Description

Summary: 1 small bronze chisel or axe with tapered tang and barbed blade, (possibly) found with a primary crouched inhumation in Bowl Barrow West Overton G1 (according to Piggott and Grinsell), excavated by William Cunnington

Research results

An Early Bronze Age flat axehead, of Willberby type, excavated by William Cunnington and Hoare, probably from the barrow West Overton G1 in the early 19th century. Unfortunately, by the time the Stourhead collection was acquired by the Wiltshire museum, the grave goods from this barrow had become disassociated, and it was not possible to identify them from William Cunnington's notes of the excavations. Fortunately, however, fellow antiquarian Reverend Skinner was also present, whose notes and sketches have permitted the identification of two of the four grave goods.

This axehead is discussed by Needham et al. (2010) as part of their discussion of radiocarbon dating of the primary inhumation of West Overton G1, whose skull is now held in the Duckworth collection, Cambridge University. These remains were dated to 2020-1770 cal BC (95%). They note the survival of Reverend John Skinner's notes in the British Library, along with sketches, which detail a flat axehead and a crutch-headed pin, both now identified, and a tanged dagger and length of antler, both of which remain unidentified.