Description

Summary: Looped socketted axe, with 12 grooved ringsaround the top, a part of the Manton Hoard, found near Manton Copse, Preshute.

Research results

A Late Bronze Age copper alloy socketed axehead of facetted type, possibly Meldreth type, found as part of a hoard of 10 axeheads near Manton Copse, Preshute in 1914. Four axeheads of this hoard were stolen during a major burglary at the museum in 1934, but were eventually recovered just over 50 years later when they were noticed in the collections of Ipswich Museum, having been sold with a false provenance. All of the axeheads in the group belong to the Ewart Park metal working phase, the final phase of the Bronze Age, however Boughton (2015) has suggested that, based on its composition, the group is more likely to have been depisted during the transition to the Early Iron Age. The group contains two different groups of axes made from the same mould, a common occurance in the Early Iron Age but which is much rarer in the Bronze Age.

This axehead was described by Lawson et al. (2011) in relation to the discovery of a second hoard of axeheads nearby to this initial group in 1999, and the arguements for and against treating the two groups as a single dispersed hoard are set out.

This axhead was re-examined by Boughton (2015) as part of her PhD discussing Early Iron Age socketed axeheads. This study examined over 1400 axeheads from across Britain, defining a number of new types, some of which are regional, along with local and regional practices.