File:AXE (FindID 1020801).jpg

Early Bronze Age bronze butt fragment from an axe of uncertain type but of Flat or Developed Axe form

The axe is represented by a butt fragment only, broken at one end in antiquity (with a surviving length of 28.1mm and a weight of 23.1g). The butt end is rounded at the corners and is moderately straight (with a width of 25mm and a thickness of 2.7mm). The sides are straight and divergent for their short lengths to the break (where the axe has a width of 30.5mm and a thickness of 6.0mm).  The axe butt has a sub-rectangular body section, thickest at the centre and with no suggestion of flanges present on the fragment. The corroded surface has been stripped to brown metal with remnants of the mid-green. The surface condition and patina may suggest a copper rather than bronze composition, although it has not been possible to analyse the composition.

The fragmentary nature of the axe makes typological identification difficult and uncertain. The butt form, absence of flanges and possible copper composition would be consistent with axes of Needham’s type 1 and in relation to Schmidt and Burgess (1981)<a href="#_ftn1" name="_ftnref1">[1]</a> typology may have been of Ballybeg /Roseisle or allied types. Axes of these types are likely to be date to the Early Bronze Age, perhaps between c. 2200 – 1800BC.

<a href="#_ftnref1" name="_ftn1">[1]</a> Schmidt, P.K. & Burgess, C. 1981; The Axes of Scotland and Northern Ireland, Praähistorische Bronzefunde Abteilung IX, 7. Band 7