Origins
The torc first appears in Scythian art from the Early Iron Age, introduced to Celtic Europe around 500 BC (see also Thraco-Cimmerian). An early Scythian torc is part of the Pereshchepina hoard of the 7th century BC. Later examples are found in the Tolstaya burial and the Karagodeuashk kurgan (Kuban area), both dating to the 4th century BC.
It also has predecessors in gold necklaces of the European Bronze Age, which are sometimes also called "torcs", for example, the three 12th–11th-century BC specimens found at Tiers Cross, Pembrokeshire, Wales, and the Milton Keynes Hoard, which contained two large examples.
One of the earliest known depictions of a torc can be found on the Warrior of Hirschlanden (6th century BC). The famous Hellenistic/Roman sculpture The Dying Gaul also wears one.
Read more about this topic: Torc
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