Bronze age Spearhead.

Urien of Rheged

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Mar 7, 2024
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A real bucket lister for me this one. Found today in west Yorkshire, England.
I'm not adept enough to know its exact age or there abouts but I know its Bronze age due to those two lugs.

Its on a new permission. I'd started off from the farmhouse and made my way to a rise that had good views of the country all around hoping there may have been activity but apart from a couple of crusty old copper coins nothing doing really. This was on pasture fields that have been regularly drilled for reseeding. I was swinging for too long without any kind of signals not even iron grunts and was getting a bit fed up. I spotted a field next door where I could see the plough had never touched and decided to try my luck in there. Walking along the edge following the drystone wall and boom. Csnt even remember the numbers but a high enough signal at not a great deal of depth. The spear was just led there in the hole maybe four inches deep.
Last month I found three gold coins but I can honestly say this find excited me more.
Any further info on it would be greatly appreciated.
 

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Upvote 9
Find of a lifetime for sure.
Congratulations on the great looking piece.
It really is. And the memory of seeing it sat in that clod will stay with me for a long time.
I've been looking further into the item and I've now been told it dates to the mid Bronze age circa 1500 - 1200 BC.
But finding the type has been so far fruitless. I can't find any similar. It's smaller too at exactly 10cm from tip to base.
it will be taken off me and handed over to the FLO in a couple of weeks so I'm sure at some point I will find out but it's all part of the fun doing the finding though this is now becoming frustrating.
The only similar type ive seen is a reproduction by some bloke over in Ireland who states it is a repro of a "Mayo" type but I haven't found an original to compare
Did give it a pick clean which removed a bit of that crud but it's stubborn and I dont like to mess too much.
 

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Very nice indeed, and in lovely condition. Similar looped spearheads have been classified by Margaret Ehrenberg as ‘Class IV’ dated to the Middle Bronze Age and specifically the second phase of Acton Park (2), Taunton (Cemmaes) or Pennard metalworking traditions. These phases correspond with Needham's Period 5 (c. 1500 - 1150 BC). Two similar examples of the overall style of spearhead are illustrated in Savory: Guide Catalogue to the Bronze Age Collections ref: 230, Llanbeblig, Caern. and 337:2 Nantcwnlle, Cards.

There’s a larger one (172 mm long) illustrated at the link below with details taken from the PAS database:

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Middle_Bronze_Age,_Spearhead_(FindID_531185).jpg



Also, a similar one offered for sale here at £600 ($797)

https://www.antiquitiesonline.co.uk...d-and-side-looped-bronze-spearhead/prod_11044
 

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