The Frasnes Hoard was accidentally unearthed in 1864 by foresters digging out the roots of a tree near

Frasnes-lez-Buissenal Frasnes-lez-Buissenal (, ) is a village of Wallonia and a district of the municipality of Frasnes-lez-Anvaing, located in the province of Hainaut, Belgium Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. S ...

in Hainaut, Belgium. The torcs and some other pieces are now in the

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art, colloquially referred to as the Met, is an Encyclopedic museum, encyclopedic art museum in New York City. By floor area, it is the List of largest museums, third-largest museum in the world and the List of larg ...

in New York. Along with at least eighty uninscribed coins of types often found in Gaul and Britain and associated with the Belgic tribes of

Morini The Morini (Gaulish language, Gaulish: 'sea folk, sailors') were a Belgae, Belgic coastal tribe dwelling in the modern Pas-de-Calais, Pas de Calais region, around present-day Boulogne-sur-Mer, during the La Tène culture, Iron Age and the Roman ...

and

Nervii The Nervii or Nervians were one of the most powerful Belgae, Belgic tribes of northern Gaul at the time of its conquest by Rome. Their territory corresponds to the central part of modern Belgium, including Brussels, and stretched southwards to C ...

, which were dated by John Evans to ca. 80 BC, the

hoard A hoard or "wealth deposit" is an archaeological term for a collection of valuable objects or artifacts, sometimes purposely buried in the ground, in which case it is sometimes also known as a cache. This would usually be with the intention of ...

discovered at Frasnes also contained two characteristically Gallic Late La Tène style 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 have hook and ring closures and a few hav ...

s, one plain with flattened-ball terminals, the other with repoussé decoration of a frontal bull's head among raised facetted scrolls some of which manifested a design repertory comparable to finds in Britain. The torc was constructed of sheet gold over an iron ring wrapped in a hard cement. There was also a ring "nearly in diameter",Evans 1864:97 too large in diameter to be a finger ring, yet too small to be a bracelet or armband; it had continuous granular ornament of globules of gold soldered together round into outer face.

Notes

{{reflist, 2 Treasure troves in Belgium Ancient Celtic metalwork Prehistoric sites in Belgium Torcs Metalwork in the Metropolitan Museum of Art Belgium–United States relations