Rights Holder: Somerset County Council
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Unique ID: SOM-FBC596
Object type certainty: Certain
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status: Published
Hilt and lower part of the blade of an unfinished cast copper alloy Late Bronze Age Ewart Park type sword with patinated breaks between the fragments and at the end.
The hilt is complete and filed as though finished but the sites where it would have been drilled for rivet holes are visible as indented dimples rather than completed. It has a flaring triangular finial, 34.2mm wide, with straight end which has been filed to a rounded profile. Above the finial the grip has a rectangular section with convex curved sides in plan. The sides have been filed to remove any casting flash with clear file marks visible. The front and back of the grip are flat apart from a central indented groove with round ends and irregular base present on both sides. This groove is 25.0mm long and 6.1mm wide and 1.5mm deep at the deepest point. The grip is is 15.5mm at the joint with the finial, 21.7mm wide at the widest point, two thirds of the way up, and 20.8mm wide at the shoulder, it thickens from 5.4mm by the finial to 6.4mm by the shoulder. Above the groove on the grip, just below the shoulder it starts thickening in the centre to form the mid-rib, this tapers up gradually to 11.5mm thick at the thickest point (just above the shoulder). Above the shoulder the hilt widens in a straight sided ricasso then narrows to the blade, it is 50.0mm at the widest point. The edges start to thin from the shoulder to 2.5mm thick at the break. On both side there are indented dimples that would have been drilled through to make rivet holes. There is one side of dimples near each edge, halfway between the shoulder and widest point. This fragment is 116.0mm long and weighs 138 grams.
The blade section includes the lower part of the blade and the start of the ricasso. It is pointed oval in section with a thick but diffuse midrib narrowing smoothly to the prominent carinations between the centre of the blade and the bevelled cutting edges. At the hilt end of the piece the cutting edges are stepped in leaving a short section of the blunted ricasso. The ricasso is widening away from this point but due to the position of the break the widest point is just before this step where it is 37.7mm wide and 10.7mm thick. Above the ricasso the blade thins and narrows gradually to the narrowest part of the section, 25.6mm wide and 8.0mm thick before starting to widen slightly again while continuing to thin to the break at the other end where it is 27.8mm wide and 7.6mm thick. The edges are notched in places and the very edges of the sharp blades have been lost to wear/damage, probably post-deposition. It is slightly bent in profile. It is 155mm in total length and weighs 185.07 grams.
Similar, but complete, swords are illustrated in Rohl and Needham:1998, p.135, no.386 and 387 and dated to c.1000-800 BC.
Notes:
The blade section was found in late 2010 and the hilt by a different finder in mid 2011. The blade was therefore recorded first but was brough back in so they have been examined together. While the break is patinated it is fairly unworn and a green patch of corrosion runs across the break suggesting the two pieces were adjacent in the soil for some considerable time after deposition almost certainly as one, connected, piece. As they are two fragments of the same sword and the break appears to be post-depositional they do not come under the provisions of the Treasure Act relating to pieces of Bronze Age metal work deposited together.
Class: Ewart Park
Subsequent action after recording: Returned to finder
Broad period: BRONZE AGE
Subperiod from: Late
Period from: BRONZE AGE
Date from: Circa 1000 BC
Date to: Circa 800 BC
Quantity: 1
Weight: 323 g
Date(s) of discovery: Monday 3rd January 2011 - Tuesday 8th November 2011
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Other reference: SCC reciept 020766 / 020883
Primary material: Copper alloy
Manufacture method: Cast
Completeness: Incomplete
Grid reference source: From a paper map
Unmasked grid reference accurate to a 100 metre square.
Author | Publication Year | Title | Publication Place | Publisher | Pages | Reference | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Rohl, B. and Needham, S.P. | 1998 | The Circulation of Metal in the British Bronze Age: The Application of Lead Isotope Analysis | London | British Museum Press | 135 | 386 and 387 |