Object: Spearhead (Bronze Age)
Period: Bronze Age to BRONZE AGE (-1500 to -1150)
Material: Copper alloy 
Found: Church Eaton, Stafford, Staffordshire (West Midlands)
Discovery method: Metal detector
Length: 165 mm
Thickness: 24.5 mm
Weight: 97 g
Description: An almost complete copper alloy basal-looped socketed spearhead (Davis Group 9) of the Middle Bronze Age period, dating 1500 - 1150 BC.



The object has been broken into two pieces on lifting due to an old break just below the blade.



The spearhead is broadly oval in plan and triangular in profile. It has a leaf or flame shaped blade. The tip of the spear is complete and the left side of the blade is complete with the cutting edge in tact, the right side of the blade is mostly complete aside from a irregular shaped piece missing from two thirds of the way down the blade. The centre of the blade is divided by a tapering (tip to base) oval shaped midrib which expands into the socket of the spear. The socket is best described as being conical in shape. The spearhead is broken at a point above the socket, the break is jagged and the edges are abraded and patinated suggesting that the break is an old one, however the pieces detached on lifting when found. The socket is conical and tapers evenly inside the mid rib. At the base of the blade are two broadly rectangular shaped loops each with a rectangular perforation, when the two pieces of the object are together the loops are complete, they have been broken but no part is missing. The loops would have originally been used to help attach and secure the spearhead to the wooden shaft, a part of which remains inside both pieces of the socket. They also may have been used as suspension loops for some form of tassel or decoration.



The object has a maximum length of 165 mm, a maximum width of 40.0 mm. It has a maximum thickness of 24.5 mm and a maximum weight of 97 g.



Piece 1 (Blade) - has a length of 97.2 mm and a maximum width of 40.0 mm at the base of the blade, the tip is 6.0 mm wide. It has a maximum thickness of 15.9 mm at the base and 4.2 mm at the tip. It weighs 43.7 g



Piece 2 (Socket) - has a length of 77.3 mm and a width of 23.6 mm. It has a maximum thickness of 24.5 mm at the base and 18.0 mm at the top. It weighs 54.0 g



Metallurgical composition of the spear was tested using a Mistral tabletop XRF machine at Birmingham Museum Conservation laboratory. The results are as follows:




	

		

			
Area

			
Cu

			
Fe

			
Sn

			
Pb

			
Al

			
Sb

		

		

			
Tip

			
14.63

			
14.06

			
43.87

			
2.00

			
24.98

			
0.46

		

		

			
Blade edge - tip end

			
55.50

			
8.94

			
33.03

			
2.53

			
-

			
-

		

		

			
At break edge on tip end

			
17.84

			
8.1

			
57.47

			
2.13

			
14.10

			
0.46

		

		

			
Shaft end

			
8.44

			
13.30

			
53.33

			
2.21

			
22.72

			
-

		

	





The spear is a mid brown in colour with an uneven patina, there is evidence of areas of corrosion, as well as evidence, on the left side of the blade, of the original gold coloured patina. Abrasion caused by movement whilst within the plough soil may have resulted in the loss of some of the original surface detail.



Similar basal-looped spearheads have been classified by Richard Davis (2006) and dated to the Middle Bronze Age. Davis has sub-classified these into classes / Types. This example corresponds best with his Type 6. Davis dates his Type 6 to the later Acton Park phase (1500-1300 BC) of the Middle Bronze Age the Taunton phase (1400 - 1200BC) and the early Penard phase (1250-1150BC) These phases correspond with Needham's Period 5 (c. 1500 - 1150 BC). Two similar examples of the overall style of spearhead are illustrated in Savory: Guide Catalogue to the Bronze Age Collections ref: 230, Llanbeblig, Caern. and 337:2 Nantcwnlle, Cards. The later example was discovered in an excavation of a burial mound in association with a Pygmy Cup.Other similar examples have also been recorded on the database, including HESH-BA2F61and HESH-821195.



Ref:



Ehrenberg, M.R., 1977 Bronze Age Spearheads from Berks, Bucks and Oxon Oxford : British Archaeological Reports 34, ,



Davis, R., 2006 Basal-Looped Spearheads: Typology, chronology, context and use Oxford : BAR,
Subsequent action: Returned to finder