Record ID: NMGW3282 - BRONZE AGE spear

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SPEAR

Unique ID: NMGW3282

Object type certainty: Certain

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Cast copper alloy side-looped spearhead with a leaf-shaped blade and lozenge-shaped midrib. The mouth of the socket, the edges and end of the blade and much of the original surface of the spearhead are missing. The side loops on the socket are also missing; however, their original position, approximately midway along the incomplete socket, is indicated by the surviving stubs of the loops (set c.8-9mm apart). The socket continues for a short way into the blade. There is no evidence to suggest that the spearhead was originally decorated. Surviving length 76mm, surviving length of blade 41mm, maximum surviving external diameter of socket 13.5mm, maximum surviving width of blade 13mm, maximum thickness of midrib 8mm. An example of Ehrenberg's Class IV spearhead cf. Ehrenberg 1977, 7-9

Notes:

A small example of a Class IV side-looped type of Bronze Age spearhead (sometimes known as the socket-looped type, for example Savory 1980). It is interesting to note that the spearhead blade lodged in the vertebra of one of the tow inhumed individuals excavated at Tormarton, Gloucestershire was also a small example of a side-looped spearhead. In her study of the spearheads from Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire, Ehrenberg noted that examples of the type from her study area ranged in length from 90mm to 210mm (1997,7); when complete the St Nicholas spearhead's length probably fell within the lower part of that range. Side-looped spearheads are a Middle Bronze Age type whose main vogue can be dated to the Acton Park and Taunton metalwork phases (c.1500 BC to c.1250 BC) although later examples are known (Needham et al. 1997, 84-86).

Class: Spearhead

Subsequent actions

Current location of find: returned to finder

Chronology

Broad period: BRONZE AGE
Period from: BRONZE AGE [scope notes | view all attributed records]
Date from: 2500 BC
Date to: 700 BC

Dimensions and weight

Length: 76 mm
Width: 13 mm
Thickness: 8 mm
Quantity: 1

Materials and construction

Primary material: Copper alloy [scope notes | view all attributed records]
Manufacture method: Cast [scope notes | view all attributed records]
Completeness: Incomplete [scope notes | view all attributed records]

Spatial data

Restricted 4 Figure grid reference: ST0974
The map has been degraded and provides an approximate location with a degree of random obfuscation.
Grid reference source:
Grid reference accurate to a 10 metre square.

Method of discovery: Metal detector [scope notes]
General landuse: Other [scope notes]
Specific landuse: Unknown [scope notes]

Discovery dates

Date(s) of discovery: Thursday 1st February 2001

Personal details

Found by: This information is restricted for your login.
Recorded by: Philip MacDonald - [ view all attributed records]
Identified by: Philip MacDonald - [view all attributed records]

Other reference numbers

Other reference: NMGWPA: 2001.12.1

References cited

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