By Steve Hynd
We blogged about the incredible Staffordshire Hoard when it was discovered back in September. Well, now another hoard of gold jewellry has been found, this time near my old alma mater of Stirling, in Scotland - and yet again, it was an amateur metal-detector using treasure hunter who found it. (H/t Kat)
The hoard dates to between 300 and 100 B.C. and is worth about 1 million UK pounds.
The find was in five pieces � three intact necklets and two fragments of another torc, all gold and silver alloy with a touch of copper. Two of the pieces are ribbon torcs, twisted carefully from sheet gold with flattened ends. These are Scottish or Irish in origin. The fragments are from a South-west French style annular torc, which would have been an enclosed circle with a hinge and catch.
But the piece that is really getting experts excited is a looped terminal torc with decorative ends, made from eight golden wires looped together and decorated with thin threads and chains. All the pieces date to between 300 and 100 BC.
The Stirling find appears to reveal links between local tribes � traditionally seen as isolated � and other Iron Age people in Europe.
...Dr Hunter added: �This will revolutionise the way Scotland's ancient inhabitants are viewed � it shows they were much less isolated than previously believed.� He added that the craftsmanship of the looped terminal torc showed it was made by smith who had learned his craft in the Mediterranean, but had combined it with the local style. He said: �It's a missing link. It's the first time we've seen one that combines these two styles.�
Ian Ralston, Professor of Archaeology at the University of Edinburgh, said: 'These two finds suggest tribes in what we think of as �Scotland� had rather wider links than archaeologists a generation ago would have expected. 'They knew what was going on elsewhere, valued similar things and emulated practice in burials or votives.'
Wonderful.
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