Object: Dagger (Bronze Age)
Period: Bronze Age to BRONZE AGE (-1600 to -1400)
Material: Copper alloy 
Found: Llanfair, the Vale of Glamorgan, the Vale of Glamorgan (Wales)
Discovery method: Metal detector
Length: 67.8 mm
Thickness: 6.5 mm
Weight: 32.2 g
Description: Early Bronze Age bronze ogival dagger of Camerton-Snowshill Type (following Gerloff 1975), or Series 5D (following Needham 2015) and of Needham's (1996)  Period 4-5, probably dating from c.1600 to 1400BC.



The dagger is incomplete, missing the tip and with peripheral damage (with a surviving length of 67.8mm and a weight of 32.2g). The butt end is eroded and of uncertain form but now with a straight top edge (with a surviving width of 25.6mm and a minimum thickness of 1.8mm), possibly suggesting it was originally of trapezoidal form. There appears to have been three rivet holes, for plug-rivets, two of which are evident, including a central rivet hole (of 6.2mm diameter). The side rivet is less well preserved (with a diameter of 5mm). The dagger widens and thickens to the top of the blade, incorporating the prominent midrib (giving the blade a maximum surviving width of 34.5mm and a maximum thickness of 6.5mm). The central midrib is widest at the hilt (at 19mm), with straight and convergent sides, gradually narrowing to the break (where it has a width of 9mm). Flanking the midrib on each side are three to four decorative rounded ridges, separated from each other by grooves. The decorative ridges are very slightly concave, extending from the butt to the break. There is the suggestion that the decorative ridges may continue as far as the better preserved side rivet hole. There is no convincing evidence of pointillé decoration on the midrib, or elsewhere on the blade. At the break (where the blade has a width of 16mm and a thickness of 4.5mm) the blade has a gentle bend, suggesting the tip was bent prior to breaking in antiquity. Both blade edges have been lost, but there are discernible sharpening striations running along both blade edges on both faces. The surface is partially preserved with a dark-brown patina and is heavily-pitted. The corrosion on both faces at the hilt has a V-shaped form, extending onto the midrib and may possibly suggest a V-shaped hilt handle, which would be unusual, and differs from the more common omega-shaped arrangement at the hilt.
Notes: Metallurgical analysis was conducted using X-ray fluorescence, demonstrating that the metal is an arsenical tin-bronze and is consistent with Early and Middle Bronze Age alloys.



The incomplete and corroded nature of the dagger makes precise typological identification difficult. The straight heel edge may be comparatively intact, which would tentatively suggest a trapezoidal butt arrangement, characteristic of the Camerton Type, as defined by Gerloff (1975, pp 104). Camerton-Snowshill daggers are generally deposited within burials and have a date range that is believed to span the Early to Middle Bronze Age transition, dated to c. 1600 - 1400. In Wales the dagger can be paralleled with an example recovered from Ystradyfodwg (Savory, 1980, pp 132, no. 335) , on the border of Glyncorrwg, Neath-Port Talbot and Treorchy, Rhondda Cynon Taff.



Needham (2015) has recently reanalysed the typology of British daggers and this falls within his Series 5D, which incorporates Gerloff's Camerton-Snowshill types.
Subsequent action: Returned to finder