Any Ideas ?

[digger]

Found this item this week any ideas what it is?
Digger

[Lost and not recoverable]

[Tascio]

Hello digger, welcome aboard!

Looks like a votive axe to me, but then the vikings had axe brooches that looked kinda like this, I'm gonna take a look around and see if I can find some pics.

[Tascio]

Do you have a photo of the other side?

[Tascio]

Here's a votive axe from the Portable Antiquities Scheme web site.

[digger]

Thanks Tascio,
It is the first exciting thing I have found. First permission, my first farm, first field.
I usually go beach detecting but never find anything except modern coins (all saved to upgrade my machine!)
Digger
p.s. The one on PAS looks quite similar and also someone is selling one on ebay at the moment, both same but different, it has been suggested to me it could be modern or a buckle fragment.
I much prefer the idea of a votive axe !!

[Lost and not recoverable]

[Tascio]

The buckle fragment idea hadn't occured to me, but looking at it now it could well be the middle bar of a buckle. Although, it does still look to me a lot like a votive axe with a piece of the blade broken off. Best bet might be to play it safe and get the opinion of a FLO.

Well done on saving beach finds for a new machine! That must have been a grind!

[Tascio]

Found a votive axe picture that looks very similar to your object in the second edition of Benet's Artefacts of England and the United Kingdom, page 234, second one down.

[digger]

Found a votive axe picture that looks very similar to your object in the second edition of Benet's Artefacts of England and the United Kingdom, page 234, second one down.

Thanks Tascio, any chance you could scan the page ? I had a look on Amazon and the book is £75 new and £37.50 second hand?

[Tascio]

I'd be a bit reluctant to scan the photo from the book, it's copyright. But maybe a local library has it? If not they might be able to get it through an inter-library loan.

[digger]

Ok, I appreciate that.
I have had a look and it's quite similar but different.