Description

Summary: 1 iron socketed and looped axe head, resembling in general form bronze celts of the late Bronze Age, and probably made in the transition period when the use of iron was beginning to supersede that of bronze for cutting tools and weapons, from Cold Kitchen Hill, Brixton Deverill, Wiltshire.

Research results

An Early Iron Age iron socketed axehead, one of a number of Early Iron Age artefacts excavated from the Iron Age settlement at Cold Kitchen Hill, Brixton Deverill, in 1925. The axehead is more comparable in form to socketed axeheads of the Late Bronze Age than the Early Iron Age, and dates to the Bronze Age/Iron Age transition period, representing some of the earliest ironwork in Britain. It is one of only 24 known iron socketed axeheads, which had to be produced by forging several bands of wrought iron, in a process far more complicated than the casting of contemporary copper alloy axes.

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.