A North Wales housewife found a bronze age knife crafted 4,500 years ago while digging in her vegetable patch. Marylyn Sheldon knew she had discovered something special after unearthing the flint blade at her Llanarmon-yn-Iâl home, in Denbighshire. Experts at the National Museum of Wales, Cardiff, confirmed it was a bronze aged blade forged around 2,500 BCE.
     "I was digging in my vegetable patch to put broad beans in," she said. "I knew it was a worked flint blade as soon as I saw it." Mrs Sheldon contacted Denbighshire council and the authority's countryside service archeologist Fiona Gail was called in. "She took photos. Later on I also found some flint chippings while digging in the garden. Eventually they identified it as a a flint knife dating from the bronze age which could have been used as a scraper," Mrs Sheldon said.
     Mrs Sheldon says she may donate the knife to a local museum. The small village of Llanarmon-yn-Iâl is surrounded by ancient barrows and mounds. Mrs Gale said: "It is an interesting find and provides more information about the area. I think there were some other finds from a nearby cave in the village in the early years of the 20th century."

Sources: Daily Post, icNorthWales (24 July 2004)