Description

Summary: Bronze looped socketed axe with winged ornament, found in or near Oldbury Castle.

Research results

An Early Iron Age copper alloy linear-decorated socketed axehead, found in or near Oldbury Castle hillfort, Cherhill. This axehead can be placed typologically in the Llyn Fawr metal working phase, now thought to have been contemporary with the earliest Iron Age, dating to c. 800-600 BC. Interestingly, this axe is a linear-decorated type, which are local to East Anglia, as is a second single find from Pewsey. Similarities between the distinctive East Rudham type axehead, exclusively found in Norfolk, and the Dorset-focussed Portland, Blandford and Hindon type axes suggest that there were metal working links between these two regions at the time.

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.