Casgliadau Arlein

One of Hoard of three bronze palstaves of Transitional Type, Type Shelf, Midribbed Variant of Middle Bronze Age date (1300-1150 BC). Transitional palstaves are relatively uncommon in Wales in relation to more common palstave forms.

This is a near-complete palstave, with corroded surfaces and damage along the blade edge, flanges and butt end, in addition to a missing side-loop. The palstave has a slender outline, widening slightly from the butt end towards the stop, with a slightly waisted body across the position of the stop. The blade sides are straight and moderately divergent, leading towards a narrow blade end. The surviving blade edge now has a sub-angular triangular shape, as both blade corners are now missing. The butt end is damaged across its width, but appears to have once been near-straight or slightly curved. The flanges are damaged across the entirety of their lengths, but are straight and gradually rise from just below the butt end towards the position of the stop. The stop ridges are prominent and appear slightly curved in plan-view, projecting above the flanges and at a right angle to the septum before steeply sloping onto the upper faces of the blade. The side-loop is missing, the upper stub appearing above and the lower stub appearing below the position of the stop. The blade faces are decorated with a single central midrib in the form of a rounded swelling, which descends down approximately half of the length of the blade. The casting seams are visible down both sides as slightly raised, narrow and blunt ridges. No signs of use wear (e.g., striations, hammer marks) are visible across the original surfaces. Much of the original surface still survives with a brown patina, but there are large areas where the surface of the palstave has been damaged through pitting and corrosion. Many of the edges have been damaged also, exposing light green and light brown sub-surfaces. Numerous shallow pits are visible across the surfaces of the palstave, concentrated in particular along the sides and towards the blade end.