CHISEL

Cast copper-alloy (bronze) tanged chisel of possible Middle - Late Bronze Age date (1500 - 750 BC). The identification of this object as a chisel as well as the dating criteria are rather tentative. The artefact is incomplete and poorly preserved. The metal surface is also irregular being heavily cracked and laminated on one face and pitted and abraded on the other - there is also a suggestion that it may have been miscast. All these elements make a positive dated identification difficult.

The chisel fragment comprises the upper part of the blade, side projections / trunnions / shouldered stop ridges, and the lower part of the tang; the tip of the tang and lower blade / cutting edge are both lost. In plan the chisel is irregular, the upper blade is rectangular and the tang tapers to a blunted point. In section it is also irregular - the blade section is rectangular (slightly lentoid) in shape. In profile it is rectangular having its thickest part at the midpoint (corresponding with the position of the lug like projections / trunnions) tapering toward the tang and blade. The tang is incomplete and damaged; it has a relatively angular butt which expands to the mid point. It has lost approximately 1/5th of its length. The tip of the tang measures 10.6mm width and 9.1mm thick. At the mid point two irregular shaped - and relatively poorly cast - projections extend from either edge. These form shoulder like stops and are broadly triangular in plan and lentoid in section; being very crude in the casting. They are also eroded by plough roll / abrasion. The shoulder stops measure 12.7mm length are 9.4mm thick and project 6.3mm from the edge. The body of the chisel is thickest here - but there is no evidence of a stop ridge or median bevel. The upper body of the blade remains at the same thickness. It tapers slightly from the expanded stops. The long edges are of the chisel are heavily abraded and any sign of casting seams have been lost. There is no cast or applied / punched / hammered decoration present on the artefact. It has a mid brown green coloured relatively thick patina which is abraded on all surfaces. Where abrasion has occurred some additional lamination is present, as well as distinct pock-marks and cracking of patina on both the upper and lower faces. The abraded areas are a mid - light green colour with relatively stable corrosion product present. One side is considerably uneven and irregular possibly suggesting that the chisel was poorly cast using an amalgam of metals. The break across the upper blade is patinated suggesting damage in antiquity. The surface patina on the better preserved face has a dull silver grey coloured sheen, often seen with high tin content bronzes from the very late Bronze Age and earliest Iron Age deposits (Llyn Fawr metalwork). A direct parallel has not been found for this chisel - it is much more crude then many tanged chisels of the Middle - Late Bronze Age.

The chisel measures: 72.6mm length, is 27.2mm wide across the stops and 22.6mm across the blade, and it is 11.9mm thick at the same point. It weighs 69.85 grams.