Casgliadau Arlein

One of a Hoard of twenty one bronze tools, weapons and ingot fragments dating to the Ewart Park phase of the Late Bronze Age (1000-800 BC)

This is a one-sixth fragment of a plano-convex copper ingot.

The fragment is broadly rectangular shaped in plan-view with three break edges and a short irregular convex shaped section of the ingot edge surviving. There is a small, rounded perforation through the ingot near the original edge. The breaks have eroded edges and the ingot was broken in antiquity. The upper surface is uneven and irregular, slightly domed towards the centre. The lower surface has a convex shape, with irregular concavities, tapering to its thinnest along the original edge and thickest at the centre.

The hoard contains 13 axe heads, 1 palstave, 3 spearheads, 1 sword and 2 fragments from copper and leaded bronze ingots of Late Bronze Age (1150-800BC) dates. 1 additional post-medieval copper alloy object was found nearby but was probably mixed in by chance. The hoard was discovered on the south-eastward facing slope of a shallow valley with a view of the Bristol Channel. There was no obvious watercourse flowing nearby.