BRONZE AGE AWL

-1150

A cast copper alloy awl. The awl is fragmentary or incomplete. It is square in section and tapers to a blunt point. The opposite terminal is broken, but it is not a too recent break. The awl has a well developed mid green/grey patina. It measures 33.49mm long, and 5.62mm wide. It weighs 4g. The date of the awl is uncertain. Awls can date to the Bronze Age. Needham (in Longley, D. & Needham, S 1980 ‘Runnymede Bridge 1976: Excavations on the site of a Late Bronze Age settlement’, Surrey Archaeological Society Volume 6, page 19.) discusses awls and comments they cannot be dated with accuracy within the Bronze Age period as they are found in Early Bronze Age contexts, such as graves as well as Middle and Late Bronze Age hoards. Barber (Barber, M. 2003 Bronze and the Bronze Age: Metalwork and Society in Britain c. 2500 – 800 BC. Tempus) comments that awls are commonly found in graves and their function may not just have been utilitarian. Coombs (Coombs, 2001 in Pryor, F. The Flag Fen Basin: Archaeology and Environment of a Fenland Landscape English Heritage: Swindon p. 287-288) comments that they may represent varying stages of a craftsperson’s apprenticeship or skill. However this awl has not developed the heavy patina associated with Bronze Age awls. Leahy (Leahy, K. 2003 Anglo-Saxon Crafts Tempus) illustrates a similar awl, Figure 44 D which is Anglo-Scandinavian and used for leather-working. The date of the recorded example is not certain.