Object: Palstave (Bronze Age)
Period: Bronze Age to  (-1500 to -1150)
Material: Copper alloy 
Found: Llandrinio, Powys, Powys (Wales)
Discovery method: Metal detector
Length: 130 mm
Description: The palstave appears to have lost about 20mm from the butt in antiquity, but in other respects is in very fine condition, though beginning to lose small patches of its fine patinated surface, especially around the sharp recurved blade.  The surviving length is 130mm, probably originally 148mm; the width of the blade is 65mm, of the septum 25mm, and the depth of the flanges is 28mm.  The face view has an essentially straight septum and wide blade; the side view a smooth curve from blade to flange.  The ledge stop is approximately square in face view and there is a hollow at the base of the septum on each side.  There is no ‘nick’ at the junction of flange and blade, a design feature of several early palstave types, but here the reminisence of the earlier flanged axe design lies rather in the slight extension of the flanges below the stop.  On both faces there is a rounded swelling below the stop.  This is perhaps a variant of the "shield pattern' seen on so many Welsh palstaves, but it is not defined by a raised moulding.
     
     The piece has been competently cast and the casting seams have been ground down, but a slight misalignment of the two valves of the mould has meant that a small area on the side has not received the fine polish that is evident on the rest of the surface.  This accident demonstrates the effort that had been made to create the fine dark surface and raises the question of the extent to which particular colour and surface effects might be deliberate.  There is evidence of neat horizontal hammering underlying the polished surface on the blade facet.  The hammer or punch used was rectangular, 5 x 2mm.
Notes: It is a particularly interesting piece for two reasons; it belongs to a relatively rare group of early unlooped palstaves which are characteristic of mid-Wales and arguably ancestral to the established palstaves of the influential Acton Park Complex in north Wales; and its exceptionally finely polished black surface raises questions about the possibility of deliberate patination of such pieces.
     
     The closest parallel to this piece is a very slightly larger palstave found in the nineteenth century at Clochfaen near Llangurig (Mont) which has been used to exemplify a sub-group of the early shield pattern palstaves (Williams 1895, 243 no.5; Chitty 1949; Burgess 1964).  It has the appropriate proportions, less clumsy than the true Acton Park type, with a wide splayed blade and narrow smooth flanges seen from the side.  The Clochfaen palstave has a shield moulding on only one face so its absence on the Maerdy example does not preclude its association with the Clochfaen Group.  Other members of the group (now re-named 'Llandderfel' (Northover unpublished catalogue)) are found in Anglesey and Gwynedd (7), Denbighshire/Flintshire (3) and Cheshire/Shropshire/Montgomery (7 + this new one); only 4 have come from Glamorgan and the southern Marches.  As possibly ancestral to the Acton Park palstaves, it is likely to date from shortly before 1500 BC.
Subsequent action: Returned to finder