On a cold damp foggy March afternoon and with only a few hours of light left it would have been easy to put another log on the fire and let the dog cross its legs! But when metal detecting was mentioned the dog pricked up its ears and convinced me to grab the Equinox 800 and head to a new permission for a quick potter about. After making my way over stone dykes and through boggy fields I reached the previously cropped field the farmer had allowed me to detect in. After an hour a small number of mixed aged finds had been dug. With light fading and to keep out of the cold damp wind I headed to the bottom of the field where a natural small rise in the land turned out to be shallow soil covered natural bed rock. A few ‘24’ faint signals pinged from the Equinox and was enough to stir the adrenaline enough to make me reswing several times to recheck and pinpoint the spot. Detector down and spade engaged I pushed into soft black earth and spilled a large pile of soil to one side. A check swing of the Equinox showed something still in the hole so the pinpointer was used. A strong ring from the pointer confirmed something in the hole and as the soil was soft a drag with the hand moved away the black earth to reveal a beautiful curve of an earth green coloured object. Instinctively the shape caused visions of axe heads to bounce into my brain but could it really be the case! Surely just another discarded farm implement. But no, not this time. Shaking and excited I pulled out an almost pristine axe head. Could this object really be over 3000 years old!! The edge was hardly marked and was probably as sharp as my own modern axe that I use for splitting kindling! I just couldn’t believe what I had uncovered. As I sat on the damp ground looking round me with darkness setting in my mind wandered to visions of the past. Was it a lost axe, was it a ceremonial burial, was it placed or used here on this natural mound with bog all around? Who knows but with light now almost gone I whistled on the dog and headed to share my find and story with the farmer. Subsequent web searches have led me to conclude that it’s a mid Bronze Age Palstave axe head likely between 800-1100BC. It’s currently being logged in the Scotland Treasure Trove system for assessment. Having lain and been moved in the ground for possibly over 3000 years I wonder how long more it would have been undiscovered if not for a walk with the dog and an Equinox.
