Object: Socketed Axehead (Bronze Age)
Period: Bronze Age to BRONZE AGE (-1150 to -800)
Found: Penllyn, the Vale of Glamorgan, the Vale of Glamorgan (Wales)
Discovery method: Metal detector
Length: 107.5 mm
Diameter: 35 mm
Weight: 147.7 g
Description: Late Bronze Age looped socketed axe with a facetted decagonal (ten sided) section and a trumpet-shaped collar defined by two pronounced mouldings. The loop is on the level with the lower edge of the collar. There are several minor casting flaws on the surface of the axe. The flashing marks which extend up both sides of the axe have been burred over where they cross the collar and on the inside of the loop. Surface scratching adjacent to the edge suggest that the axe has been used or sharpened. Length 107.5mm, width of blade edge 45mm, external diameter of socket 35-36.5mm, width 147.7 grams. An example of the Aylesham variant of the Meldreth type of facetted socketed axe cf. Schmidt and Burgess 1981, 206-207, nos.1231-1247B, pl.83.
Notes: The distribution of Meldreth type socketed axes extends throughout Britain, Ireland and western Europe (Schmidt and Burgess 1981, 204). As a type they are defined by: slender facetted bodies (the number of facets varying from six to twelve) and trumpet-shaped collars which curve upwards and outwards (Schmidt and Burgess 1981, 204-205). The shape of the type's socket varies from circular to square in section and the lower part of the collar is variously defined by one or more mouldings, grooves, overhangs or steps (Schmidt and Burgess 1981, 205). The variations in the form of the lower part of the collar are used to sub-divide the type. The Aylsham variation includes those axes which have a horizontal moulding, groove or series of grooves at the base of the trumpet-shaped collar (Schmidt and Burgess 1981, 206). A local example of a facetted socketed axe which is also an Aylesham variant of the Meldreth type, albeit with a single groove rather then a horizontal moulding at the base of the collar, is known from St Mellons, Cardiff (Savory 1980, 108, no.189. Fig.24). Survey of the associations of Meldreth type axes from northern Britain suggests that the type dates to the late Wilburton and Ewart Park phases (Schmidt and Burgess 1981, 209-211). Southern British associations of the type with Stogursey type axes are consistent with this date (I.e. Mc Neil 1973, 49, nos.34-37; see also Schmidt and Burgess 1981, 210). Recent evaluation of the chronology of the British Bronze Age dates the late Wilburton and Ewart Park phases to the period 950-750 BC (Needham 1996, 136-137, fig.1; Needham et al. 1997, 93-98). The deliberate burring over of the flashing marks on just the collar and inside of the loop on the Penllyn axe is notable. It is uncertain how this was achieved, presumably it was ground down with some form of whetstone or abrasive; however, that it was done at all suggests that the collar was functional and, in addition to the loop, accommodated a binding (cf. Orme and Coles 1983, fig.15; Earwood 1993, fig.128). It is possible that the multiple mouldings around the collars of the Meldreth type axes of the Westow variant (i.e. Schmidt and Burgess 1981, 208, nos.1249-1252, pl.84) are skeumorphic representations of collar bindings of the kind suggested above for the Penllyn axe. The typological, and by extension chronological, significance of this observation is uncertain; a significant number of the Meldreth type axes illustrated by Schmidt and Burgess apparently have had the flashing marks on their collar removed (I.e. Schmidt and Burgess 1981, nos.1215, 1217, 1219-1230, 1237, 1240, 1242, 1244, 1246-1248, pls.82-83).
Subsequent action: Returned to finder