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 Spearhead of Group 16B with fillets, a quarter fragment.

A mid- to lower-blade fragment of a bronze spearhead, with ‘lunate shaped’ blade openings. The upper- and mid-section of one blade opening is present on one side of the spearhead. Most of the blade is missing, however the edges surviving are near straight, suggesting a long flame-shaped blade. Longitudinal ribs or ‘fillets’ extend down both sides of the midrib, which once had a hexagonal shaped cross-section. A further fillet defines the outer margin of the surviving lunate opening intersecting with one of the rib fillets at the upper tip of the lunate opening. The opposing lunate blade opening and blade margin is missing, with an irregular hole in the midrib wall suggesting a miscasting of the spear. The midrib near the lower break has been crushed out of its original cross-section shape and the surviving lunate aperture has been ‘closed’ by the widened and flattened midrib. Rounded concave depressions of the blade on both surfaces indicate the spearhead was deliberately damaged with a rounded and blunt-ended tool in antiquity. In side-section, the blade is bent. The break-edges are eroded suggesting the spear was broken in antiquity. Along the blade side break, there is a wide concavity with freshly exposed edges, suggesting some recent damage during retrieval of the spearhead from the ground.

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.