reaping-hook
- Museum number
- 1856,0701.1130
- Description
-
Iron reaping-hook. An exceptionally broad and thin hooked blade. The tang is set slightly back from the edge suggesting that the weight of the back of the blade was intended to counterbalance that of the tip.
- Dimensions
-
Length: 183 millimetres
-
Weight: 107 grammes
-
Width: 130 millimetres
- Curator's comments
- Manning 1985
Although best included within this group this tool has features which make it somewhat atypical. Its most conspicuous characteristic, its width, is to be seen in a somewhat less extreme form in other implements of this type (e.g. from Ham Hill, Somerset (Rees 1979, 647, fig. 177 d); London (Rees 1979, 669, fig. 181b); Coygan Camp, Dyfed (Wainwright 1967, 101, fig. 30, 5) etc. The curvature of the edge is such that it would be possible for it to be used with swinging action as a sickle, a manner of use which would be facilitated by the fact that the weight of the blade is roughly balanced about the tang.
Bibliography: Smith 1854, 74, no. 332.
- Location
- Not on display
- Department
- Britain, Europe and Prehistory
- Registration number
- 1856,0701.1130