Posted on 01/21/2008 6:45:50 PM PST by blam
Treasure hunters find Bronze Age axes
Last Updated: 2:06am GMT 22/01/2008
An amateur treasure hunter has unearthed a hoard of bronze age axe heads thought to be worth about £80,000.
Tom Peirce started combing a field with his metal detector after dropping off a school coach party at a farm.
Within a few minutes it began beeping and he found the first axe head fragment 10in into the soil.
When he dug deeper, Mr Peirce found dozens more and, over the following two days, he and a colleague, Les Keith, uncovered nearly 500 bronze artefacts dating back 3,000 years.
The find prompted a Time Team-style search of the area at the farm near Swanage, Dorset, by archaeologists.
The hoard, which included 268 complete axe heads, is one of the biggest of its kind in Britain.
Mr Peirce, of Ringwood, Hants, said: "We are extremely thrilled because this was a once-in-a-lifetime find. It's like winning the lottery - you don't think it is going to happen to you. You do it as a hobby, you don't do it for the money but if you strike it lucky, so be it."
It is believed the axe heads were manufactured at a nearby Bronze Age settlement.
Archaeologists think the hoard may have been buried as an offering to the gods.
Mr Peirce, 60, will have to split any proceeds with the landowner, Alfie O'Connell.
Mr O'Connell, 62, who has owned the farm for four years, said: "Within about half an hour of Tom searching, he came rushing over to me looking shocked. During the war a plane crashed in the same field and for a minute I thought he'd found a bomb.
"We went back up there on my tractor and saw the axe heads. I didn't have a clue what they were, I thought it was scrap metal at first."
The axe heads are 4in long and 2in wide and are being assessed by the British Museum, which may buy them.
The coroner for Bournemouth, Poole and East Dorset has been informed of the find and will hold an inquest at which it is expected they will be declared treasure.
At that point, landowner and finder receive a reward to the sum of the market value.
Dr Andrew Fitzpatrick, of Wessex Archaeology, said: "It is one of the largest and important finds of its kind because of the size of it and the condition they were in."
Now that wouldn't surprise me.
I’ve seen movies. Those can’t be ax heads. Ax heads are huge things with double blades and such. All the cool barbarian movies say so.
Those look like door stop wedges.
On a slightly more serious note...
That’s a lot of metal and work put into that many head splitters. Where, exactly, did Henry Ford’s line originate? Could this have been an early attempt at standardized factory production?
Must have been a dealership.
Or a factory producing axe heads.
That’s the entire stock from the village blacksmiths shop!
“I just hired a new lumberjack, he used to work at the Sahara Forest.”
“You mean the Sahara Desert?”
“Sure — now.”
That’s where Saddam put ‘em! I knew we find it.
I'll bet you could get more than that selling them on Ebay. The United Arab Emirates and the Saudis would probably pay 1500 quid each. After all, they're solid bronze. With a little sharpening, they'd be perfect for the headsmen.
Archeologists are such dorks! They always assume that finds have something to do with lofty thoughts about man, God and the Universe—when all human history tells us the main things Man cares about are the three ‘S’s...sleep, substenance, and sex.
And beer. You forgot beer. ;’)
No I didn’t. Among the best of all sustenance is beer, wine, ale, and various forms of distilled hard spirits.
Being made from fruits and vegetables they are diet healthy and are important in obtaining the other two of the Big “Ss” needed for a successful life: Sex, Sleep and Sex.
(I know, I added Sex twice, but I like Sex after Sleep when I wake up in the morning before I have my beer.)
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