- Museum number
- WG.1806
- Description
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Bronze low-flanged axe; cast; moderately expanded cutting edge with edge bevels; asymmetrically-curved stop bevels with adjacent side swellings; damaged thin butt; slightly convex faces with triple-faceted side; faces largely occupied by punched closely set rain-pattern ornament, underlined on one face by single weak arc-furrow above edge bevel; parts of flange crests lined with small indentations. Surface pitted. Dark bronze.
- Dimensions
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Height: 0.50 millimetres (flange; max.)
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Length: 186 millimetres
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Weight: 571 grammes (?)
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Thickness: 12 millimetres (max.)
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Width: 99 millimetres (blade)
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Width: 26 millimetres (butt)
- Curator's comments
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Needham et al 1985
Description of site: Greenwell's barrow CCXXXV, one of two described as being “on the Wold Farm, situated about three-quarters of a mile to the west of.... nos XXXVIII and CCXXII....”. The latter lies at TA 029761, and a low surviving mound at TA 011763 is believed to be the one in question (T.C.M. Brewster - pers.comm.). Site on top of chalk ridge in area known as Willerby Wold, between 159 and 166m OD, and was almost certainly already arable in the years preceding discovery.
Circumstances: Found by Canon W. Greenwell during excavation of barrow CCXXXV on 23 October 1889. Barrow recorded as “45 feet (13.7m) in diameter, 2 feet (0.6m) high and made of earth, flint stones and chalk.... four bronze axes [WG 1805-8] .... were found 8 feet (2.4m) east of the centre placed close together on their edges 6 inches (0.15m) above the original surface. There were no signs of the barrow having been disturbed at the place, and they appeared to have been deposited where they were found at the time of the erection of the mound” (Greenwell 1890, 2-3).
Minor discrepancy between this published account and Greenwell's field notes regarding the positioning of the axes. The latter and presumably more reliable source states: “8 feet (2.4m) east of centre, about 6 inches (0.15m) above surface four bronze axes laid together on their side” (Greenwell Mss, vol. 1, f8a). This seems to mean that they were standing on their sides, with blades cross-section vertical, rather than lying flat on their faces. The field notes also contain a sketch plan of a circular trench of 20 feet (6.1m) internal diameter, described as being found within the circumference of the mound. Position of the hoard not marked on the plan but may be reconstructed as lying just inside the inner lip of the trench on the east side.
At centre of mound an area of burning on old ground surface at least 12 feet (3.7m) in diameter, through which was sunk a grave 8 feet (2.4m) deep. Two crouched skeletons on its floor, partially overlapping and inverted relative to each other. No grave goods. The fill of this primary grave was cut by a shallower one 3½ feet (1.1m) deep. On its bottom was the crouched skeleton of an adult accompanied by a flint knife (1893,1228.5), another inhumation, occurred in the fill 1½ feet (0.46m) higher accompanied by a small Beaker and three flint scrapers (1893,1228.1-4).
Contextual information: 1a/O/P1/S1
Comparisons: Type Falkland (Schmidt, P.K., and Burgess, C.B., 1981. ‘The Axes of Scotland and Northern England’. PBF IX.7, Munich, no. 327); sub-class 4E (Needham, S.P., 1983. The Early Bronze Age axe-heads of central and southern England. Unpublished PhD, University College, Cardiff, 181-197), Low Glenstockdale, Dumfries and Galloway (Needham, S.P., 1979. The extent of foreign influence on Early Bronze Age axe development in southern Britain, in Ryan, M. (ed.), ‘The Origins of Metallurgy in Atlantic Europe; Proceedings of the Fifth Atlantic Colloquium Dublin 1978’. Dublin, 284, fig. 11.1); Glenalla, Co Donegal (Harbison, P., 1969. ‘The Axes of the Early Bronze Age in Ireland’. PBF IX. 1, Munich, no. 936).
For decoration: class AB2a (Needham 1983, 343).
Dating and interpretation of hoard: Type-hoard for Burgess' stage VI metalworking (Burgess, C.B., 1980. 'The Age of Stonehenge'. London, 112-115) or Metalwork Assemblage V (Needham 1983, 296-7), circa 1800-1600 BC. If WG 1805 is in its original state (i.e. not reworked at butt) its broad blade would suggest affinities with slightly earlier flat axes. In contextual terms the hoard belongs to small group of barrow mound or barrow periphery deposits of Early Bronze Age axes, specifically not grave goods.
Even if Greenwell's observation that there were no signs of disturbance around the hoard is accepted, its stratigraphical relationship to the graves remains unknown; the mound survived to a maximum height of only two feet, the upper part of which would have been plough soil; in addition the sequence of at least two burial episodes allows the possibility of a multi-phase mound - the hoard need not therefore have been incorporated into the first phase. At most it may be stated that the hoard was deposited later than the lower, presumed primary, grave which contained no grave goods.
The composition of the four axes (WG 1805-8) is consistently a high tin bronze alloy with a pattern of very low impurities. A fine patina covers most of surfaces, coloured gold and varied browns with occasional ruddy patches; limited areas pock-scarred, and associated minor damage nicking cutting edges and butts.
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Burgess and Schmidt 1981
Bibliography: Archaeologia 52, 1890, 2ff.; British Museum: A Guide to the Antiquities of the Bronze Age (1920) 84; Megaw, B.R.S. and Hardy, E.M. (1938) British decorated axes and their diffusion during the earlier part of the Bronze Age. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society (Cambridge) 4, 283 ff. fig. 12; Britton, D (1963) Traditions of Metalworking in the Later Neolithic and Early Bronze Age of Britain, Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 29, no. 18.
- Location
- Not on display
- Exhibition history
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Exhibited:
2022 17 Feb - 17 Jul, London, BM, G30, The world of Stonehenge
1984 5 Sep-15 Oct, Belgium, Tournai, Halle aux Drapes, Au Temps de Stonehenge
- Acquisition date
- 1909
- Department
- Britain, Europe and Prehistory
- Registration number
- WG.1806
