FLANGED AXEHEAD

Early Bronze Age bronze cast-flanged axe of uncertain type, possibly a long-flanged axe of Type Balbirnie (Schmidt & Burgess, 1981, p 70-72) , likely to be of Late Willerby or early Acton Park metalworking phase, corresponding to the earlier part of Needham's (1996) Period 4 (1700 - 1500 BC), perhaps dating to 1700 - 1600 BC.

The axehead is complete but has eroded considerably, and has an overall length of 122.7mm and a weight of 289.4g. The butt is straight and has a width of 23.0mm. The flanges begin from the septum, 11mm from the butt. The flanges are irregular, probably because of erosion, but are oval to lozenge in shape and appear higher on one face than the other. On one face, the flanges have a height of only 2.7mm and would suggest a developed flat axe; while the other face has flanges 6.4mm high indicating cast flanges. The flanges have a maximum depth of 20.4mm and are convex across the thickness of the axe. The sides are parallel and straight or slightly concave for the majority of the septum and begin to diverge at the position of the median bevel. There is no stopridge on the septum, but the septum gradually becomes thicker to a maximum of 12.7mm at 60mm from the butt at a barely discernible median bevel. The sides of the blade are divergent and produce a maximum surviving width at the blade edge of 48.7mm. It is now uncertain whether the irregular blade shape is because of wear or erosion. Both blade tips and the blade edge have been lost, but one side has the suggestion of a recurved blade. A blade facet is discernible on one of the faces, beginning a maximum of 13mm from the current blade edge. The surface of the axe appears poorly preserved with a pale to dark green colour and has recently been coated in a lacquer or vanish. The high flanges on one side indicate the axe to be cast-flanged, the absence of a stopridge suggest the axe is early in the development of this form and suggest Type Balbirnie as an earliest or transitional type of cast-flanged axe.