Description

Summary: An incomplete copper alloy dirk blade, from the Spoil heap, Melksham By-pass, Melksham.

Research results

A copper alloy dirk blade, found in 1972 amongst material excavated during the construction of the Melksham by-pass as part of a hoard of Llyn Fawr and earlier metalwork. The blade has been snapped at the hilt and then bent along its length, particularly at 6cm from the point, where there may have been an attemp to snap the blade a second time. Interestingly the blade is dated typologically significantly earlier than the spearheads, suggesting that the hoard may have been accumulated over time, or contained objects who were already old at the time of depositon.

The Melksham hoard has been photographed by Boughton (2019), who notes that it is one of only two Llyn Fawr hoards known in the country to not contain a socketed axehead.