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Early 2005 I was walking on a field which was visited by detectorists regularly. I found a couple of worn copper coins, nothing else. The next day I visited the dutch forum on metal detecting to find out that Danny, a detectorist from the same area as where I live, had been visiting the same field a few hours later and found a nicely decorated socketed axe. I must have just missed the axe, because he clearly saw my footsteps close to where he found his bronze age treasure.
One year later, on February 5th 2005, I decided to give the same field another try. After 2 hours of searching I got a clear and soft beep and within seconds I was staring into a 30 cm. deep hole which clearly showed the tip of another socketed axe sticking out. I picked it up and for the next few minutes I could say nothing more than "Oh no, no, no". Luckily there was no one in reach who could hear me.... |
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In the next few days I reported my find to the local archaeologist and to the bronze age expert in the Netherlands, J.J. Butler. I was soon visited by Hanny Steegstra who works closely together with Butler. She made a wonderful drawing of the axe and has described the object in detail. The find will be catalogued and published in Butler's upcoming paper on bronze age axes.
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I had also been visiting Danny, which gave us the opportunity to make snapshots of the two axes together. A wonderful view seeing the finds together! Conservation of the axe has been done by Ron Leenheer of the Allard Pierson Museum in Amsterdam. Ron has sent me a detailed report on the conservation. The axe has been submersed for 40 hours into a Benzotriazole solution inside a vacuum chamber. The idea here is to stop any oxidation process which still might be present. Next, the axe has been treated with Paraloid B67, a polymer which fills up the air gaps inside the axe. After that, the axe has been slightly coated with wax to give it a nice shine.
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On may 25th, 2005 I have been visited by Jeroen Zuiderwijk, which was really great. Jeroen has been making bronze age reproductions and brought along several of his objects together with a socketed axe. We intend to visit him on october 16th at the archeon, where he will be acting as a bronze caster.
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Example of a mould used to cast bronze age axes. The two halves can be seen together with the centerpiece, through which the molten bronze will be poured.
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Casting in action at the archeon during the metalworkers weekend. Jeroen succeeded in making three copies of the axe. More details are on Jeroen's website.
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Three copies of the axe, made by jeroen in october 2005. From the picture one can understand why these type of axes where so appreciated in the past: they shine like gold and must have been an impressive view. One of these axes will actually be used for building a bronze age settlement.
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More than one year after the find, there has been an excavation by the dutch R.A.C.M, formerly R.O.B. on the field where the 2 axes have been found. The dig took about 4 days in search of evidence related to the find. No proof of bronze age habitation was found. It is now believed that the axes were deposited on the field in a later period, either by one of the many rivers in the area or by mankind.
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New high resolution images have been made in july 2008, which will be part of a publication about the find and excavation. The right picture shows a brown patina on one side of the axe which is associated with peaty soil.
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Sideviews of the axe which shows the subtle decorations. They were hammered onto the surface after the casting. This axe is believed to have been used ritually, because there is no sign of any use.
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Inside view of the axe. The blue color is a natural patina called azurite. It has almost the same chemical composition as the green patina which is called malachite. They both are copper carbonate minerals with azurite having one more copper and carbon oxide atom. The chemical formula is Cu3(CO3)2(OH)2.
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The final report has been published by the Dutch RACM in oktober 2008. It contains all of the details of both finds and the excavation.
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