The Ourense Torcs are a pair of
Iron Age
The Iron Age is the final epoch of the three-age division of the prehistory and protohistory of humanity. It was preceded by the Stone Age (Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic) and the Bronze Age ( Chalcolithic). The concept has been mostly ap ...
gold
torc
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 had hook and ring closures and a few had ...
neck rings found near
Ourense
Ourense (; es, Orense ) is a city and capital of the province of Ourense, located in the autonomous community of Galicia, northwestern Spain. It is on the Camino Sanabrés path of the Way of St James (Camino de Santiago), and is crossed by t ...
in Northwest Spain in the 1950s. They were acquired by the
British Museum
The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It documen ...
in 1960.
Discovery
The exact find spot of the two
neck rings has never been confirmed but experts have determined, based on the shape and design of the torcs, that they originate from Ourense in the province of
Galicia near the Spanish/Portuguese
border
Borders are usually defined as geographical boundaries, imposed either by features such as oceans and terrain, or by political entities such as governments, sovereign states, federated states, and other subnational entities. Political borders ca ...
.
Description
The two gold
torc
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 had hook and ring closures and a few had ...
s are nearly identical with double
reel
A reel is an object around which a length of another material (usually long and flexible) is wound for storage (usually hose are wound around a reel). Generally a reel has a cylindrical core (known as a '' spool'') with flanges around the ends ...
-shaped terminals and circular body. The terminals have a large tapered central depression, with
embossed ornamentation around the edge. Their
Celtic
Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to:
Language and ethnicity
*pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia
**Celts (modern)
*Celtic languages
**Proto-Celtic language
*Celtic music
*Celtic nations
Sports Foo ...
design is characteristic of the torcs produced in Galicia and northern Portugal, in the
Iberian Peninsula
The Iberian Peninsula (),
**
* Aragonese and Occitan: ''Peninsula Iberica''
**
**
* french: Péninsule Ibérique
* mwl, Península Eibérica
* eu, Iberiar penintsula also known as Iberia, is a peninsula in southwestern Europe, defi ...
.
See also
*
Castro Culture
Castro culture ( gl, cultura castrexa, pt, cultura castreja, ast, cultura castriega, es, cultura castreña, meaning "culture of the hillforts") is the archaeological term for the material culture of the northwestern regions of the Iberian Pe ...
*
Braganza Brooch
The Braganza Brooch is a gold ornamental fibula that was made in the third century BC by a Greek craftsman for a Celtic Iberian client. Since its discovery in unknown circumstances in the nineteenth century in Portugal, it has belonged to a varie ...
*
Cordoba Treasure
Gallery of Galician torcs
File:Ourivería. Torques, arracadas, doas de colar..jpg, Northern Galician torcs
File:Torque de Santa Tegra 1.JPG, Torc terminal from A Guarda, Galicia. Museo do Castro de St. Tegra
File:Galician celtic torc.jpg, Northern Gallaeci
The Gallaeci (also Callaeci or Callaici; grc, Καλλαϊκοί) were a Celtic tribal complex who inhabited Gallaecia, the north-western corner of Iberia, a region roughly corresponding to what is now the Norte Region in northern Portugal, a ...
torc (Artabri type with "pear" terminals), showing construction, and decoration of the hoop
File:Torques de Burela. Museo Provincial de Lugo.jpg, Torc from Burela, Galicia, with double moulding ''scotiae'' terminals, and hoop decoration. At 1.812 kilos, the heaviest Iberian torc.[González-Ruibal, "catalogue", fig. 33]
File:Galician warrior head.JPG, A Gallaecian warrior's head, wearing helmet and a torc
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 had hook and ring closures and a few had ...
. Museo Provincial de Ourense
Bibliography
*M. Lenerz-de Wilde, 'The Celts in Spain' in The Celtic World, London and New York, Routledge, 1995
*I. Stead, Celtic Art, British Museum Press, 1996
*Megaw Ruth and Vincent, Celtic Art: From Its Beginnings to the Book of Kells, 2001
References
{{reflist
Torcs
Ancient Celtic metalwork
Prehistoric objects in the British Museum
Gold objects
Ourense