- Museum number
- ML.1714
- Description
-
Copper alloy torc in two sections with an openwork design of arcs and rings appended to the circumference on the front. Mortice-and-tenon fastening. Apparently two mortice-and-tenon joints, and a movable length of torc (as ML.1621). The surviving tenon is an iron peg in good condition; and considerable iron corrosion at a break at the back of the torc suggests the position of a second, broken iron tenon.
- Production date
- 350 BC - 250 BC (circa)
- Dimensions
-
Diameter: 6.50 millimetres (cross-section neck ring)
-
Diameter: 139.50 millimetres
-
Weight: 103 grammes (main section)
-
Weight: 24 grammes (short section)
-
Weight: 127 grammes (total)
- Curator's comments
- Stead and Rigby 1999
Context: Torcs with mortice-and-tenon fastenings
1. With an openwork design of arcs and rings appended to the circumference on the front; always with three spheres, one in the centre and one at each end (Fig. 2, type Z). Often classified as a variety of ‘torque ternaire’, e.g. Favret, P.-M. and Prieur, J., 1950, Les torques ternaries de La Tène I en Champagne, ‘Revue archéologique de l’est et du centre-est’ (I), 11-21, their distribution is concentrated in the southern part of Champagne. There are several in the vicinity of Sens (Hure, A., 1931, ‘Le Sénonais aux âge du bronze et du fer’ Sens, figs 145, 146, 197, 264, 309, 351, 353, and 354), and others in the Aube Département (Le Clert, L., 1898, ‘Musée de Troyes: Bronzes, catalogue descriptif et raisonné’ Troyes, 157, pl. xliii, no. 520, with mention of another) and the south of the Marne Département (ibid., pl. lviii, no. 775; also from Corroy 'St-Mard' grave 16 [Charpy, J.-J., and Roualet, P., 1991, ‘Les Celtes en Champagne’ (exh. cat., Epernay, 23/6 - 3/11/1991), no. 209] and another from Corroy [Bretz-Mahler, D., 1971, ‘La civilisation de La Tène en Champagne (Gallia, supplément, 23), pl. 56, 1]; Morel's two from Pleurs; and one from Sogny grave 5). There are a few north of the River Marne: e.g. La Croix-en-Champagne (Bretz-Mahler 1971, pl. 56, 5), Caurel (ibid., pl. 56, 6); the torc illustrated ibid. pl. 56, 4 is not from the Moreau Collection (= Département Aisne) but from Beaulieu, Nogent-sur-Seine, Aube (Joffroy, R., and Thénot, A., 1976, La Nécropole de Beaulieu à Nogent-sur-Seine (Aube) ‘Antiquités Nationales’ (8), 46, pl. xi, 1). Associated with Dux brooches, La Tène Ib, in Sogny grave 5 and Corroy 'St-Mard' grave 16.
Bibliography: Morel, L., 1898, ‘La Champagne souterraine’ Reims, pl. 38, fig. 3; Smith, R.A., 1925, ‘A guide to the antiquities of the Early Iron Age’ (second edition), London, fig. 60, 3.
- Location
- On display (G50/dc13)
- Exhibition history
-
Exhibited:
2016 11 Mar-25 Sep, Edinburgh, National Museum of Scotland, 'Celts'
- Department
- Britain, Europe and Prehistory
- Registration number
- ML.1714
