SOCKETED AXEHEAD

Incomplete cast copper alloy socketed axehead with defined slightly raised collar and the remains of a sideloop below it, faceted edges to the sides of the axe and a flanged blade. The collar is incomplete but the side that survives is about 20 mm long and shows that it flanges outwards slightly and would have had a rolled edge. The two base sections of the side loop that remain at either end are cruciform in section and are now worn smooth. The blade is triangular in plan and profile and the socket is sub-rectangular in section. The casting seams on the sides of the axe have been filed down but there are internal central ridges down the interior of each of the four walls which are impressions of the clay core, perhaps from fractures when it was heated.The surface of the axe is pitted and corroded in places, especially on the less complete face, but much of the original surface remains and the deep green patina survives.

Faceted axes were originally an East Anglian type, influenced by a Northern European form, but have since been found to be more prevalent further west, and in this case, likely influenced directly from Brittany (see below).

Pearce (1983) illustrates a similar but narrower faceted socketed axe from Stogursey, Somerset on page 530, Plate 86, No.746c which is dated from the Ewart Park phase (c.1000-800 BC). Another example of a faceted axe with a shorter collar from Battlegore, Somerset is illustrated on page 540, plate 94, No.784d, which was associated with an end-winged axe, a Breton type from Armorica dating from the Ewart Park phase also. A local example from Gillan, St Antony-in-Meneage with the same sub-rectangular section, slight collar above the side loop and faceting is illustrated on page 399, Plate 1, No.2a, and was found with an ingot dating from the Late Bronze Age.