Completed November 2004
Background:
"Cassius Dio described Boudica as wearing a 'gold necklet' symbolising religious and political authority, while Strabo listed gold as a British export." "Almost 100 intact or virtually complete torcs are known to exist from Iron Age Britain." "There is over 30kg of bullion in the Snettisham Hoards - sufficient to pay a mercenary army of perhaps 6,000 men for a year or a Roman legion for five years."
"Evidence for working in precious metals is as thin as that for iron and bronze-working. Ingots and scrap were found at Snettisham, Norfolk, but no furnace debris, crucibles or tools. Fragmanets of fired clay moulds used in the production of metal pellets for stamping into coins occur in many important Late Iron age settlements."
It is unknown if these pieces were made in Iron Age Britain or traded for, but they exist in relatively large numbers and are accepted as pieces worn by the "nobility" of the time.
Materials:
Period materials would have included gold. For economic reasons and ease of material bendability, I chose to use copper wire.
Construction:
I started by making the first terminal end. Nice easy round circles. I used a piece of pipe to accompish this. Then I started trying to evenly twist the two pieces together. As the copper was worked (and hardened) this became more difficult to do by hand. It also became difficult to keep the twists even. I did the second terminal by using the pipe.
Notes:
All quotes form the book noted below. The copper can be worked and hardened, however I need to find a better method of keeping my twists even (I did them freehand, without a vise or other tools).
Footnotes and Bibliography:
James, Simon & Valery Rigby, "Britain & Celtic Iron Age," British Museum Press, ©1997 p.22 (ISBN: 0-7141-2306-4)
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Figure 56
"Gold torcs buried together in the early first century BC at Ipswich, Suffolk. Five similar torcs were each made of two twisted solid gold bars. The relief decoration on the terminals divides into two (not quite identical) pairs. The torc with plain terminals was made of faceted bars which produces a particularly pleasing effect. The sixth and odd torc was made from two pairs of narrower gauge gold wire twisted together in two operations. Diam of wire torc 188mm." |
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