Bronze Age spearhead unearthed among other prehistoric finds in Gloucestershire

Six Late Bronze Age to Early Iron Age timer-posted roundhouses and an array of animal bone and pottery fragments were also uncovered.

Cotswold Archaeologist Joe Price with the incredibly rare 3,000-year-old Bronze Age spearhead. IMAGE: Cotswold Archaeology.

An exceptionally well-preserved Bronze Age spearhead has been unearthed in South Cerney, Gloucestershire, during fieldwork led by Cotswold Archaeology ahead of the construction of a new wildlife habitat at a Thames Water sewage works.

The c.3,000-year-old spearhead was discovered just below surface-level in a shallow pit encircled by stakeholes which – although impossible to verify their purpose – may have possibly formed an above-ground structure marking the location of the pit.

Excavations in South Cerney also revealed traces of continuous and extensive human activity spanning 4,000 years. IMAGE: Cotswold Archaeology.

The spearhead is one of numerous other finds spanning the prehistoric to Roman periods unearthed during the excavation, which include six Late Bronze Age to Early Iron Age timber-posted roundhouses, two Roman trackways, and an array of animal bone and pottery fragments.

Previous excavations in the wider area (completed by Oxford Archaeology) have revealed traces of extensive Bronze Age settlement, in the form of timber-posted structures, and the remains of a Romano-British farmstead.

One of six Late Bronze to Early Iron Age roundhouses uncovered at the site. IMAGE: Cotswold Archaeology.

There are plans for the artefacts, currently undergoing analysis, to go on public display at Cirencester’s Corinium Museum.

You can find out more information about these exciting discoveries in the upcoming issue of Current Archaeology.