Museums Worcestershire has acquired a pair of Bronze Age weapons for the county’s collection. The spearhead and knife were discovered by a metal detectorist in June of 2021 and reported to the Portable Antiquities Scheme. They were later declared legal treasure under the Treasure Act, which gave the museum the opportunity to acquire the objects for the amount their assessed value. Museums Worcestershire snapped them up.
The spearhead is the older of the two, dating to 1550-1250 B.C. It is five inches long with an elliptical blade with a tapering rib and two side loops on the socket. The knife dates to ca. 1000-800 B.C. It is four inches long and has a leaf-shaped blade with a mid-rib down the length.
The spearhead and knife were found in relatively close proximity — about 55 feet away from each other — but may not have been buried together in a single event. They were in a layer of wet clay close to a spring or other water source. Bronze Age peoples often left artifact deposits in watery natural places (rivers, bogs, lakes, etc.), and might leave these offerings over a period of a time, so you find several objects that are clustered in one spot but were not all deposited ate once.