.jpg)
Atorc, also spelledtorq ortorque, is a large rigid or stiffneck ring in metal, made either as a single piece or from strands twisted together. The great majority are open at the front, although some have hook and ring closures and a few havemortice and tenon locking catches to close them. Many seem designed for near-permanent wear and would have been difficult to remove.
Torcs have been found inScythian,Illyrian,[1]Thracian,Celtic, and other cultures of theEuropean Iron Age from around the 8th century BC to the 3rd century AD. For Iron Age Celts, the gold torc seems to have been a key object. It identified the wearer—apparently usually female until the 3rd century BC, thereafter usually but not exclusively male—as a person of high rank, and many of the finest works of ancientCeltic art are torcs. Celtic torcs disappeared in theMigration Period, but during theViking Age torc-style metal necklaces, mainly in silver, came back into fashion.[2] Similar neck-rings are also part of the jewellery styles of various other cultures and periods.
.jpg)
The word comes fromLatintorquis (ortorques), fromtorqueo, "to twist", because of the twisted shape many of the rings have. Typically, neck-rings that open at the front when worn are called "torcs" and those that open at the back "collars". Smallerbracelets andarmlets worn around the wrist or on the upper arm sometimes share very similar forms. Torcs were made from single or multiple intertwinedmetal rods, or "ropes" of twisted wire. Most of those that have been found are made from gold or bronze, less often silver, iron or other metals (gold, bronze and silver survive better than other metals when buried for long periods).
Elaborate examples, sometimes hollow, used a variety of techniques but complex decoration was usually begun bycasting and then worked by further techniques. TheIpswich Hoard includes unfinished torcs that give clear evidence of the stages of work.[3] Flat-ended terminals are called "buffers", and in types like the "fused-buffer" shape, where what resemble two terminals are actually a single piece, the element is called a "muff".[4]
There are several types of rigid gold and sometimes bronze necklaces and collars of the laterEuropean Bronze Age, from around 1200 BC, many of which are classed as "torcs". They are mostly twisted in various conformations, including the "twisted ribbon" type, where a thin strip of gold is twisted into a spiral. Other examples twist a bar with a square or X section, or just use round wire, with both types in the three 12th– or 11th-century BC specimens found at Tiers Cross, Pembrokeshire, Wales.[5] TheMilton Keynes Hoard contained two large examples of thicker rounded forms, as also used for bracelets.[6]
.jpg)
The terminals are not emphasized as in typical Iron Age torcs, though many can be closed by hooking the simple terminals together. Many of these "torcs" are too small to be worn round the neck of an adult, and were either worn as bracelets or armlets, or by children or statues. Archaeologists find dating many torcs difficult, with some believing torcs were retained for periods of centuries as heirlooms, and others believing there were two periods of production. Differing ratios of silver in the gold of other objects—typically up to 15% in the Bronze Age but up to 20% in the Iron Age—can help decide the question.[7] There are several flared gold torcs with a C-shaped section in the hugeMooghaun North Hoard of Late Bronze Age gold from 800 to 700 BC found inCounty Clare in Ireland.[8]
In parts of Asia, torcs appear inScythian art from theEarly Iron Age, and include "classicizing" decoration drawing on styles from the east. Torcs are also found inThraco-Cimmerian art. Torcs are found in theTolstaya burial and the Karagodeuashk kurgan (Kuban area), both dating to the 4th century BC. A torc is part of thePereshchepina hoard dating to the 7th century AD. Thin torcs, often with animal head terminals, are found in the art of the PersianAchaemenid Empire, with some other elements derived from Scythian art.[citation needed]
Depictions of the gods and goddesses ofCeltic mythology sometimes show them wearing or carrying torcs, as in images of the godCernunnos wearing one torc around his neck, with torcs hanging from his antlers or held in his hand, as on theGundestrup cauldron. This may represent the deity as the source of power and riches, as the torc was a sign of nobility and high social status.[9]
The famous Roman copy of the original Greek sculptureThe Dying Gaul depicts a wounded Gaulish warrior naked except for a torc, which is howPolybius described thegaesatae, Celtic warriors from modern northern Italy or theAlps, fighting at theBattle of Telamon in 225 BC, although other Celts there were clothed.[10] One of the earliest known depictions of a torc can be found on theWarrior of Hirschlanden (6th century BC), and a high proportion of the few Celtic statues of human figures, mostly male, show them wearing torcs.
Other possible functions that have been proposed for torcs include use as rattles in rituals or otherwise, as some have stones or metal pieces inside them, and representations of figures thought to be deities carrying torcs in their hand may depict this. Some are too heavy to wear for long, and may have been made to place on cult statues. Very few of these remain but they may well have been in wood and not survived. Torcs were clearly valuable, and often found broken in pieces, so being astore of value may have been an important part of their use. It has been noted that the Iberian gold examples seem to be made at fixed weights that are multiples of thePhoenicianshekel.[11]
With bracelets, torcs are "the most important category of Celtic gold", though armlets and anklets were also worn; in contrast finger-rings were less common among the early Celts.[12] The earliest Celtic torcs are mostly found buried with women, for example, the gold torc from theLa Tène periodchariot burial of a princess, found in theWaldalgesheim chariot burial in Germany, and others found in female graves atVix in France (illustrated) andReinheim. Another La Tène example was found as part of a hoard or ritual deposit buried nearErstfeld in Switzerland.[13] It is thought by some authors that the torc was mostly an ornament for women until the late 3rd century BC, when it became an attribute of warriors.[14] However, there is evidence for male wear in the early period; in a rich double burial of theHallstatt period atHochmichele, the man wears an iron torc and the female a necklace with beads.[15] A heavy torc in silver over an iron core with bull's head terminals, weighing over 6 kilos, from Trichtingen, Germany, probably dates to the 2nd century BC (illustrated).[16]
Many finds of torcs, especially in groups and in association with other valuables but not associated with a burial, are clearly deliberate deposits whose function is unclear. They may have been ritual deposits or hidden for safekeeping in times of warfare. Some may represent the work-in-progress of a workshop.[17] After the early period, torcs are especially prominent in the Celtic cultures reaching to a coast of theAtlantic, from modern Spain to Ireland, and on both sides of theEnglish Channel.
Some very elaborately worked torcs with relief decoration in a late form ofLa Tène style have been found in Britain and Ireland, dating from roughly the 3rd to 1st centuries BC. There may be a connection with an older tradition in the British Isles of elaborate gold neckwear in the form ofgold lunulas, which seem centred on Ireland in theBronze Age, and later flat or curved wide collars; gold twisted ribbon torcs are found from both periods, but also imported styles such as the fused-buffer.[18] The most elaborate late Insular torcs are thick and often hollow, some with terminals forming a ring or loop. The most famous English example is the 1st-century BC multi-strandedelectrumSnettisham Torc found in northwesternNorfolk in England (illustrated),[19] while the single hollow torc in theBroighter Gold hoard, with relief decoration all round the hoop, is the finest example of this type from Ireland, also 1st century BC.[20] TheStirling Hoard, a rare find in Scotland of four gold torcs, two of them twisted ribbons, dating from the 3rd to 1st century BC, was discovered in September 2009.[21]
The RomanTitus Manlius in 361 BC challenged a Gaul to single combat, killed him, and then took his torc. Because he always wore it, he received the nicknameTorquatus (the one who wears a torc),[23] and it was adopted by his family. After this, Romans adopted the torc as a decoration for distinguished soldiers and elite units duringRepublican times. A few Roman torcs have been discovered.[24]Pliny the Elder records that after a battle in 386 BC (long before his lifetime) the Romans recovered 183 torcs from the Celtic dead, and similar booty is mentioned by other authors.[10]
It is not clear whether theGallo-Roman "Warrior of Vacheres", a sculpture of a soldier in Roman military dress, wears a torc as part of his Roman uniform or as a reflection of his Celtic background.Quintilian says that theEmperor Augustus was presented byGauls with a gold torc weighing 100Roman pounds (nearly 33 kilograms or 73 pounds),[10] far too heavy to wear. A torc from the 1st century BCWinchester Hoard, is broadly in Celtic style but uses the Roman technique of laced gold wire, suggesting it may have been a "diplomatic gift" from a Roman to a British tribal king.[25][26]
A very late example of a torc used as ceremonial item in early Medieval Wales can be found in the writings ofGerald of Wales. The author wrote that there still existed a certain royal torc that had once been worn by PrinceCynog ap Brychan ofBrycheiniog (fl. 492 AD) and was known as Saint Kynauc's Collar. Gerald encountered and described this relic first-hand while travelling throughWales in 1188. Of it he says, "it is most like to gold in weight, nature, and colour; it is in four pieces wrought round, joined together artificially, and clefted as it were in the middle, with a dog's head, the teeth standing outward; it is esteemed by the inhabitants so powerful a relic, that no man dares swear falsely when it is laid before him."[27] It is possible that this torc long pre-dated the reign of Prince Cynog and was a much earlier relic that had been recycled during theBritish Dark Ages to be used as a symbol of royal authority. It is now lost.[citation needed]
There are mentions in medieval compilations ofIrish mythology; for example in theLebor Gabála Érenn (11th century)Elatha wore 5 golden torcs when meetingEriu.[28][29]
.jpg)
After theRoman conquest of Britain, from about 75 AD for a century or more, a different type called the "beaded torc" appears inRoman Britain, mainly in the northern "frontier" region, in two types, A with separate "beads" and B made in one piece. These are in copper alloy rather than precious metal, and evidently more widely spread in society than the elite Iron Age Celtic examples.[30]
Most Achaemenid torcs are thin single round bars with matching animal heads as the terminals, facing each other at the front. Some Early Celtic forms depart from the normal style of torc by lacking a break at the throat, and instead are heavily decorated at the continuous front, with animal elements and short rows of "balusters", rounded projections coming to a blunt point; these are seen both on the sculpted torc worn by the stone "Glauberg Warrior" and a gold torc (illustrated) found in the sameoppidum.
Later Celtic torcs nearly all return to having a break at the throat and strong emphasis on the two terminals. The Vix torc has two very finely made winged horses standing on fancy platforms projecting sideways just before the terminals, which are flattened balls under lions' feet. Like other elite Celtic pieces in the "orientalizing" style, the decoration shows Greek influence but not a classical style, and the piece may have been made by Greeks in the Celtic taste, or a "Graeco-Etruscan workshop", or by Celts with foreign training.[31]
Spiral ribbon torcs, usually with minimal terminals, continue a Bronze Age type and are found in theStirling Hoard from Scotland, and elsewhere:[32] "Although over 110 identifiable British [includes Ireland] ribbon torcs are known, the dating of these simple, flexible ornaments is elusive", perhaps indicating "a long-lived preference for ribbon torcs, which continued for over 1,000 years".[33] The terminals were often slightly flared plain round cylinders which were folded back to hook round each other to fasten the torc at the throat. Other Celtic torcs may use various ways of forming the hoop: plain or patterned round bars, two or more bars twisted together, thin round rods (or thick wire) wound round a core, or woven gold wire. A rarer type twists a single bar with an X profile.
Except in British looped terminals, the terminals of Iron Age torcs are usually formed separately. The "buffer" form of terminal was the most popular in finds from modern France and Germany, with some "fused buffer" types opening at the rear or sides. In both buffer types and those with projecting fringes of ornament, decoration in lowrelief often continues back round the hoop as far as the midpoint of the side view. In Iberian torcs thin gold bars are often wound round a core of base metal, with the rear section a single round section with a decorated surface.
The c. 150 torcs found in the lands of theIberian Celts ofGalicia favoured terminals ending in balls coming to a point or small buffer ("pears"), or a shape with a double moulding calledscotiae.[34] The pointed ball is also found in northern Italy, where the hoops often end by being turned back upon themselves so that the terminals face out to the sides, perhaps enabling closure by hooking round. Both of these mostly used plain round bars or thin rods wound round a core. In the terminals of British torcs loops or rings are common, and the main hoop may be two or more round bars twisted together, or several strands each made up of twisted wire. Decoration of the terminals in the finest examples is complex but all abstract. In these two types the hoop itself normally has no extra decoration, though the large torc in the IrishBroighter Gold hoard is decorated all round the hoop, the only Irish example decorated in this way.
.jpg)
.JPG)
![Ornate Iron Age neck collar from Lochar Moss in Dumfrieshire, Scotland (British Museum)[35]](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=https%3a%2f%2fen.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aLochar_Moss_Collar.JPG)
![Gallic Gold Torque,[36] Musée d'Aquitaine, Bordeaux](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=https%3a%2f%2fen.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aTr%25C3%25A9sor_de_Tayac_-_Torque_-_Mus%25C3%25A9e_d%2527Aquitaine_-_60.17.2.jpg)
