'Exceptional' hoard of Bronze Age axe heads found in Essex

"The condition is just unlike anything I've seen before in Bronze Age metalwork," said Lori Rogerson, adding it is "exceptional"

The "exceptional" condition of a hoard of 10 Bronze Age axes discovered by a detectorist has surprised an expert.

They were in a cache of 23 pieces of bronze found near Shalford in Essex.

"Usually Bronze Age metalwork can go a bit crumbly, but there's still a bit of a shine to it after thousands of years in the soil," said finds liaison officer Lori Rogerson.

She believes the hoard, declared treasure by a coroner, was going to be used again.

Despite thousands of years in the ground, many of the axe heads still had a shiny patina

It dates to the late Bronze Age, between 1000BC and 800BC, "within 200 years of what we formally recognise as the beginning of the Iron Age", said Miss Rogerson.

Bronze, a mix of copper and tin, was a vital resource in this era, used to make the axes needed to chop wood for heating, cooking and manufacturing.

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Miss Rogerson described how a typical household owned "a large selection of Bronze Age tools including at least seven axes", so people would have gone through many axes "constantly making them, so constantly recycling the metal".

But "copper was more difficult to obtain by this time and so recycling it was the most reliable source".

This incomplete socketed 130mm (6in) axe head has a large chip in its blade - it would have been resharpened until it weakened and was recycled

The axe heads, found in a field in the village, near Braintree, in August 2020, were deposited with one sword fragment and 12 bun ingots, given the name for their circular shape, which were cut into four to make them easier to melt.

This mix of items is typical of hoards from this era and of the roughly 50 Essex Bronze Age hoards recorded on the Portable Antiquities Scheme database so far.

Bun ingots were also discovered with the hoard, cut into fragments to aid melting

There was also a fragment of a sword, dating to between 1120BC and 750BC

A museum has expressed an interest in acquiring the items.

Miss Rogerson said: "This is why we have the Treasure Act, so that finds like these can go into museums where they can be accessed in the future by researchers who can use them to answer all these questions we have."

Potentially, that includes discovering where the copper was mined.

"We know so little about this period but new scientific techniques are being developed all the time, so in the future the finds can be revisited," she added.