by Tess Machling & Roland Williamson
Gold is a very unusual material. Created by supernovae, and deposited on earth by asteroids, it is a finite resource. Estimates suggest that the total amount of gold mined to date is around 190,000 metric tons: but due to the density of the material (it is denser than lead) this would create a single cube …
Continue reading "No goldfinches were harmed in the making of this blog….."
When we look at torcs, the first stage of analysis usually involves photos. We have a lot of photos: my Kindle Fire currently contains about 6000 of them, cribbed from websites and online catalogues, or taken by Roll and myself. That's a lot of pics. By going through these photos on a regular basis we …
Prehistoric goldworkers of any period exploited a variety of techniques to create torcs. There are a number of torcs which are in their rawest form just a torc – a generally round-section rod bent to make a neck ring and fitted out with the simplest of terminals. These range in type from the bar torcs …
Background: In May 1996, a metal detectorist working fields close to Stowmarket found a fragment of gold from a torus torc terminal. The field has been walked and detected regularly over the years and no other Iron Age material has been found in this location. The exact find spot is known and recorded, but …
Snettisham inevitably - being the largest collection of torcs and torc pieces ever found and with the Great torc to the fore - tends to dominate the Iron Age torc world. It should not, however, be forgotten that there are upwards of fifty other torcs represented in other parts of Britain, when incomplete examples, or …
I grew up in a household with not much money. This inevitably resulted in a lot of making, repurposing and repairing. We barely ever employed people to fix things and instead my dad repaired cars and rooves, painted rooms and windows and fixed electrical things. My mum baked, cooked, bottled and darned and created worlds …
I created this illustration for a paper we've got coming out very soon, but it was too good not to do this to it. If IKEA made torcs.....
Part of the reason to commit our thoughts to ‘paper’ on the subject of torcs was that we have rather different approaches to the research to many in the field. I have a very much hands on approach which is tantalisingly difficult to achieve as you can’t really be too investigative with these delicate items! …
One of the greatest dangers in the study of torcs is that you very soon start to see torcs everywhere. Be it online, or in your local high street, they are ever present. You could, for example, be walking down the street when you see an innocuous sign for a door knocker, but think it’s …
My personal introduction to torcs (apart from the casual wow factor at seeing them in the flesh, albeit behind glass at the British Museum) started in 2005 with an enquiry by Norwich Castle Museum, and its curator Tim Pestell. They were due to have an exhibition of a number of new and wonderful detectorist finds …
The Big Book of Torcs 