Bronze Age Weapons and Tools

Bronze Age Weapons and Tools
Stone and clay moulds were used in the early Bronze Age for shaping objects such as spears and axes. On the far right is a flat stone incised with a hollow negative shape, which would have been used as a mould for molten metal (on loan from the National Museum of Ireland). Next to it is a spear head which would have been made in a similar mould.

More complex mould types would have been used to shape other objects shown here; on the far left is a palstave or flanged axe head and next to it is a slightly later socketed axe head. Both would have been used to cut down trees to make room for farm land. All items date to the Bronze Age period of c.2,400 to 500 BC.