The neck-ring or torque has been characterized as a major identifying feature of the Celt, both in representations by classical artists and sculptors, and in the archaeological literature. In some parts and in some periods of iron age Europe there were certainly large numbers of these ornaments being worn (or at least deposited, whether in graves or in potentially ritual contexts such as rivers or ‘hoards’); and there are representations, such as the head from Msecke Zehrovice or the male statue from Hirschlanden, which are likely to be the work of indigenous sculptors. It is therefore of some interest that in the Hallstatt period the neck-ring is not in widespread use, though it occurs in rich graves, often in gold, associated with both males and females.
The broad decorated band of gold worn round the neck by some incumbents of the ‘princely graves’ of later Hallstatt Europe has been characterized as a status symbol, and it is true that both female (e. g. Vlx, Reinheim) and male (e. g. Eberdingen-Hochdorf, La Motte d’Apremont) burials with these or similar neck-rings are amongst the most richly equipped inhumations of the Hallstatt world. Other burials may have hollow or solid, open or closed bronze rings, and there are rare instances of iron rings too.
In the La Tene period in many areas the gold or bronze neck-ring (often called a torque because some were made by twisting a rod or band of metal: the word has become a generic term for the neck-ring) did become a widespread form of personal adornment. There are chronological and apparently gender differences, however: in La Tene I the neck-rings, particularly those in bronze, are found mainly (though not exclusively) in female graves, whereas in La Tene II and III they are frequently in gold and, where associated with human remains at all, are largely (though again not exclusively) in male contexts. It is from this period onwards that many of the stone sculptures of male warriors or gods wearing buffer-ended neck-rings probably date.
The range of morphological and decorative types is very large indeed. Such rings may be closed (in some cases implying acquisition in infancy) or open, or may have a closing device such as a mortise-and-tenon joint, a hook and eye, a covering sleeve, or a complicated key-twist mechanism. They may be hollow or solid, twisted or smooth, with engraved linear and geometric decoration or cast ‘plastic’ relief decoration. Some have buffer terminals with curvilinear decoration around the buffers. One group found in south-west Germany, eastern France and the Swiss plateau cemeteries has coloured decoration in the form of discs (generally three or five, though and one and seven are known) of opaque red glass, sometimes alternating with cast bronze knots or lobes with deep-cut S - or spiral decoration filled with the same red substance. These disc-torques often occur in graves with matching fibulae (disc on foot) and disc-bracelets (with one to four discs). In other areas, for example elsewhere in Germany, northern France and Hungary, neck-rings of similar style were decorated with Mediterranean red coral enhanced by pins and small decorative plaques of gold.
In the later La Tene periods some tubular gold neck-rings are covered with wild rococo ornament that must have made them very uncomfortable to wear, and there are also large loop - and buffer-ended gold neck-rings with complex repousse or engraved decoration. To this latter group belong the famous Snettlsham torque from Suffolk and the Brolghter torque from Co. Offaly, Ireland, both of which were found In circumstances which may suggest votive offering or deliberate concealment. The Snettisham area has in recent years produced a large number of gold neck-rings of various types, again probably from deposits of ritual significance.
Necklaces made from a variety of bead types are known In both Hallstatt and La Tene periods. In some rich graves of the earlier period complex necklaces made of strands of beads held apart by spacers occur in jet, amber, bone and coral, as well as bronze and glass. Single-string necklaces have similar beads, often in combination. Glass beads Include blue ones with white zigzag decoration and yellow ones with blue and white ‘eyes’. Amber beads include large lathe-turned disc-shaped examples up to 6 cm across or more, and biconical beads of similar length. Coral beads may be spherical, or composite in a similar style to the pin-heads described above, and in some rare cases may be branches of coral longitudinally pierced.
A common combination in La Tene I, particularly in the Marne region of France, is of blue glass and coral beads, the latter being either spherical, or raw branches, occasionally with linear decoration to the stem. A wider range of glass beads, including pale green translucent examples, in La Tene I and II leads in La Tene III to polychrome ring-shaped beads of the type found at Stradonice (Bohemia).
World History
