Casgliadau Arlein

Iron spearhead with slender socket and a narrow leaf shaped blade with a distinct mid-rib running along its length. The socket is completely conical with no visible seam and has two small perforations beneath the wings of the blade for rivets. It is generally recognised that there is no clear distinction between Iron Age socketed spearheads and those of Roman date. It may be significant that examples from Iron Age contexts in East Yorkshire (Stead 1991) and Fiskerton (Parker-Pearson and Field) have blades with a flat or lenticular cross section, a characteristic in the minority within the first century AD Hod Hill Group I to which this example may belong (Manning 1985). However, the use of rivets is uncommon in this group and many of the sockets have visible seams or non-joining flanges.