Object: Hammer (Bronze Age)
Period: Bronze Age to BRONZE AGE (-800 to -700)
Material: Copper alloy 
Found: Beckford, Wychavon, Worcestershire (West Midlands)
Discovery method: Metal detector
Length: 51.95 mm
Thickness: 19.34 mm
Weight: 84.3 g
Description: Late Bronze Age date (c. 800 - 700 BC) socketed hammer: The cast copper alloy hammer has a rectangular mouth on the interior edge of the socket, but the exterior edge is a sub-oval. The upper edge of the mouth is damaged and incomplete, but the damage is not recent as the patina matches the side faces. The mouth, on the exterior, has a high-relief lip and high-relief band below the lip. Co-joined to the band along the edge there is a high-relief elongated triangle platform as decoration on each wide face. The interior of the mouth measures 10.96mm long and 7.73mm wide and the socket is 26.82mm deep. There is no residual material present inside the socket and the socket is slightly angled compared to the exterior edge of the mouth. The hammer, when viewed in plan, is rectangular below the band, and towards the terminal flares outwards slightly, is also slightly obliquely angled through use and is slightly convex. This terminal, when viewed from the base, is rectangular with rounded terminals. Along the sides there is a trace of a casting seam along the length of the hammer but some finishing has occurred as the seam is rounded. The surface of the hammer has an incomplete mid brown matte patina which has a slight shiny greyness to it where it has been more recently scuffed, otherwise it is abraded.



The hammer measures 51.95mm in length, 23.11mm in width, 19.34mm thickness and weighs 84.3g.



Hammers often have a higher tin content in the bronze (Evans; 1881) compared to contemporary axes. It has not been possible to metallurgically analyse this example but on the record for NMGW-475C27, a comparable example in dimensions and weight to this hammer, the recorder comments the weight may suggest a high proportion of lead, rather than tin.



The Bronze Age Guide on the PAS website (https://finds.org.uk/guides/bronzeage/objects/hammers) comments that the "socketed hammer is only rarely found in Middle Bronze Age contexts and is a more defined feature of Late Bronze Age hoards. Rowlands (1976: 45) states that, for this very reason, 'it would be unwise to date stray finds to the MBA' With regard to decoration, they are found with or without a single rib band, and in the case of a few hoards in Britanny, some hammers were found with chevron decoration." Another example on the PAS database with decoration to this example is NMGW-475C27.



The YORYM-ABCCE1 record for another hammer discusses the dating of socketed hammers stating that 'early examples tend to be plain with no collar, whereas later examples have collars and moulding'. With this in mind and the potential high proportion of lead, the Worcestershire hammer probably dates to the Late Bronze Age possibly dating to the Ewart-Park Phase (c. 800 - 700 BC), a phase characterised by a higher volume of leaded bronze artefacts.



Bronze Age socketed hammers are not frequently reported, with just over 40 certain examples recorded on the PAS database at the time of writing (August 2016), including CAM-5B410A, SOM-B048D1, YORYM-86F1B4, DEV-A7DFBD, SF-40FAAD, YORYM-ABCCE1, FAKL-9C9543, LVPL-5A7954, SWYOR-D13642, NMGW-475C27, LVPL766, LVPL1167, NMS1243, SF-2CF092, LVPL-89D1D3, LVPL-89D1D3, LVPL-5A7954, LVPL-5A6D83, IOW-A05DE6, HAMP-8CB626, NARC-F543D2, HAMP-2CB8E2, NMS-23EF85, SUSS-2D5992, SF-50F922, NMS-4D3FD2, LANCUM-2C7E41, HAMP-1F3730, BH-5A09F0, SF-86C4F5, IOW-8B13A7, SF-B89096, WAW-75FD95, NMGW-46A3A3, SF-F4C804, SOM-9AAFF3, LON-80850F, NMS-9B7964, NMS-03BA13, IOW-B9E2E2, and KENT-FDBC44.



This hammer and WAW-75FD95 are the only two examples on the PAS database from the West Midlands at the time of writing. The distribution for these axes on the PAS database tend to be below a line stretching from the north Norfolk coast across to St.David's in Wales and above a line stretching through Crewe to Hull. There is a narrow band across the Midlands which is, at the moment, devoid of these hammers on the database. 



Evans, J. 1881, The Ancient Bronze Implements, Weapons and Ornaments of Great Britain and Ireland Longmans, Green and Co.: London



Rowlands, M.J. 1976, The Production and Distribution of Metalwork in the Middle Bronze Age in Southern Britain: Part ii. Oxford: British Archaeological Reports.
Subsequent action: Donated to a museum