Object: Spear (Bronze Age)
Period: Bronze Age to BRONZE AGE (-1500 to -1100)
Material: Copper alloy 
Found: Penllyn, the Vale of Glamorgan, the Vale of Glamorgan (Wales)
Discovery method: Metal detector
Length: 62.6 mm
Weight: 15 g
Description: Middle Bronze Age bronze spearhead of Davis' (2012) Group 6 (Developed side-looped) type.



The spearhead is incomplete and heavily corroded, missing the mouth, tip, blade and side loops (with a surviving length of 62.6mm and a weight of 15.0g with an emptied socket). The mouth has been lost and the base is sub-circular (with a diameter of 12.4mm - 14.2mm and with a thickness of up to 2mm). The socket has straight sides which gradually converge (with a surviving depth of 33.5mm). Remnants of the stubs of the side loops are discernible on both sides (beginning 23mm from the surviving mouth and with a length of 9mm). Further along the spearhead the remnants of the blade are discernible (beginning 38mm from the surviving mouth). The spearhead appears to have been of sub-lozenge section at the blade, probably suggesting a midrib. Little survives of the blade, which survives as a flange (with a maximum surviving height of 1.0mm). The spearhead has broken before the tip but above the end of the socket, although there is the suggestion of tapering brown core beneath the bronze, perhaps representing the core from casting. Surprisingly, the core was observed to be magnetic, indicating that it is ferrous, possibly suggesting reuse or repair at a later date (at least 800 years later) or possibly but unlikely as a by-product of the casting process or because of a post-depositional event. Patches of the original surface with a dark green patina survives and there is the suggestion of sharpening striations running parallel to the blade.





~ Needham, S. 1996; Chronology and Periodisation in the British Bronze Age, Acta Archaeologica 67, p. 121-140



~ Accession number: A11811



~ Needham, S., Bronk Ramsey, C., Coombs, D., Cartwright, C., Pettitt, P.; 1997; An Independent Chronology for British Bronze Age Metalwork: The Results of the Oxford Radiocarbon Accelerator Programme; Archaeological Journal 154, p. 55-107
Notes: Although the spearhead is fragmentary, there are enough diagnostic features present to be confident in identify it as of side-looped type. It falls within Davis' (2012) Group 6. A similar side-looped spearhead from the Thames at Mortlake (DoB 31) has recently been dated by Needham et al (1997) producing an early radiocarbon date of 3225+/- 65BP (OxA-5948) 1680-1400BC with a 95% confidence rating. However, overall Davis (2012, 108-110) places this group within the Taunton-Penard metalworking phases.



Davis notes almost 500 Group 6 spearheads from across Britain dating to the Middle Bronze Age, which have a broad distribution. Davis' spearhead sub-types 6A, 6B and 6C are particularly prevalent across Wales, all of which have 'flame-shaped' blades, which might strengthen the idea that this spearhead originally had a flame-shaped blade, rather than a leaf-shaped blade. The spearhead can be paralleled with a number of similar examples in National Museum & Galleries of Wales' collections (Savory 1980, Nos. 227-230).
Subsequent action: Returned to finder