2001-07-30 00:00:00 Philip MacDonald pmacdonald 2011-02-24 12:19:17 Daniel Pett dpett NMGW3282 SPEAR 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 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, appro... 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). Copper alloy Cast BRONZE AGE BRONZE AGE -2500 -700 13 76 8 Incomplete 2001-07-30 00:00:00 POINT( ) ST07SE ST3017 29.06.2003 Metal detector 1 PUBLIC Creative Commons Non Commercial Share Alike - The Portable Antiquities Scheme 2001 These records can be reproduced in a non commercial enviroment as long as the original recorder is cited. The Portable Antiquities Scheme info@finds.org.uk No fees are applicable.