Find Spot record 0/0/240 - Middle Bronze Age find

Bronze Age dagger found during gravel workings in 1993.

{1} Bronze dagger (Wessex II) found during gravel workings in June 1993. Characteristic of Camerton Snowshill daggers which are octagonal in shape, with a midrib and two or three large rivets. Length 14.2cm, breadth 2.1 cm and height 0.4cm.

{2} Although published as being of ‘Camerton-Snowshill’ type (late EBA), this is not actually the case. It is instead a ‘Group IV’ blade (dagger/ dirk; too short to be a rapier), this defined by the narrow blade with flattened midrib and a hilt-plate that is only a little broader; like this example, the type is frequently notched rather than having full rivet holes. Group IV blades date almost exclusively to the last phase of the MBA, belonging to the Penard Assemblage (c. 1275–1125 BC), thus some four centuries later than C-S daggers.

<1> Curteis M.; Musgrave E.; Tingle M. (Editors), 1993-4, Archaeology in Northamptonshire, 1993, 25/184 (checked) (Article). SNN104207.

<2> Northamptonshire HER, Unknown, Oral information, correspondence (not archived) or staff comments, Email from Stuart Needham, 07/04/2023 (Oral Report). SNN115011.

Record last edited

Apr 11 2023 9:47AM