triangular stamped ornaments with pellets, was found at Halton Moor with coins of Canute[1].
Saxon Torques of Silver, Details of Clasp.
This torques is evidently to be referred to the Saxon or Danish period, from the character of the art, the punched ornament being unknown to Roman works of the kind, and certainly not seen on any of those solid torques or armillæ which can be decidedly referred to the Celtic races. On the Scandinavian antiquities found at Christiana[2], and on the various specimens of armlets and other objects found at Cuerdale, such a mode of ornamentation is common.
Torques Brachialis. In describing the ordinary funicular torques, mention has been made of some of a diameter so large as to allow of their passing round the waist; a much rarer variety of this type is when the torques was adapted for the thick of the arm, by twisting it into a spiral, with one hook at each end. It seems a later adaptation, as if by a race wearing armillæ or making their torques for the neck into a trophy. There are three examples[3] of this type: two found in excavating for a cottage, in 1831, between Egerton and Hampton, in the parish of Malpas, county of Chester, on the estate of Sir Philip Egerton. They are of native gold; one is perfect, and of the value of 29l. 5s., it is engraved in the Archæologia; the other, which is broken, and of slighter proportions, is worth 11l. 7s. 6d. The third is in the possession of the Cambridge Antiquarian Society, and was found at Trumpington.
This species of torques was given as a military honour; it is as a reward of military ambition that Aurelian speaks of it in his letters[4]. Similar armlets occur among the Scandinavian remains[5].
Annular torques. I would apply the term annular torques to those in which a number of rings have been twisted or placed on a string. They are of much rarer occurrence than the solid or funicular, and generally of more recent origin.
- ↑ Ibid., vol. xviii. p. 202. A similar gold ornament, apparently an ear-ring, belongs to Mr. Whincopp, of Woodbridge, Suffolk.
- ↑ Society of Northern Antiquaries, viii. 2, 3.
- ↑ Archæol., vol. xxvi. p. 47.
- ↑ Vopiscus, vit. Aurel. c. 7.
- ↑ Cf. one engraved. Sjöberg Samlingar fur Nordens fornalskare, tom. ij. 4to. Stockholm, 1824. Pl. 43, 44. fig. 146.
