Northern Europe, Viking or Norse culture, ca. 800 to 1000 CE. A beautiful and wearable silver torc (also torque or torq) for someone with a thin neck composed of a single piece of thin rectangular silver that has been hammered flat at its terminals and twisted and incised in its center. Size: 6" W (15.2 cm)

A beautiful twist on the braided style so commonly seen in Viking jewelry. Incised lines at the two terminals make a feather-like pattern that calls to mind the end of an arrow. Small holes have been drilled in the terminals and may have been used with leather or string to make the torc more secure. Silver was the principal currency of the Viking world, which stretched from Russia to northern Canada at the height of their influence. In many places, the Vikings kept silver not as coins, but as jewelry, a wearable currency form that was not subject to the authority of a monarch or mint. One of the most common archaeological finds from the Viking period is a hoard of metal objects, often buried in the earth or deposited in bodies of water, like river beds. These are found in great quantities throughout the British Isles and the Nordic countries. What was the meaning of such hoards? Were they treasures buried for safe keeping, perhaps by people fleeing violence who did not wish to travel with heavy loads and who died or forgot before they could retrieve them? Or does their presence in rivers suggest votive deposits, gifts and offerings to spirits who lived in the water?

Provenance: Ex-Green collection, Castleford, UK

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#118286

Slight tarnish and bending to shape