A British Middle Bronze-age palstave axe head with a broad crescentic blade. Securing loop at the top.
 
Middle Bronze Age: Circa 1500-1300 BC.
 
Very Fine condition; good bronze; surfaces a little pitted in plac.
Length 14.2 cms (5.6 ins).
Weight 402 grams.
 
NB: Current UK and EU legislation would require this item to have an export licence if sent outside of the UK. We will carry out this procedure at no extra charge, but it may take up to 2-4 weeks for the DCMS to return and approve the application.
 
Provenance: Found on the beach after a storm by an 8-year-old girl metal-detecting with her grandfather. The axe was approximately 10cm below the surface, and was likely to have originated from the cliffs at Bournemouth after being exposed and washed out during recent storms. The find was reported in the local papers: Bournemouth Echo and the axe subsequently recorded to the: Portable Antiquities Scheme.
 
The axehead has numerous parallels illustrated by Rowlands (1976: pl 28) and Schmidt and Burgess (1981: pl 60). The former defines these as their class 1 group 3 (developed shield pattern) and the latter (group III low flanged), both deriving from Smith's (1959) schema that suggests these looped forms date to the Taunton and sometimes Penard phase of the Bronze Age (c.1400-1150 cal BC).
 
https://www.bournemouthecho.co.uk/news/18272739.ava-bray-finds-bronze-age-axe-southbourne-beach/
https://finds.org.uk/database/artefacts/record/id/1145094 3/3