Abstract
A bronze founder's hoard, which is dated at the early part of the first millennium B.C., has been brought to light at Flansham, near Bognor Regis. The find was made at a depth of about four feet at a point in Hoe Lane, a deep and ancient track now a lane, where it was joined by a new drive in course of construction. The objects discovered were distributed among several owners, but have been brought together again to be described by Mr. S. E. Winbolt in The Times of May 9. With six bronze implements were twenty-two lumps of copper, weighing 14 Ib. Some round pieces of copper indicate a diameter of six inches for the complete cake, which would appear to have been cast in a crucible with a slightly concave bottom. This hoard is evidently the stock-in-trade of a bronze founder, such as has been discovered not infrequently in Britain. Mr. Winbolt recalls that a similar hoard was found in the course of road construction at Bognor some twelve years ago. The implements found with the copper are two socketed and looped celts, with square-mouthed socket openings, cast with a core, two socketed gouges, the top of a V-type sword with rivet holes, and the side of the top of a carp's tongue sword with a very sharp edge, which is compared with those of the Addington (Kent) and Beachy Head deposits. All may be dated at about 1000–750 B.C., and are probably a native product, though showing the influence of Spain and north-west France. It is to be noted that, as usual, there are no traces of tin with the copper. It is suggested that this, as well as the other and slightly earlier Bognor hoard, may have been abandoned or temporarily hidden, on account of the difficulties of a journey arising from the marshy character of the ground in this neighbourhood at the period.
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Bronze Age Hoard from Bognor. Nature 141, 865 (1938). https://doi.org/10.1038/141865b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/141865b0