#Torcs
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tessmachling.bsky.social
A guest blog, which adds more detail to the narrative of detecting in England & Wales.

Thank you to my anonymous colleague for writing this important piece & for allowing me to host it on the Big Book of Torcs! 😊

#Archaeology #Detecting #Torcs #gold #Treasure

bigbookoftorcs.com/2025/11/08/w...
“Who Pays for the Hobby?”: Metal Detecting in England and Wales
[A download/print PDF version can be found at the end of the paper] This is a first for The Big Book of Torcs. Today, I open up BBoT to a guest blog, written by a friend and archaeological colleagu…
bigbookoftorcs.com
November 8, 2025 at 6:32 AM
chapps.bsky.social
An idea for your Christmas tree this year - stacks of Celtic gold torcs! Known as the Ipswitch Torcs after the location where their hoard was found, the terminals are decorated in the swirly La Tène style (Tène II), save the top one which is unadorned. 🎄🏺 1/

150-50 BCE. 📸 me
#BritishMuseum
A stack of five gold torcs against a green background. All were made from two twisted solid bars, with loop terminals cast on. Four (1969,0103.2-5) have cast terminals ornamented in high relief with Tène II style curvilinear motifs of bosses and scrolls, within a border of two corded bands lying slightly apart; they can be paired but their patterns are not identical. The fifth - at top (1969,0103.1) - has plain terminals. These torcs were probably deposited together as a hoard around 75 BCE.
November 8, 2025 at 5:27 PM
chapps.bsky.social
I should have tagged @tessmachling.bsky.social, as she's seen (many times, undoubtedly) and studied these torcs for years. I really never get tired of seeing them, and I'm fascinated to see torcs represented on Celts in Roman art (which I'll be featuring next).
November 8, 2025 at 5:38 PM
tessmachling.bsky.social
Over the last couple of years, I have become increasingly interested in the politics of torcs, gold and 'treasure'.

If you want to read my ongoing thoughts on this, you can find everything here.

Thank you for reading... 😊

#Archaeology #Torcs #Gold #Detecting

bigbookoftorcs.com/who-owns-tor...
Who ‘owns’ Torcs?
These papers look at who owns, or believes they own, our shared national heritage – be that the artefacts themselves or the research that stems from them. In these, I look at some of the issu…
bigbookoftorcs.com
November 7, 2025 at 7:46 AM
chapps.bsky.social
More information about these torcs can be found on my Flickr account, or on the British Museum website. 🏺 2/

flic.kr/p/2rzJfUj
The Ipswich Torcs
Five gold torcs (which came to be known as the 'Ipswich Torcs') were found together near Ipswich, Suffolk. All were made from two twisted solid bars, with loop terminals cast on. Four (1969,0103.2-5) ...
flic.kr
November 8, 2025 at 5:27 PM
moleymole.bsky.social
Don’t joke - devastating to think recent theft of torcs from Ely (2024) and St Fagans (2025) seem unlikey to make it as far as any tree. [ @tessmachling.bsky.social I assume they’ve not been recovered - when searching all I could find was an energy drink 🤬 ]
November 8, 2025 at 8:36 PM
tessmachling.bsky.social
Honestly. We all need to read this. The amount of money apparently being spent, which could instead be being invested in our museum services is horrific.

Next figures from DCMS/PAS are due in the next month or two. How bad will they be?

#Archaeology 🏺 #Torcs #Detecting
November 5, 2025 at 8:29 AM
tessmachling.bsky.social
This it almost as good as Boudica: Queen of War where our gal Boudica can be seen wearing a British Museum shop pendant...
Boudica wearing a modern torc terminal pendant necklace (where it came from is one of the - very much complete - Ipswich gold torcs)
October 31, 2025 at 8:45 PM
tessmachling.bsky.social
Ok, in advance of another blog I'm in the process of writing about a few things that have been bothering me (😇) I thought it might be good to put all the other torc 'politics' stuff on one page in Big Book of Torcs.

So here it is...

bigbookoftorcs.com/who-owns-tor...

#Archaeology 🏺
Who ‘owns’ Torcs?
These papers look at who owns, or believes they own, our shared national heritage – be that the artefacts themselves or the research that stems from them. In these, I look at some of the issu…
bigbookoftorcs.com
October 24, 2025 at 5:14 PM
tessmachling.bsky.social
On this day in history... 🤣🤣🤣

@theduncanmackay.bsky.social !
A tweet from Duncan: Duncan Mackay @theDuncanMackay Ok, stick with me here... One for the fellow Snettisham nerds Just watched a brilliant YouTube video on gold torcs by @Tess_Machling and this flashed into my mind... TUBULAR TORCS by Mike GOLDFIELD Thank you very much, I'm here all week!
October 15, 2025 at 6:14 AM
tdesseyn.bsky.social
the @torc.dev vlog is baccckkkkkk!! this highlights our time at @commityourcode.bsky.social in dallas! unreal event put on by @dthompsondev.bsky.social that really aligns with torcs mission of being community first. BIG thanks to our community and ambassadors ♥️♥️

youtu.be/vO30Yx7dEtU?...
building the brand: one year later. building something out of nothing. | ep. 23
YouTube video by taylor desseyn
youtu.be
October 13, 2025 at 1:06 PM
grb090423.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
RE: https://mastodon.social/@potterybyosa/115351726280599224

This pot is so beautiful and very beautifully made... but all I see are wonderful dummy rivets! @tess_machling 🙂

#torcs
potterybyosa.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy Pottery by Osa @potterybyosa.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · Oct 10
Still warm from the kiln, covered in warm earth tones—I’m so relieved this piece came out successfully on the other side of firing. I worked on it over the course of a month and remembered to document moments of process which I think I’ll share in a thread […]

[Original post on mastodon.social]
Me standing in my back yard holding a large pot in front of me with both hands. It borrows its spherical form from Nigerian water vessels and has a short, flared neck. It is about 16” (40cm) in diameter and 14” (36cm) in height. The pot has been divided laterally into six parts and each section has been decorated with carved lines in alternating patterns: a symmetrical abstract leaf motif and a large double diamond pattern. The colors are dark brick red, olive green, dark purplish brown, dusky pink and aqua. The interior is glazed glossy aqua to reference the water this form would historically have contained. Behind me is dense foliage and small blue patch of sky. I am smiling and wearing a black and white top and red paints, only partially visible from behind the large pot.
October 11, 2025 at 5:30 AM
tessmachling.bsky.social
My thoughts...

#Archaeology 🏺 #Gold #Torcs #Robbery

bigbookoftorcs.com/2025/10/07/s...
Solid-gold rant incoming…
by Tess Machling [A download/print PDF version can be found at the end of the paper] Before I go any further, I want to state that the theft and destruction of heritage across the world is not unco…
bigbookoftorcs.com
October 7, 2025 at 1:44 PM
moleymole.bsky.social
Hope they are recovered quickly - it’s like the Welsh Crown Jewels. [I’ve not sent this pic until now. Last time I went I was spellbound. I wanted to say how delicate and vulnerable the displays looked, but decided against sending this as it looked more like an open invitation to Feathers McGraw!🫣]
Plushy mole looking at spiral gold torcs in a museum glass display case at NMW SF.(own photo but with photoshopped reflection) Card reads (auto scan text): Llanwrthwl Breichdlysau ywr torchau aur hyn o Ganol Oes yr Etydd. Cafwyd hyd iddynt ar Fferm Talwn ger, Llanwrthwl, ardal Rhaeadr Gwy. 1300-1150 CC The Lanwrthwl Hoard These Middle Bronze Age gold torcs were worn as armlets. They were discovered at Talwrn Farm, near Lanwithwi, mid-Wales. 1300-1150 BCE
October 7, 2025 at 9:13 PM
tessmachling.bsky.social
Awful news! Following the theft of the Ely Bronze Age torc & a Bronze Age bracelet in 2024,now more Bronze Age gold has been stolen from St Fagans Museum in Cardiff. 😔

#Archaeology 🏺 #Gold #Torcs

www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...
Bronze age gold jewellery stolen in raid on St Fagans museum in Cardiff
South Wales police issue public appeal for information after burglary at one of Wales’s most beloved museums
www.theguardian.com
October 6, 2025 at 6:04 PM
#findsfriday: Top: gold ribbon torc from Rosgarran, Co. Derry, and Carrowmore, Co. Sligo, c. 300-100 B.C.
Source: Museum of Archaeology, Dublin
Gold ribbon torcs from Rosgarran (top), Co. Derry, and Carrowmore, Co. Sligo, c. 300-100 B.C.
October 3, 2025 at 6:01 PM
tessmachling.bsky.social
I'm well overdue a BM rant, so here we go again folks, sorry!.

But, if they can't get it right for one of the most important - and most examined - torcs that have ever been found on these islands (the Snettisham Grotesque torc) what hope have we got for anything else???

#Archaeology 🏺
1/5
September 30, 2025 at 8:35 AM
tessmachling.bsky.social
Contemplating the Japanese uchidashi exterior #gold working technique (to create 3D relief) & thinking about the highly 3D decorated Broighter torc from Ireland - which very much looks like it's been knocked back from a wider, undecorated tubular torc like those from Snettisham... 🤔

#Archaeology 🏺
The highly decorated Broighter torc One of the 'plain' wider neck tube Snettisham tubular torcs.
September 28, 2025 at 11:23 AM
tanaquil-optima.bsky.social
One of my fav torcs.
chapps.bsky.social Chapps @chapps.bsky.social · Sep 22
One torc in the collection of the #BritishMuseum stands far above the others: the Snettisham Great Torc. Eight topes of twisted gold alloy threads are capped with large ornamented hollow terminals. Found by farmers in a field in Snettisham, Norfolk, in 1950. 🏺 1/

Iron Age, 150-50 BCE.
📸 me
Gold alloy torc with ornamented terminals. The torc is made from just over a kilogram of gold mixed with silver. It is made from sixty-four threads. Each thread is 1.9mm wide. Eight threads were twisted together at a time to make eight separate ropes of metal. These were then twisted around each to make the final torc. The ends of the torc were cast in moulds. The hollow ends were then welded onto the ropes. The terminals are ornamented with embossed ridges, contrasting with areas filled by chased 'basket-work'. This torc (metal neck-ring) was discovered in 1950, by farmers ploughing in a field near the village of Snettisham. The site is on the north-west coast of Norfolk, overlooking the Wash. Later, many hoards of Iron Age torcs were found at this site. This torc was one of the early finds, and at the time the most impressive, and so it is conventionally referred to as “The Snettisham Great Torc”. This torc is one of the most elaborate golden objects from the ancient world. It is made from an alloy of gold, silver and copper, and weighs over 1 kg. The neck-ring is made from 64 wires in eight separate coils. The ends are elaborately decorated with swirling motifs. British Museum (1951,0402.2)
September 22, 2025 at 9:26 PM
chapps.bsky.social
One torc in the collection of the #BritishMuseum stands far above the others: the Snettisham Great Torc. Eight topes of twisted gold alloy threads are capped with large ornamented hollow terminals. Found by farmers in a field in Snettisham, Norfolk, in 1950. 🏺 1/

Iron Age, 150-50 BCE.
📸 me
Gold alloy torc with ornamented terminals. The torc is made from just over a kilogram of gold mixed with silver. It is made from sixty-four threads. Each thread is 1.9mm wide. Eight threads were twisted together at a time to make eight separate ropes of metal. These were then twisted around each to make the final torc. The ends of the torc were cast in moulds. The hollow ends were then welded onto the ropes. The terminals are ornamented with embossed ridges, contrasting with areas filled by chased 'basket-work'. This torc (metal neck-ring) was discovered in 1950, by farmers ploughing in a field near the village of Snettisham. The site is on the north-west coast of Norfolk, overlooking the Wash. Later, many hoards of Iron Age torcs were found at this site. This torc was one of the early finds, and at the time the most impressive, and so it is conventionally referred to as “The Snettisham Great Torc”. This torc is one of the most elaborate golden objects from the ancient world. It is made from an alloy of gold, silver and copper, and weighs over 1 kg. The neck-ring is made from 64 wires in eight separate coils. The ends are elaborately decorated with swirling motifs. British Museum (1951,0402.2)
September 22, 2025 at 11:27 AM
tessmachling.bsky.social
Really enjoyed this - gorgeous finds, really good lighting, insights into treasure, Viking hoards that haven't been seen together & stupidly chunky Ysceifiog #torc which hasn't been previously displayed...!!

Do go! 👇

www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/whatson/muse...

#Archaeology 🏺 #Gold #Vikings #Torcs
The gold Burnley torc The Ysceifiog bronze age torc. This thing is HUGE. The neck ring is so thick. Three silver arm rings grim the Silverdale Viking hoard, nested inside each other. Three silver bracelets from the Silverdale viking hoard.
September 11, 2025 at 9:51 PM
tessmachling.bsky.social
I'm really lucky to have been invited to tonight's preview of this fabulous exhibition.

Torcs AND Vikings... and so much more! Should be fun! ❤️

Exhibition opens on Saturday & you can book tickets here: www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/whatson/muse...

#Archaeology #Gold #Treasure #Vikings #IronAge 🏺
Poster for the exhibition showing a viking arm ring, bronze age axe head iron age coins etc as if just unearthed in the ground. The wording: Treasure History Unearthed Open from 13 September 2025 Museum of Liverpool Pier Head Liverpool L3 1DG Book tickets now
September 11, 2025 at 6:18 AM
tessmachling.bsky.social
Yay..... straight in talking about weights - how a few artefacts (in this case torcs) can take up a huge proportion of the precious metal weights for a period.
November 25, 2024 at 6:28 AM
tessmachling.bsky.social
Part 6, the Needwood Forest torc. A really pretty one with some really beautifully achieved elements.

#Staffs="/hashtag/StaffsTorcOdyssey" class="hover:underline text-blue-600 dark:text-sky-400 no-card-link">#StaffsTorcOdyssey #Torcs #Gold #Staffs #Archaeology

https://bigbookoftorcs.com/2024/06/03/the-staffordshire-torc-odyssey-6-needwood-forest/
The Staffordshire Torc Odyssey: 6 Needwood Forest
Welcome back! Today is the fifth, and final, torc in this...
bigbookoftorcs.com
November 23, 2024 at 12:55 PM
turnedtofire.bsky.social
And that's how I found out there's a whole site about torcs. Sometimes I really love the internet!
March 17, 2025 at 8:09 PM