English: Middle Bronze Age ceremonial dirk, the second recorded from Norfolk. The first was recovered from Oxborough in 1988 found point down in peaty deposits (Needham 1990; Collins 2013, 52).

The landowner was said to have observed the second dirk being ploughed up, it then remained in the farm office for some years, occasionally being used to prop the door open. It was suggested that the object could be old and was then bought to Gressenhall for identification, causing more than a little surprise to the FLO and other staff of the finds department.

Previous writers have indicated the dirk was bent in antiquity, though the present writer has observed the patination is broken along the bends, with bare metal visible within the fissures, therefore it is unlikely the bends are of any great age.

Remarkably, the provenances of the four other known examples of this spectacular type all lie in continental Europe, Plougrescant in Brittany, Beaune in Burgundy, and Ommerschans and Jutphaas in the Netherlands. All six are very similar, though there are slight differences in the elaboration of cross-sections and lengths and may well be produced in one workshop and distributed to fulfill their ceremonial duties. All lack rivet holes for the attachment of handles, and have intentionally blunt edges, but they are well finished in other respects.

See Rogerson and Ashley, Norfolk Archaeology XLVII (2014), 104-106.

Length (straightened) 685mm. Maximum width (straightened) 175mm. Thickness 8mm. Weight 1.916kg.

Also known as the Rudham Dirk, it was acquired by Norfolk Museums Service with funding from the National Heritage Memorial Fund.