We study the globular cluster ( GC ) system of the dust-lane elliptical galaxy NGC 6702 , using B , V and I -band photometric observations carried out at the Keck telescope .
This galaxy has a spectroscopic age of \approx 2 Gyrs suggesting recent star-formation .
We find strong evidence for a bimodal GC colour distribution , with the blue peak having a colour similar to that of the Galactic halo GCs .
Assuming that the blue GCs are indeed old and metal–poor , we estimate an age of 2–5 Gyrs and supersolar metallicity for the red GC subpopulation .
Despite the large uncertainties , this is in reasonable agreement with the spectroscopic galaxy age .
Additionally , we estimate a specific frequency of S _ { N } = 2.3 \pm 1.1 for NGC 6702 .
We predict that passive evolution of NGC 6702 will further increase its specific frequency to S _ { N } \approx 2.7 within 10 Gyrs , in closer agreement to that of typical present-day ellipticals .
We also discuss evidence that the merger/accretion event that took place a few Gyrs ago involved a high gas fraction .