British sickle found in France during the late Bronze Age – History

A British manufacturer’s socket was found in the Seret site in Val-de-Reui in the Lower Seine Valley, France. The history of the sickle dates back to the late Atlantic Bronze Age (1200-600 BCE), and is a very rare discovery in France, one of only ten known people.

The sickle is made of copper alloy and is complete, and remains despite the broken tip. The edges of the curved blades are shattered. The side of the socket has a hanging ring and two holes, and the wooden handle is connected to the nails. One of the nails is still inside the hole and appears to be made of bones. Traces of the handle are alive in the socket. The type of wood cannot be finalized, but the test range narrows the possibility of willow, poplar, black all-wood, horny and hazel, and willow is the most likely candidate.

This type of sickle originated in the British Isles and is rare in France. Only about ten examples were recorded, focusing on the Strait Coast (the valleys of the Somme and Seine) and the Atlantic Coast. In the Seine valley, there were two previous examples, one was Vernon (Eure) and the other was taken from the Paris River. This object witnesses the trade network that united the two sides of the strait at the end of the Bronze Age and highlighted the frequent and metal circulation of major river routes in the Atlantic region.

The late Atlantic Bronze Age was characterized by a sharp increase in the scale of trade in bronze metal products between Atlantic coastal communities. In the early years of the Bronze Age, the trade in metal products involved a small number of artifacts, most of whom were considered diplomatic gift exchanges between elites. Archaeological records show that metal engineering exchanges undergo a major change from 1200 BC, with increasing quantity and frequency, becoming a new commercial trade.