Find Spot record MDO45100 - Neolithic or Bronze Age macehead found at Angle Ditch, Sixpenny Handley

A flint macehead fragment, of Neolithic or Bronze Age date, was found by Pitt Rivers during excavations at the Angle Ditch site MDO6072 near Wor Barrow MDO6074. The macehead appears to have been made from a naturally perforated flint nodule.

(SU 01 17. Macehead sited to Handley Down from Auth <1> and OS 10560 1962). A Neolithic or Bronze Age macehead made from a flint nodule utilising a natural perforation for the shaft hole was found by Pitt-Rivers <1.1> on Handley Down. <1>

NB although the above suggests a stray find, the macehead fragment was in fact found during the excavation of the Angle Ditch Bronze Age site (SU 01 NW 12) [Note: ie MDO6072], within the ditch fill, and not far from Wor Barrow (SU 01 NW 14) [Note: ie MDO6074].

<1> 1984, Transactions of the Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological Society. Volume 102, 17-22 (Serial). SDO19064.

Savile, A and F Roe. A stone battle axe from Wootton under Edge and a review of Battle Axe and Macehead finds from Gloucestershire.

<1.1> Pitt-Rivers, A H L F, 1898, Excavations in Cranborne Chase near Rushmore on the Borders of Dorset and Wilts 1893-96 Volume IV, 109 (Monograph). SDO16623.

<2> National Record of the Historic Environment, 888865 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Dec 20 2022 10:53AM