Bronze Age Gold from Wales
Middle Bronze Age gold bar torc
This is a roughly circular torc or neck-ring, coiled three and a half times. It survives incomplete and in two pieces. The bar is circular in cross-section and plain, lacking any twisting seen on the other three torcs in the hoard. One complete hooked terminal survives, which is plain and circular in cross-section; this was soldered onto the main bar and tapers from the join before expanding towards a flat end. The torc has a break through the bar towards the surviving terminal. This break occurred in 1954, soon after the discovery of the torc. The other terminal has broken just above the hook bend; this break seems to be ancient and appears to be clipped or pinched.
Gold bar torc shaped as an armlet. 1300-1150 BCE.
Project Title: Gold in Britain’s auriferous regions, 2450-800 BC: towards a coherent Research Framework and Strategy. Status: Arts & Humanities Research Council (AHRC) Network Grant funded project (2018-2019)
WA_SC 18.1
Collection Area
Item Number
Find Information
Site Name: Talwrn Farm, Llanwrthwl
Notes: Hoard. The hoard was found on/around 21st February 1954 in a field of pasture known as Cae-gwyllt Bank, belonging to Talwrn Farm. Two farm workers were clearing the field of stones for ploughing and found a large stone on its side weighing approximately 100kg, below which was a heap of small stones. Under one of these stones were two torcs of different sizes, and below these was another small stone, which covered a further two torcs. The findspot was near the southern corner of the field on a south-east slope in the Wye river valley. The presence of a possible marker stone, and careful concealment of the torcs, may imply these torcs were buried with the intention of recovery, or for safe keeping. Four years later a Middle Bronze Age gold ring was found about a mile and a half away.
Acquisition
Measurements
Material
Location
Collections Online is updated regularly, but please confirm that an object remains on display before making a special visit.