Dr Tess MachlingNov 25, 2022

We don't often get to see individual people in prehistory, but these 3 #torcs were made or finished by same person, 2300 years ago!

Tiny punched tool marks look random, but this person has a very specific way of working & deco patterns that they use & we've now seen this on 3 torcs from very different places!

This means 3 torcs must have been made within 30-40 years of each other, within the lifetime of a single maker - a person that we now know by the way they decorated torcs.

#Archaeology

Show threadHerstory1
@tess_machling 2300 years old that’s amazing! Do you know what they were used for/symbolised?
Nov 26, 2022 at 5:46amWeb
Show threadDr Tess MachlingNov 26, 2022

@Herstory1 that's one of the big questions! That they're found all over Europe in one form or another suggests a linked meaning, despite regional differences. The Romans used them in iconography to identify Celts/Gauls/those not-Roman suggests torcs were an identifier.

My feeling? They're a kind of family/group/community symbol. I don't think everyone had one (especially not in gold) & I think they were hugely important in Iron Age society.