This leaf-shaped spearhead was discovered by metal detectors in a meadow next to the River Thames at Eynsham. It dates from the Middle Bronze Age (about 1500 BCE). Its design incorporates a thicker central section for strength, with loops on either side for attaching the spearhead to a shaft, probably using strips of leather or animal sinew.
The spearhead itself has snapped, and the break appears to have happened in the far distant past. This might indicate that the spearhead was a votive offering – that is, a ritual gift to the water or to deities, often to commemorate important occasions or to mark boundaries. It is certainly known that, during the Middle Bronze Age, communities used to deliberately cast high-status weapons like this into the river. Bronze Age shields have also been discovered in the Thames at the Swinford crossing just above Eynsham Lock; these are kept in storage at the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford.