File:Cast copper or bronze miniature flat axe of probable Early Bronze Age Date (2150- 1500 BC). (FindID 80358).jpg

English: Cast copper or bronze miniature flat axe of probable Early Bronze Age Date (2150- 1500 BC). The axehead is sub-rectangular in plan with a narrow rounded butt and parallel straight sides which expand slightly to the cutting edge. The cutting edge is slightly convex (bowed). In profile and cross section the axehead is lentoid. The axehead is 45.8mm in length, 3.9mm width at the butt, 18.9mm width at the cutting edge, and 6.5mm maximum thickness. It weighs 20.93 grams.

  The axehead is a mid - dark green colour with an even polished patina that covers approximately 30% of all surfaces. The patina across most of the axehead has been worn and eaten away by invasive corrosion. This has left much of the axe covered in deep craters or pocks, the largest of which is 2.5mm in diameter. The profile of the axe is also asymmetrical which has probably been caused by abrasion in the soil. Evidence for this is clear from a number of recent scratches in the patina. 

Similar axes of this size and age are relatively rare. It is likely that this example falls into Burgess and Schmidt (1981) Growtown / Milton Moss type. This axe type is classified as having a thin narrow butt and straight sided form with slightly expanded blade. They are also noted to have a broad distribution in Wales and the Marches as well as many of them being of a smaller size, although this example is exceptionally small. The closest parralel is an unclassified axe in the Burgess / Schmidt volume from Thixendale, East Riding, Yorkshire (255).