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1884.119.141

Case of bronze axe from the Middle Bronze Age hoard at West Buckland.

1884.119.141

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Collection type
Object
Description
Case of bronze axe from the Middle Bronze Age hoard at West Buckland.
Long description
Cast of metal palstave axe. Rounded blade, rectangular septum. Raised stop ridges and single loop. V shaped indentation below stop ridges. Small perforation through centre. [JW [Excav. PR] 08/05/2013]
Geographical reference
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
Europe > Northern Europe > United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
[England Somerset Taunton Deane West Buckland Bronze Age hoard]
Date / Period
Archaeological period: Middle Bronze Age
Date collected
By 1880 May 13
Acquisition information
Donated: 1884
Materials and processes
Material Bronze Metal, Material Pigment, Material Plaster, Process Cast, Process Painted
Dimensions
Thick: max 33 mm, Width: max 55 mm, Length: max 150 mm, Weight 75 g
Object numbers
Accession number: 1884.119.141 PR no.: 1/ 10884
Research and responses

The object of which this is a cast was exhibited by W.A. Sanford at the Royal Archaeological Institute in November 1879 (Sanford 1880) and was listed by John Evans in 1881 (Ancient Bronze Implements...) as being in the possession of Sanford (Taylor 1982: 13). [Dan Hicks 02/07/2013]

Original in Royal Ontario Museum. See RDF. RDF contains a letter from Dr J W Hayes of the Royal Ontario Museum, 20 November 1986, stating that the object has the Royal Ontario Museum no. 922.37.1, and is reported on by Francis Pryor in his Catalogue of British and Irish prehistoric bronzes in the ROM (1980), no. 35. It was acquired 'from an unidentified member of the peerage in Oct/Nov 1922 along with some other items all supposedly Sussex finds.' [CW 22/8/2001]

The original axe head [of which this is a copy] was found in the civil parish of West Buckland [ST 161 225] in the district of Taunton Deane. The object formed part of a Bronze Age hoard of four objects discovered whilst digging a drain. The hoard is recorded on the English Heritage maintained National Monuments Record under monument no. 189298. According to the NMR record the original objects whereabouts of the hoard [formerly in the W.A. Sandford collection] is unknown "but a set of plaster casts were made circa 1884 and are in the Pitt-River Museum, Oxford". The NMR record can be accessed online at http://pastscape.org.uk/hob.aspx?hob_id=189298 [accessed 31/10/2016] [SM (Verve) 31/10/2016]

Search terms: Tool, Reproduction, Weapon, Cast

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