- Collection type
- Object
- Description
- Bronze axe
- Long description
- Bronze small axe or chisel with a thin convex butt. Cutting-edge sharpened sides damaged and now irregular in cross-section. [MN 02/02/2009]
- Geographical reference
- "Ireland": ie Ireland or Northern Ireland (UK)
- Person
- Maker Unknown Maker
- Field collector Unknown Collector
- PRM source Augustus Henry Lane Fox Pitt Rivers founding collection
- Date / Period
- Archaeological period: Early Bronze Age
- Date collected
- By 1874
- Acquisition information
- Donated: 1884
- Materials and processes
- Material Copper Alloy Metal, Material Bronze Metal, Process Cast, Process Forged (Metal)
- Dimensions
- Depth: max 6 mm, Width: max 30 mm, Length: max 72 mm, Weight 47 g
- Object numbers
- Accession number: 1884.119.45 Other numbers: 34 1979 PR Cat other PR nos: 2301
- Research and responses
Pitt Rivers was in Ireland [serving in the Army] from 1862-66, this object may have been obtained during this period [Bowden, 1991: 60-4] [AP Leverhulme project on founding collection 1995-1998]
- Associated publications
- Listed as number 1979 under the category 'Type Derryniggin' on page 63 of The Axes of the Early Bronze Age in Ireland (Prähistorische Bronzefunde, IX, 1), by Peter Harbison (Munich: C. H. Beck'sche Verlagsbuchhandlung, 1969): '1979. Provenance unknown. Pitt-Rivers Mus., Oxford (P. R. 1439(1)). Unpublished (Pl. 78,14).' See also line-drawing in Plate 78.14 (unpaginated). [JC 26 3 2009] In 1970 a catalogue of Early British and Irish Bronze Age implements in the Pitt Rivers Museum was published as the 10th part of the museum's Occasional Paper on Technology Series [Allen et. al. 1970]. Axe 1884.119.45 is discussed in detail on pages 95 - 96 under catalogue number 34: Description Small axe or chisel. Butt thin; rather corroded, now convex in outline. Cutting-edge sharpened, sides damaged and now irregular in cross-section. Surfaces all modified by corrosion and recent abrasion, so that details of original form are uncertain [Drawing] Analysis Chemical: Sn 8.439% Spectrographic: Pb 0.078%, As 0.87%, Sb 0.28%, Ni 0.013%, B <0.004%, Fe <0.006%, Ag 0.24%, Mg <0.005% [Identified as a bronze] Metallographic examination Examination showed recrystallized twinned grains superimposed on a cored structure with pools of αδ eutectoid. The hardness had been increased to 104 HB. [Allen et. al. 1970: 95 - 96] Full Reference: Allen, I.M., Britton, D., and Coghlan, H.H., 1970, 'Metallurgical Reports on British and Irish Bronze Age Implements in the Pitt Rivers Museum', Occasional Papers on Technology 10, Oxford University Press, Oxford. [GB 20/5/2005] [MN 29/01/2009] [CMP 09/08/2010]
1884.119.45
Bronze axe
1884.119.45
Digital asset copyright: Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford
If you wish to order a high-resolution image and/or licence its use for print or web publication, exhibition, film, promotional product or any other use, whether in the academic or commercial sector of any print run, then please visit photographic services.