axe

Early Iron Age socketed axe filled with chalky gravel concretions when first found but cleaned in conservation at NCM. Length 152mm, width 58mm, thickness 38mm, aperture of side-loop 18mm x 5mm. X-ray NX6263 and 6568.Such objects are characteristic of the Halstatt culture of the earliest Iron Age of central Europe. They are rarely found in the British Isles, with examples from the Berwyn Mountains of Wales (Savory, H. Guide Catalogue of the Early Iron Age Collections 1976, 20) and Cold Kitchen Hill, Wiltshire (Cunliffe, B. Iron Age Communities in Britain 1974, fig.14:2.5). c.800 – c.600 BC.