So, with a break in the weather, and knowing that I wanted to try the 'button field' with the Nox I headed out with some hope Sunday for a few hours (as I had to be back to make the dinner, get the washing in and put the chickens away for the night.....)
The maize was off, but a combination of the dreaded maize stalks and the Nox being a bit chirpy I soon gave up in that field - there are just too many nails in the corner where there was a house up to the 1870s or so.
Before I get to the button field, there is a pasture field where I usually only find more buttons and the odd copper - in fact it was only earlier this year that I got my first silver from the field after 5 years detecting in it. I thought that I ought to grid areas I don't normally look at - the field has just been cut and as it has been 'quite' wet recently there was a chance there was some moisture deeper in the field - the underlying geology is limestone, so it's usually dry and stony.
As usual, not much to report - a plated cufflink, loads of tubes and ring pulls (pre '90s types
) - and then reading 19/20 on the Nox what I thought was more junk. I was wrong - it was my first ever complete bronze axe head (I found a part of a later type in a different field on the farm about 5 years ago) - I showed it to Mark (amongst many other poeple) at Cardiff Archs yesterday - he had already been shown a photo
- and says it is a faceted axe of the Meldreth type - so around 900BC, and he wonders if the stuff inside the axe is part of the haft / axe handle that has been mineralised - I said who knows it could be hiding some gold strips (this does happen every so often), but he laughed
.
I got to meet the new PAS helper, George too, who was also at the lecture. It'll be good if it can be put into a subgroup of this type - they are known in this area - or at least the Marches, as they are mainly from Yorkshire - as perhaps exotics
Extensive gridding around the area (I left the hole open during this to act as a locus) produced nothing else exciting - just more tubes and ring pulls and the usual expected bit of anti-aircraft shrapnel that litters the farm. Just a bit chuffed
It weighs 198.5grams, and is 108mm in length. The cutting edge (like many of these) has been deliberately flattened - to put it out of use, so likely a ritual deposit. On removing (carefully) the earth plug from the end of the socket, I noticed some gunge in the socket. I have left this in place as it could be some of the original packing material - this is the greeny-yellow stuff in the image of the socket end, but could be remains of the wooden haft, as Mark Lodwick thinks
As you can see from the photos it was really shallow - hence it has a (sorry) spade mark - I was finding canslaw and the like at deeper levels - are there any more that ploughing could uncover? I don't think the field has been ploughed since WWII.
I'm posting this as is (without photos) as I have tried several times to post it and it has always been rejected. I will add photos later.
