<p><strong>A few months ago whilst using my Safari I had the great luck and pleasure in finding a Bronze Age object.</strong> This was later identified as the base section of a Bronze Age sword scabbard chape. The signal had come from about 8 inches down and registered loud and clear. The Safari then went on to locate a fragment of Bronze Age axe-head, but afterwards it was the chape that fascinated me...I could conjure up images of the chieftain or tribal leader who had once been so powerful and influential to be able to own a sword. I wondered at what he may have been called and marvelled that today’s technology could locate this incredible object that had not been handled for 3500 years.</p>[split] <p>Just recently I was detecting about two fields away when in amongst a load of shotgun tips and the odd Georgian coin I received a different sounding signal, this came from a fluted edged object that looked to be slightly silvered. Gently cleaning my find I was amazed to see that it was a second Bronze Age chape but of a different style. Incredibly packed into the base hollow of each object is heat-blackened sand I can only assume that after casting some of the central mould was not removed. As well as being hollow of course some of these chapes are three to four or more inches in length, so removal of all the casting sand would have been difficult. So now I'm researching Bronze Age sword chapes and the different varieties they come in, all thanks to Minelab and their excellent Safari, without which these small artefacts would never have been located and therefore lost to academic research.</p>