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 Ribbed socketed axe with Yorkshire Type affinities, bronze – near complete

A virtually complete ribbed socketed axe of bronze, with a slightly damaged cutting edge. The axe has straight and markedly divergent sides giving a broad and wedge-shaped form. There is moderate expansion of the blade, which has a shallow curved cutting edge. The body is rectangular in cross-section, with a rectangular shaped mouth in plan-view. On the loop and non-loop sides of the mouth there are slight raised areas, possibly once representing runner stubs. The axe has a flaring and trumpet-shaped mouth. In a couple of places there is a hint of a deep onset collar, however this is indistinct and on one face, one of the face ribs extends upwards clearly into the mid collar zone. A high placed loop of medium width descends from the middle of the possible collar zone. On each face, descending down two-thirds of the length of the axe, are two widely spaced and diverging ribs. The face edges are slightly raised, giving a further ribbing effect. The cutting edge is slightly damaged and the blade corner on the non-loop side is missing, probably as a result of a breakage in antiquity. Possibly burnt.

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.