Women of the Rings One day during the month of December, Mark Hambleton and Joe Kania took a walk th
Women of the RingsOne day during the month of December, Mark Hambleton and Joe Kania took a walk through Staffordshire farmland with a metal detector in hand. They never expected to find what they stumbled upon that day!Buried underneath three feet of soil, Kania discovered four golden rings made from metal. The pieces turned out to be claimed as Iron Age gold torcs. Torcs are a type of jewelry worn around the neck and defined as large, stiff rings made from pure metal. Three of these necklaces were uncovered, along with what appears to be a bracelet. The two immediately handed over the artifacts to Portable Antiquities Scheme, part of Birmingham Museums, which manages voluntary recording of finds. Archaeologists went to investigate just how these objects ended up buried in such a random field not known for settlements or graves, yet they did not find any additional artifacts in the area.This collection has been named the Leekfrith Iron Age Torcs and are believed to be the earliest Iron Age goldwork ever discovered in Britain. According to experts, the torcs were most likely created in present-day Germany or France some 2,500 years ago.Dr. Julia Farley, curator of British & European Iron Age collections for the British Museum stated, “The torcs were probably worn by wealthy and powerful women, perhaps people from the continent who had married into the local community.“This planet we walk on every day holds so many secrets in so many places, probably more than we can even imagine!–MiSources & Image Credit – http://bit.ly/2mje8I2 http://bit.ly/2lEv9sD__ -- source link
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