Below are details of a couple of interesting Somerset finds which have been reported through the Scheme in recent weeks. The first is a near complete socketed axehead of late Bronze Age (c. 1000-800BC) date (SOM-C03882). This is a fairly plain bronze axe which fits into the the South-eastern A1 category of the Ewart Park phase. What makes it particularly interesting is that it is a garden found, discovered whilst digging new flowerbeds in a house in Langford Budville, near Wellington.

PAS record number: SOM-C03882
Object type: Socketed axehead
Broadperiod: Bronze Age
County of discovery: Somerset
Stable url: https://finds.org.uk/database/artefacts/record/id/201169

An unusual early Roman brooch (SOM-304001) has come up in the Charlton Mackrell area. This is a variant of an aesica brooch, of which only two Somerset examples have previously been recorded on the Portable Antiquities Scheme database. The brooch has been cast in two pieces which are rivetted together and is undecorated. There is a good unprovenced parallel in Richard Hattatt’s ‘Visual Catalogue’ (2000). There are some fairly strong regional variations in the distribution of Roman brooches which Sally Worrell has been researching. The most common type recorded for Somerset is the T-shape as can be seen on the graph below.

PAS record number: SOM-304001
Object type: Brooch
Broadperiod: Roman
County of discovery: Somerset
Stable url: https://finds.org.uk/database/artefacts/record/id/200538

A lovely flint chisel arrowhead (SOM-AFA743) has been recorded from Queen Camel. This is a type characteristic of the late Neolithic and early Bronze Age. It is wedge-shaped and has been invasively retouched over most of the dorsal surface and part of the ventral surface (to sharpen the business end).

PAS record number: SOM-AFA743
Object type: Arrowhead
Broadperiod: Neolithic
County of discovery: Somerset
Stable url: https://finds.org.uk/database/artefacts/record/id/201097