torc
Sign in to savethumb|Bronze 4th-century BC buffer-type torc from France thumb|The Dying Gaul, a Roman statue with a torc in the [[Capitoline Museums in Rome]] A torc, also spelled torq or torque, is a large rigid or stiff neck 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 have mortice and tenon locking catches to close them. Many seem designed for near-permanent wear and would have been difficult to remove.
Article
9 sectionsContents
- Terminology and definition
- Bronze Age Europe and Asia
- Celtic torcs
- Romano-British beaded torcs
- Shapes and decoration
- Gallery
- See also
- Notes
- References
thumb|Bronze 4th-century BC buffer-type torc from France thumb|The Dying Gaul, a Roman statue with a torc in the [[Capitoline Museums in Rome]] A torc, also spelled torq or torque, is a large rigid or stiff neck 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 have mortice 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 in Scythian, Illyrian, Thracian, Celtic, and other cultures of the European 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 ancient Celtic art are torcs. Celtic torcs disappeared in the Migration Period, but during the Viking Age torc-style metal necklaces, mainly in silver, came back into fashion. Similar neck-rings are also part of the jewellery styles of various other cultures and periods.