Object: Palstave (Bronze Age)
Period: Bronze Age to BRONZE AGE (1500 to 1300)
Material: Copper alloy 
Found: North Tuddenham, Breckland, Norfolk (Eastern)
Discovery method: Metal detector
Length: 160 mm
Weight: 375 g
Description: A cast copper alloy (bronze) early / primary looped palstave, group I - shield patterned type - of Middle Bronze Age date (1500-1300 BC). This palstave axe fits best within the Acton Park II and Taunton metalworking assemblages (Needham Period 5) - both of which conform to Burgess's Metal Working Stage VIII and IX.



The palstave is incomplete (recovered in two pieces); when recombined the overall length of the axehead is approximately 160mm. Width is 66.2mm measured across the blade tips and 22.3mm at the butt-end. The width measured across the upper and lower flanges is approximately 28mm. The casting seams are present on one edge only (loop side), but have been removed / trimmed and hammered flat / flush. The cutting edge is crescentic and relatively unworn; the blade bevels are well formed and the tips of the blade show little sign of wear or resharpening. On the upper blade on both the front and reverse faces is a cast / moulded shield-shape pattern. A cast central mid-rib is present that divides the shield evenly in half - it descends from the mid-point of the stop and tapers to an indistinct terminal on the lower blade. The arris also features for a short distance in the centre of the septum where it meets the stops. The loop is relatively small and low; it bisects the stop being broken on the upper / butt side. The two slide flanges are well cast and conjoin with the stop forming a single entity on both edges. In section this is H shaped. The septum is smooth and undecorated. The butt is rectangular and is incomplete; a small fragment of the butt-end is missing; it is most likely lost due to an old patinated casting defect at this point. The axehead has a thick mid-green brown coloured patina which covers all surfaces. There are areas where this is lost a pitted light green coloured corrosion product is present. 



As stated the axehead is in two pieces, having broken transversely across the butt-side of the stops, through the H-section the septum forms with the flanges, and on through the loop. A failure at this location could easily have occurred in use, particularly because the haft termination and sudden reduction of the load bearing cross-section at this point would concentrate the stresses locally. Metallurgically the fracture surface is granular and brittle and although detail is vague could well have contained a casting defect, the propagation of which during use may have caused a fatigue failure;- so explaining the lack of any plastic deformation. An excess of tin in the alloy would also make the axehead overly brittle and prone to failure of this kind. Alternatively given the nature of the landscape in which the axehead was found, it may have been intentionally destroyed in a ritual votive fashion. Bronze Age material is often discovered votively broken, but otherwise well preserved, in deposits close to water around the Fen edge and other similar landscapes in Norfolk.
Subsequent action: Returned to finder