A substantial Late Bronze Age looped and socketed bronze axehead

Description: A substantial copper alloy looped and socketed axehead with slightly flared blade, a square-shaped socket with collar, and three low straight ribs extending from the collar towards the cutting edge on both sides of the axe. Some minute chips to the cutting edge and some minor corrosion, and with a mottled green brown waxy patina, but a nice heavy and large example in good condition. Locality of find not known, but British.

Size: 123 mm/4.8 ins. in length

Culture: Late Bronze Age to Early Iron Age

Date: c. 700-1000 B.C.

Provenance: Ex Somerset private collection.

Notes: Compare B01-0118, p. 45 in Hammond, B., (2014) for a similar example. The present example is similar to the Type Sompting, Variant Cardiff II axes, whose main distribution is the English Midlands.

Reference: Hammond, B., 2014, Benet’s Artefacts of England & the United Kingdom Current Values (3rd Edition), Greenlight Publishing, Witham, Essex.