File:Bronze Age Carp's tongue sword (fragment) (FindID 551092).jpg

The fragment represents a sub-rectangular piece of the blade, with a straight, horizontal break or cut at both the top and bottom ends. There is a broad, convex-surfaced mid-rib on either face, flanked by a pair of vertical grooves. Either side of this mid-rib the thickness gradually tapers towards the cutting edge. The breaks are well patinated and indicate that it was broken in antiquity.

Dimensions: 37.1mm long, 33.2mm wide, 8mm thick (maximum, at mid-rib). Weight: 39.42g.

Katie Hinds (pers. comm.) identifies this piece as a fragment from a 'Carp's tongue' type sword. Peter Reavill (pers. comm.) also suggests it is probably of this type but states that the small size of the piece precludes a definite attribution. According to Reavill, Carp's tongue swords, allied to the Ewart Park phase of metalwork, date from between c. 1000 and c. 800 BC, which fits in with Needham's Period 7 (Metalworking stage XII). Such small pieces are typical finds - it is rare to find a complete example of the sword - and tend to be found either in hoards or in close proximity to waterways or the coast*. Their distribution is concentrated on northwestern France and in central and southern Britain.

Comparable pieces recorded on the PAS database include BH-4C7707, from Ayot St. Lawrence, Hertfordshire and ESS-3BF240, from Burnham-on-Crouch, Essex.