AWL

A complete and corroded Bronze Age to Medieval copper-alloy awl (1250 BC-AD 1500).

This awl is now sub-square in cross-section. One end is long and pointed and the opposite end is shorter and less pointed.

The awl is green and corroded and has a coarse surface.

Length: 31.2mm; width: 2.4mm; thickness: 2.2mm. Weight: 0.78g.

From the Portable Antiquities Scheme website:

http://finds.org.uk/bronzeage/objects/awl

Awls are difficult to date but most are probably from the Late Bronze Age. They can be circular or square in cross section and are generally undecorated. They would have been used to make holes in leather or wood and probably were inserted into a handle made from organic materials. Awls were a range of rod-like tools that were usually round sectioned and pointed at one end, and rectangular sectioned with a square or chiselled edge at the other (Rowlands 1976: 48). 'Awl' is often used to refer to any number of small, pointed instruments. Referred to as "pointed punches" by Coles (1963-64: 117), they were presumably used for perforating leather, but it was once suggested that they were used for tattooing human skin. Dating and areas of discovery.

However, as a functional object the form of the awl barely changes from the Bronze Age to Medieval periods and a selection of broadly comparable awls are recorded in Ottaway and Rogers (2002). They note that although most awls are associated with leather working, some would have been used in woodworking, bone working and other crafts.

Coles, J M (1964) 'Scottish Middle Bronze Age Metalwork', Proc Soc Antiq Scot, 97 (1963-4)

Ottaway, P. and Rogers, N., 2002. Craft, Industry and Everyday Life: Finds From Medieval York York: York Archaeological Trust and CBA

Rowlands, M.J. (1976) 'The Production and Distribution of Metalwork in the Middle Bronze Age in Southern Britain: Part ii'. Oxford: British Archaeological Reports.