9/19/23 Report - From Gold Celtic Torcs to Copper African Manillas: Hoards and Shipwreck Finds.

 

Written by the Treasureguide for the exclusive use of the Treasure Beaches Report.

Source: See CNN link below.

Two gold necklaces dating from around 2,500 years ago have been found by chance in northwestern Spain by a worker for a local water company.

Sergio Marciandi was working in Cavandi, Asturias, on August 29 when he spotted a gold necklace among some rocks...

Arias traveled to the scene along with experts from the Asturias Archaeological Museum and carried out an initial investigation, which uncovered a second necklace that had been broken into several pieces, he said.

“It’s really impressive,” said Arias, who added that the find could boost our understanding of the Iron Age, the period in which they were made.

While other gold necklaces from the Iron Age have been found, most were discovered in the 18th and 19th centuries, when limited archaeological techniques meant much of the information about their provenance was lost, Arias explained.

In this case, the site is intact, giving archaeologists a much better idea of their context, he added...

As things stand, the necklaces show signs of wear on areas that would have been in contact with the wearer’s skin and clothes...

Here is the link for more about that.

Spanish water worker finds ancient gold necklaces on hillside | CNN

So what is a torc (also spelled torq or torque)?

A Torc is a rigid neck or wrist ornament popular throughout Europe for a huge span of time dating back to the Bronze age. Derived from the Latin word ‘torquis’, meaning ‘to twist,’ the earliest torcs were crafted from twisted pieces of metal to form a rigid piece of jewelry with a small opening at one side. A few designs had hook and ring closures or interlocking catches to close them, but the torc style as it is known today typically has no clasp or catch.

The torc style of jewelry was popular among many groups of ancient peoples including the Norse and Vikings. But it was the Celts that seemed to be particularly enamoured with them, and they set the bar with some spectacularly decorative pieces, known to many as "Celtic Torcs," that survive and impress to this day...

A Viking silver horde containing numerous arm rings in a torc style found near Clew Bay in Co. Mayo in 1939...

Then there was also the Mooghaun hoard.

Discovered in marshy ground near Mooghaun lake in Co. Clare in 1854 by workers building a railway, this spectacular find weighed over 11lbs!  A treasure trove that would impress even the most experienced hunter. With over 150 golden ornaments including solid gold torcs for arms and necks and hammered golden collars, it remains one of the most spectacular finds on this island despite many of the objects being lost and melted down...

But not all broken Torcs were repaired or indeed passed down. Some seem to have been deliberately bent or broken and buried with their owners as grave goods. Torcs were such revered items that at least a few pieces also seem to have been made as offerings to Celtic Gods. The Broighter Collar along with the rest of the Broighter Horde was found in Derry beside the coast. Given the location of the find and the pieces in the horde, many have speculated that it represents an offering to a Celtic God of the Sea, Manannán mac Lir...

Here is the link for more about torcs.

The History of The Celtic Torc (myirishjeweler.com)

There are also torque-like objects called manilla used as money in Africa and often associated with the slave trade.  It is thought that in the early days indigenous Africans fashioned torques from spikes recovered from shipwrecks.

Source: face2faceAfrica. com (link below)

Manilla, copper bracelets and leg-bands, became the form of money that was used in West Africa, becoming the accepted form of exchange used predominantly during slavery among the Portuguese and later the British and French who came to Africa to trade...

Here is the link for much more about that.

Manilla: the money used during the slave trade in West Africa (face2faceafrica.com)

I posted the following in a previous post.

Odyssey Marine explored a shipwreck found at the Western Approaches to the English channel. the wreck, dated to circa 1660 - 1680, appears to be a merchant vessel of the Royal Africa Company. 36 iron cannon, a quantity of elephant tusks and copper bracelets were among the artifacts discovered on the site.

Manillas or Bochie

Bracelets Used As Money in West Africa Up To The 1940s.

Source: Odyssey Marine, Paper 23.

 West African exchange demanded enormous quantities of this form of currency. As early as 1504-07, just one trading station along the Guinea coast imported 287,813 manillas from Portugal (Davies, 2002: 47). In modern terms of monetary exchange they yielded high dividends. In 1505 a Portuguese merchant reported that at Calabar a large elephant tooth could be exchanged for one manilla and a slave purchased for eight to ten copper manillas (Einzig, 1949: 150-1; Johansson, 1967: 12)…

The Odyssey paper provides a detailed study of the wreck, including much damage by fishing trawlers and provides many pictures of the site and artifacts found on the site.

Here is the llink to the original Odyssey Marine study.

https://www.academia.edu/3597456/Neil_Cunningham_Dobson_and_Sean_A._Kingsley_A_Late_17th-Century_Armed_Merchant_Vessel_in_the_Western_Approaches_Site_35F_?email_work_card=title

I've found modern bracelets in the torq style, as well as at least a couple 1715 Fleet examples.  They were more of the torq rather than stocky manilla form.  

---

Nigel is the only thing in the Atlantic on the National Hurricane Center map now.  Looks kind of lonely out there after all the activity we've had lately.

Here is the cone for Nigel.

Source: nhc.noaa.gov.

And here is the surf chart for the Fort Pierce Inlet Area.

Surf Chart for the Fort Pierce Inlet Area.
Source: Surfguru.com.

The Vero area chart shows a little higher surf for Wednesday, but only a foot or so.

Good hunting,

Treasureguide@comcast.net