HOARD

CORONER'S REPORT

Circumstance of discovery

Five bronze fragments from an area 20m in diameter in a large cultivated field, all appear to be a late Bronze Age 'founders hoard' and as such are Treasure unders the 1996 Treasure Act.

Description of objects

1. A small fragment from the mouth, or near to the mouth of a socketed axe. There are no obvious mouth mouldings or external decoration, part of the internal rib is visible. All surfaces and breaks are corroded and patinated medium to dark green with some plae green corrosion. 20mm in length, 30mm in width and 8g in weight.

2. The blade end of a socketed axe with end of scoket visible. Gently curved balde with slightly expanded ends, now relatively blunt due to loss of all surfaces due to corrosion, though no obvious evidence of damage, breaks are all worn. Surfaces are pale to medium green in colour. 26mm in length, 43mm in width and 38g in weight.

3. End fragment of an unidentified bronze implement. Appears very similar to end of a small narrow-butted flat axe but more likely (in view of associations) to be a tang of knife or blade end of a small chisel. All surfaces have surfcae corrosion and patina is medium to pale green,, 25mm in length, 23mm in width, 4.5mm in thickness and 8g in weight.

4. Small amorphous globule of set molten metal (copper-alloy), with rounded sides, all surfaces worn and corroded, small areas of original medium brown patina. 23mm by 18mm 12mm thickness and 15g in weight.

5. Small amporphous piece of set molten copper-alloy with irregular thickness. Corrdoed and oale to medium green in colour. 24mm by 19mm by 8mm thickness and 10g in weight.

Discussion

The deposition of bronze socketed axe fragments and bronze lumps in the landscape during the Late Bronze Age is well known from this area (Pendleton 1999). Debate regarding the purpose of this activity and whether the objects were intended for later retrieval continues. However, the frequency with which such "scrap" or "founders" hoards are discovered points towards an interpretation beyond the simple storage of metal.

Conclusion

These five fragments are most likely to have been deposited together but subsequently dispersed by the plough. This material is eligible as Treasure under the new Treasure Order (2002) being a base-metal prehistoric find containing two or more metal objects.