Find Spot record MDO5511 - Bronze Age palstave found on Pentridge Hill, Cranborne

A palstave was found in 1980 in a stubble field on Pentridge Hill, Cranborne. It is a plain, narrow-bladed looped palstave. The blade tapers out gradually from the top of the cutting edge. In side view, the stop projects markedly beyond the line of the blade and the flanges. The flanges are convex in outline, and meet the septum well below the butt. The septum is thick, and the flanges are correspondingly low. The loop is set low in relationship to this stop. It is in good condition. Traces of the casting seams are visible. Length: 161 mm. Blade width (at cutting edge): 41 mm.

The projecting stop, the form of the flanges and the low-set loop indicate that it is an example of a ‘late’ palstave, current within the Wilburton metalworking phase of the Later Bronze Age, dated to the tenth century BC.

SU 048 174. A plain, narrow-bladed looped palstave was found on Pentridge Hill. The type was current in the Wilburton metalworking place of the British later Bronze Age, dated to the C10th BC. The palstave is in the possession of Mr Stainer. <1>

<1> Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, 1983, Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society for 1983, 143 (Serial). SDO83.

<2> National Record of the Historic Environment, 888860 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

May 30 2022 3:06PM