Casgliadau Arlein

Plain socketed axe of South-Eastern type (Schmidt and Burgess, 1981, 215-7) with square socket and double mouth-moulding. The upper moulding has an irregular finish due to poor filling of the mould, the lower narrow moulding is faint and has a small hole, probably formed by a gas bubble. The thick loop originates from the lower moulding. The axe has straight sides and expands towards the worn blade, which possibly has a reworked cutting edge. The surface has a black layer overlying the green/grey corrosion products. Information taken from Wear (forthcoming). It is similar to another plain socketed axe of South-Eastern type (acc.no.88.199H) also found on Margam beach (Wear, forthcoming). This axe is morphologically similar to examples from the Petters hoard (Needham, 1990) with its deep front-back mouth, thick loop and slender body but has curved rather than angular face edges.