in the second Llantilio Crossenny hoard in the same field shows affinities with the Yorkshire type (Gwilt et al 2016a).



The spearhead (No. 3, above) may be identified as a Plain Pegged Spearhead with a lanceolate, leaf-shaped blade. Pegged spearheads, as an artefact class, generally span from the second half of the Middle Bronze Age to the Late Bronze Age (1300-800 BC) (e.g. Greenwell and Brewis 1909, 463; Ehrenberg 1977, 3, 13-14 & Fig. 1; O'Connor 1980, 100-101, 138-41; Northover unpublished, 271, 283). In Wales, early examples of Plain Pegged socketed spearheads are found in the Penard (Swansea), Guilsfield (Powys) and Princetown (Blaenau Gwent) hoards, the first dating to 1300-1150 BC and the second and third dating to 1020-920 BC (Barnwell 1864; Savory 1965; 1972; 1980, 117-19, Cats. 266, 268 & 272; Figs. 32-8 & 40). However, they become most common as associations within hoards of Ewart Park date, dating to 1000-800 BC. The wooden hafts of a number of Plain Pegged spearheads in England have also been radiocarbon dated to the Ewart Park period of the Late Bronze Age dating to between 1000 BC and 800 BC (Needham 1996, 136-7 & Fig. 3; Needham et al 1997, 93-8).



Having identified the three artefacts discovered at this localised find-spot and in close association, it is apparent that they all typically date to the same period of time: the Ewart Park phase of the Late Bronze Age (1000-800 BC). The account of the discovery of the axes indicates that these artefacts were all discovered in the same metal-detector pit, but at varying depths of 15-17cm, 30cm and 45cm beneath the surface. This account of discovery is consistent with the burial of these artefacts at the same time and within the same pit feature dug into the sub-soil layer during the Late Bronze Age.



Authors



Adam Gwilt - Principal Curator: Prehistory, Department of History & Archaeology, Amgueddfa Cymru - National Museum Wales



Mark Lodwick - Portable Antiquities Scheme Wales (PAS Cymru) Co-ordinator
Subsequent action: Acquired by museum after being declared Treasure