Now you know how to make a torc, you might be wondering how you would actually wear it? Never fear, Julia has that topic covered too: blog.britishmuseum.org/how-do-you-put-on-a-torc/
The British Museum, I have something of a question if I may. Casting with wax and clay molds was explained a bit, instead of making the ingot of bronze or gold could they have simply used molds for making the wire instead of all the labor intensive hammering? I will check back later to see if this gets a reply, I've always loved these subjects but have never had the opportunity to work with museums.
Joshua Warchild PhD I do not have answers but copper and bronze(copper and tin) work harden quite rapidly.The only way to anneal is to heat past the triple point and then quench. The opposite of steel. No idea when wire drawing through a harder ( iron or steel) die was first thought of. Gold can be drawn,literally drawn by pulling as it is malleable and ductile, only superseded by platinum. Either way,the golden torque wire with attached finials represents mind boggling hours spent by some who were absolute masters of the metal. Described as iron age objects,so one thing learned by history is techniques have been invented,lost and relearned again and again. Probably simple techniques with simple tools used. The more primitive the technique, the greater the mastery is needed. Very possibly through some sort of die. Microscopic study of the wire might reveal clues.
... especially when they're thieves like the British Museum. I don't understand how passionate historians can reconcile their passion and not want items returned to their owners.
Thank you, Dr. Julia Farley, for your video. For those who are unfamiliar with metals such as gold, silver and copper and their alloys, metals have properties of ductility and malleability. Ductility refers to the metal’s ability to be elongated into wire. Malleability refers to the metal’s ability to be compressed into sheet. However hammering, forging, elongating and twisting produces considerable deformation stress in the metal which hardens it but can also crack due to excessive fatigue. Therefore in order to reduce the stress imparted by work hardening, the metal needs to be periodically annealed to soften the metal. Annealing is done by heating the metal to a high enough temperature and then allowing it to cool whereby stress is alleviated..
This series is priceless. So much passion from each and every curator indicates a culture at the British Museum that encourages young people to choose these fields.
I so enjoyed this, I am a fourth generation metal worker, whose ancestors came to Australia from Ireland 'in 1890 as blacksmiths and coach builders and in turn have developed a successful metal working business in Old Sydney town. I have long had a fascination for Celtic metalwork. Like you, I have studied many of these ancient Hallstatt and Le T'ene metal art pieces and have carved and Lost Wax cast pieces using modern equipment myself, in Silver and Bronze. You are so correct when you state that it can go wrong in so many ways. The work of many of these artisans who used the most simple primitive tools and materials is simply astounding. What you have described through your experience is a wonderful awakening and you present it well.
My life's work was in bronzesmithing and silversmithing. The skilled smith could hammer out wire as fine as that gold torc. I did lots of hammering heavy wire to six-sided and then twisting. I too have drawn out silver wire. But for gold wire as thick as that used in this torc, hammering out out would have been sufficient. It is amazing how after many years the hand holding the hammer knows just how to do this process. I wish I were in good enough health to continue.
@@mollyswan-sheeran2670 One of my greatest lamentations about artisans is all that knowledge, once transmitted physically onto /into objects, to create such beauty, is eventually lost. A lifetimes practise and honing is gone, or, as in your sounding situation, one is simply unable to continue. I empathise with you, as my failing sight makes drawing less possible. I guess that is part of what makes art so wonderful, is that it is not easily come by.
Oh 🤔I thought that was just a clever joke, but you are right, all she does is talk about it and describes how she made it. I wonder why they didn't film and show that part. A little disappointing really 🙁
I too think she is very good looking, but I have to admit the fact she is talking about something without sounding snobbish is why I am taking her seriously.
Yes, in the interest of historical accuracy, Julia should wear the torc the way the ancient Celtic warriors did. I.e. wear the torc....and nothing else.
Great talk, thank you! At 8:30 it's mentioned that the wire was hand hammered to get a uniform diameter and length. There must be some sort of sort of drawplate or wire pulling technique which ancient goldsmiths used, otherwise making it all by hand, hammering it to the desired length is just a mind boggling amount of work.
I have made a few bits of jewelry in silver....so i know making that torc in bronze would have been really hard work. Big shout to ya Girl for doing so, and highlighting the skill, time and effort it takes to craft something in this way. Respect to all at the British museum.
another knockout yes intelligent women Rock - farley is an irish last name, no ? one day those "celts" in The Perfid will be allowed to learn about the celts in iberia where the monuments Get A Roof. amazing torque she made.
The fine wire for the Snettisham torc would have had to been drawn to size through a series of smaller and smaller tapered holes in dies. There is quite simply no other way to do it without using grooved rollers, which without lathes and industry they can't have had. Without being drawn the wire simply would not be that even and smooth. Fullers probably were used for the initial reduction of the ingot to a size where it could be drawn. Art to some extent is driven by available materials, you just wouldn't even contemplate making a fine wire torc unless you had wire to play with. Which means there had to be a relatively easy process to make it. OK so that's just opinion, but opinion based on many years of metalwork. That's the way I would do it given Celtic technology. Is there any archeological evidence for drawing dies? Evidence like small semi precious stones such as agate with small tapered holes in them, perhaps misunderstood as beads?
You, friend, just demonstrated how important it is for traditional craftspeople to talk with archaeologists. There are indeed lots of Celtic beads such as you describe, in glass and stone. (www.jstor.org/stable/25506814?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents) As well as bronze plates that are assumed to be belt buckles, with a series of small holes in them that look awfully similar to modern draw plates to my eyes, and I'm not even a metalworker. It might not be out of line for you to email the museum.
Forgive my ignorance here, but I'm assuming once the metal had been forged out from the ingot into the basic wire form with I'm assuming a channel in an anvil/stone as described in the video. Would the wire then be fired up to working temp and fed through the drawing beads by hand? Or would those beads simply be for evening off braids of wire to uniformity? I'm not sure I get how without pressure rollers wire could be fashioned in enough quantity and quality to be a building component.
Captain Codpiece. pulling wire is a very very simple and quick process. you just pull the wire thru the hole and then thru series of smaller and smaller holes. in between you need to anneal the wire. the wire is pulled while its cold. just look up on youtube how to pull gold wire. I can pull several meters of gold wire within an hour.
was looking for that comment ... the guys back then werent stupid and I cant immagine that some crazy lord orders his 20 slaves to hammer around for a year instead of doing something actualy useful .... But ya only theories we have
I love that Julia did some smithing. Nice work, she has my respect. You can really appreciate a craft and understand it intimately if you experience it first hand. Sadly there are too many historians who never try this and only read about a subject in question. Living history is far more exciting and engaging.
Such a inviting session for the modern jewelry maker who really wants a challenge. So glad you approached this from the artisan view rather than the selfish wants of the noble or wealthy patrons who hired for these items. Duly impressed that your working knowledge has shown you the importance of many working to build a consistently beautiful device no matter its intend purpose by the user. Your comments of the hand worked wire to produce uniformity for each wire twisted, think you said 68, is an unusual observation when most look only upon the end finials that adorn this object. My thanks for sharing young lady.
Julia makes an excellent point about the value of direct experience in understanding physical objects. Actually trying to make something yourself without using modern techniques can reveal an enormous amount about the challenges faced by our forebears and how they dealt with those challenges. I'm interested in early music. When I was a small child almost all Baroque and Renaissance music was played on modern instruments. Since then, musicians have learnt a huge amount from playing replicas of old instruments that wasn't obvious from just the score on its own.
I, too, was fascinated with the artistry and complexity of some of the jewelry when I saw the King Tut exhibit decades ago in Seattle. I was especially taken with a very small piece showing a man sitting with his knees up, feet flat and hands on his knees. The detail blew me away. Tiny fingernails and toenails. Then I went to the gift shop where there was a replica and it wasn't even close to the original. It made me realize how much time and effort someone spent making the figurine.
Judging by the weight of learned previous comments, and drawing from long-made personal observations, I think scholars have long underestimated the raw human intelligence common to ours that existed in the past. They found ways to do things through experience and observation; the only mystery is how modern minds fail to acknowledge how much was known in the past. BTW, I have just discovered this series, it is awesome and a credit to both the Museum and British scholarship as a whole. I regret having only a day in the Museum while on a visit from NZ in "96. Oh well, I had to make room for the V & A as well!
Agreed! It's very easy to think of early humans as simple and ignorant, but over the years I've forced myself to think of them as far more in tune with the natural world than any of us.
Tena koe, I think the Neanderthals have got an awfully bad wrap too actually; they were running around a hellova lot longer than Homo Sapiens have managed-and WITHOUT fucking the planet up.
Fascinating and intelligently presented.With the final torc - not hours of work, but weeks, even months. This fine and intricate metalworking was introduced gradually from the continent, and one can only imagine how slowly the knowledge and skills were absorbed and established - and the status of the metal worker grew in importance in his local tribe or village. UA-cam at it`s best - wonderful video :)
And she's right! How did they become such fantastic craftsmen, with so little in way of tools and construction aides. Awe inspiring when we think process.
Wow! Thanks for helping me understand how these were made. I don't think I've ever fully appreciated the amount of work that goes into these. I would see things like these in the museums, give a passing glance, and continue on.
Fascinating! Particularly as the young lady gave it a go herself and explained her appreciation for how involved making one of these torcs is. As for how to make a Celtic torc, just tell them you follow Hibernain.
Just visited the British Museum a couple of weeks ago and was stunned by the sheer size of the collection, but even more by the craftsmanship of the ancient cultures. We have some Celtic relics over here n Bavaria as well, and there is a reproduction settlement close by where there was a fair lately where visitors could fiddle together some wire rings to produce a little chain-mail (I still use mine as a key-ring, or rather 47 key-rings). It only occurred to me afterwards that even though it seems to be a lot of effort to create a whole shirt this way, we still missed all the work that went into producing all that wire in the first place.
Wow! I feel l hit the jackpot with this Curator's Corner. I make jewellery and love Celtic jewellery and art so to see an explanation of how this torc was made was wonderful.
Craftsmanship is something even time cannot overcome sometimes! Your work was nice for your first. As an artist I suggest anyone and everyone try some. Then consider the labor and love that went into something you've created the next time you try to buy hand crafted items and not haggle for a cheaper price. Keeping this in mind as well. An artists best work is created when there mind and heart are at their lightest and full of pure good energy and blessings for its new owner.
This shows you the time in those days wasn't as precious as it is today.. people obviously had time to work on things like that and make them perfect.... especially in this mass produce world we live in.. everyone wants things now.. truly amazing workmanship...
The people who made the big torc must have been masters of metal working. And it makes you think what other things they must have made, and how many torcs they must have made, because the finished article is the pinnacle of torc making, they clearly knew everything about how to make them by the time that one was made.
After many years of admiring the ancient torcs of the Celts (I'm Welsh, so the history resonates) I could hardly believe my eyes when I went wandering the countryside villages of southern China some ten to 20 years ago and witnessed young women (Hmong nation) dressed in their traditional clothes, wearing torcs to market. Until recently, this was much more widespread, but China has changed so much, so quickly, I guess that already, they'd have stopped wearing such things to market. There is a lot of dressing up for tourists and folkloric shows these days - and tourists can dress up in the clothes for photos. There are extremely elaborate examples of Hmong silver torcs and other jewelry kept within families, and others made for sale.
For me the most fascinating part is not just the tremendous work to make an object so refined but the fact that you say it is not known how they where worn or exactly what they where used for! I can't help buy want to theorize a little. That thing looks sturdy enough to both hold up your toga or animal skin but also you would have a decent chance of surviving an attack to your neck from a sword. It would slide up the side and be stopped by the big knob at the top. All I can do is imagine the motion required buy it seems like standing face on it would be nearly impossible to hack a person's head off until you removed the thing.
Very interesting. Torcs come in various styles, and from various Celtic tribes. Their purpose has been controversial, but I believe they provided the wearer protection against a weapon attack upon their neck. The weapon, generally a sword would have to be parallel to the torc to pierce the neck, otherwise the torc would block the striking weapon . The torc would also provide protection against an animal attack upon the neck, but this would be a less important use, although the Roman's used attack dogs in some battles. I purchased some ancient bronze torcs at major European auctions about 25 years ago, and there is significant variance amongst them.
Wise deduction, I agree - neck protection, and they may have taken on a desire for apparel context - thus becoming a product that could be purchased for vanity purposes. Would like to view photos of your collection, if you have them on any public media - please provide a link. Thanks
That's an interesting idea, but I don't see how that could protect someones neck from a blow from a sword. I think its a bit of a far-fetched conclusion but it could be plausible.
I've loved them since the first one i saw. They are fascinating! I have a beautiful sterling and gold set of neck ring and bracelet or arm ring, with amethysts set in the ends. I wish i had occasion to wear the neck ring more often. I'd enjoy seeing more of the collection if you could share. Just a video showing us different ones and tell a little about each one
My father was a lost wax mould expert and it's quite interesting to find out that it is such a very old technique. Even now, with modern CNC machines and CAD design it is still quite difficult, so I can't even imagine how difficult it was back in the iron age.
I love this show. I just found it yesterday and I have been bin watching it ever since. Once I finish the show Curator’s Corner I am going to be checking out the other videos TBM has. I want to see if the Smithsonian also has great videos like this. I hope they do. This was a great idea.
It always puzzles me how people whose lives were in most regards quite primitive, were somehow so sophisticated in metallurgy and metal working. Fascinating.
Those torcs are huge! They must weigh a ton! I don't know if they had drawplates back then, but that is how you make wire by hand now. For the thinner wire, start with smaller ingots. Pull the ingot through the drawplate a few times, through smaller and smaller holes, then anneal the wire to soften then rinse and repeat until it's the thickness you want. The drawplate makes very even wire.
Most of the larger torcs are in fact made from hollow rolled gold/silver tubes, not wire. Imagine the skill it took to manually hammer an ingot into a sheet of metal thin enough to role into a tube, incredible skill..
Great Video, loved the exhibition. It does make you stop and appreciate it. I work with lost wax quite a lot but I can't imagine hammering out that much wire. The amount of hours yes but also the hours to get that good!
1:20 which is why gold and silver are valuable in the first place. While rarity can help an items value, it usually needs some kind of use for it to become valuable enough to be a commonly accepted trade item. Because gold and silver are so easy to work with, they can be easily made into decorations, which also means that the artist doesn't need to put in as much hard work in order to add fancy details.
I have no metalwork experience but would certainly take a crack at making a torc if I did. They are something that I didnt even now existed till 10 mins ago.
"I'm able to pick this one up in my hands and be quite relaxed with it, because this isn't part of our collection--" For half a second, I 100% thought she was going to finish that sentence with, "It's from somebody else's collection."
The Celts were very smart people. If they had the knowledge to smelter the precious metal, wouldn't it be logical to assume that they also had a much simpler and more efficient method of rolling the wire?
It was only particularly hard for her as well because she used bronze (I suspect copper). And also, she was set up for a lot of difficulty from the get go because of the guage she used. It also was likely that they used a form of abrasive to help smooth out the material after a certain point. So.... They would cast the bar, draw it out to be a very long rectangle, from there, hammer the corners to start turning it into a octagon, then a 16-agon (sorry I am too lazy to look up the word, so I take the humorous way out), from three, maybe a half circle channel or reverse-fuller type of groove device. From there it was time and patience to get it the same thickness. It's possible (off the top of my head), that they could have pulled it through a piece of hard wood or stone that had a very small hole carved/chipped into it (and then smoothed out) to pull it through to help get it a bit more consistent or check for gross irregularities. But since a lot of surviving ones are gold. Maybe they could have even been pulled through as a form of primitive rolling mill. Again, that's 100% speculation. Then/or, abrasives could be used to take away persistent tool marks, and then leather or cloth could be used to polish it up and remove scratches from abrasives. And realize, they had nothing but time. And like she said, several on them could have worked on it. Also, I would be of the belief that the terminals were cast on and then carved to their final shape. I'm not sure. Especially given the materials they had. Maybe, I dunno, when I think of clay i think it is very unyielding compared to hard wax. So molding that AROUND an intricately carved wax design doesn't seem very plausible to me. BUT, if she meant powdered/granulated bentonite clay or a historical equivalent of "green sand", then yeah totally, that makes sense. Regardless, badass video, I want to actually give it a try now myself.
You can change the properties of clay very easily by changing the water content, so my guess is they would have built up the clay mould with layers of clay changing the water content depending on the level of detail required and iteratively letting it dry out. After all letting something dry only requires time and space, no labour, both of which they had plenty.
@William Toohey I tend to agree with your assessment. Scholars tend to over complicate things much like giving an engineer a task then not limiting budget or time. They will make the most complicated thing you have ever seen. When it comes to most of these subjects scholars tend to make the same mistake whether it is how it was done or for the purpose of an object. Stupid simple is generally the key to most things, that's not saying our ancestors were stupid but to look for the simplest answer possible, so simple in fact that you feel stupid for not seeing the answer at first glance.
Silver and Gold are much softer metals, so when you said you made it out of bronze i was like, noooo! xD I've worked with bronze, steel, brass, copper, aluminum, and honestly, you couldn't have chosen a more difficult metal to work with unless you'd gone with steel. But i love bronze, so i sympathize. lol
The great torque from Snettisham, made of electrum, which you show, may have been made, as has been suggested, in or around 70 BC, but I like to think of it as the royal insignia of the kings of the Iceni, who had minted their own coins, down to Prasutagus - famed for his wealth says Tacitus - wealth which stimulated Seneca, Nero's former tutor into lending 90 million sesterces (a third of his fortune), and which exited the greed of both Nero and his procurator - it was the latter who sent in the bailiffs after Prasutagus died, and whose rapacity, says Tacitus, drove the Britons to war. On this basis it is attractive to hypothesise that the Snettisham treasure was buried in 60 AD, to avoid it's seizure by the Roman bailiffs. Its magnificence being well known, it's concealment enraged the Romans who took reprisals on Boudicca and the royal family. They rebelled, so that the procurator who had only 300 men fled London, taking ship no doubt on the Thames as did the Roman merchants. They didn't fancy being hung, burned and crucified along with the 70,000 Romans and provincials who perished. Total casualties came to 150,000, a plausible figure for Tacitus was a Senator with access to official records, or those who knew of them
I just want to mention: Copper and most of its alloys have an interesting property. Once worked (Hammered, stretched, bent, etc) it hardens, like most metals. However, when heated again and quenched (Put in water), instead of hardening like most metals, it instead becomes soft. So this would make working it quite a bit easier.
The drawing process as the previous gentleman suggested is the only way to create consistent wires in that period. But this adds another distinct level of complexity. These drawing dies need to be made from hard materials such as high carbon iron. The drawing process requires drawing through consecutively smaller holes and they must be accurately drilled into the hard die. The Torque you displayed had a massive amount of wire in it and it was relatively fine and consistent , perhaps because it was a repro. I'm keen to see a photo of the original now. A great resource book to assist in the unravelling of these pieces is Oppi Untracht's "Jewellery concepts and technology." The Bible on jewellery metalwork.
You do not hammer wire to get a smooth and even look. And you do not need a rolling mill either. When you have a basic shape, slightly tapered in one end, you pull that ingot through a series of (tapered) holes in a heavy steel plate. You will need to grease the holes and you will need to anneal the wire several times during the process. You will have to use a special gripper to get a good grip on the wire and maybe a system of pulleys. But that gold wire shown can easily by hand drawn.
And some of the earlier comments point out that organic items would have been used (and lost over the years) before steel was, the whole thread is really interesting
I’m a journeyman tinsmith and a journeyman sheetmetal worker, I have 11 years of metal work training plus over 30 years experience. I would say you made he wire on he hardest way possible. Their are easier less time consuming methods. This is an example of an expert in one field trying another field and not knowing what they are doing. Thus, making false assumptions about the capabilities of our ancestors.
Highly doubtful you know anything about metalworking to harp on someone else for trying to reach a understanding about the craft. Nobody ever gained experience with out doing anything. Experience would have taught you to have appreciation for anyone that showed interest.
@@arikkraft5755 I wasn’t harping, I was just stating a fact, From a professional perspective. Experience has taught me that not all apprentices are worth teaching regardless of their level of interest.
@@alpha9526 Your opinion is your's it not a fact. A response from anyone in a professional capacity is only relevant when credentials can be verified. Further more talent can always be cultivated provided someone is given proper guidance.
8:00 i would have guessed, that such small diameter wires would be a little easier to produce than those finger-thick rods. Today goldsmiths produce fine wires in small diameters by ... well yes - first casting a bar, hammering it in some sort of shape but here comes the "easy part". There is a steelplate with holes in it, today probably drilled and filed, but in iron age absolutly possible by using awls. Through those steelplate holes you pull the prehammered rod (which is of course easier with silver/gold alloys since they are smoother to form) and slowly work your way from bigger holes to the smaller diameters. I myself had the luck to produce silver wire like this when i was trying the goldsmith profession some decade ago xD - the metal does need some soft-annealing every now and then so it wont break but over-all i'd consider this to be a technique that could have been used in iron age already ... ua-cam.com/video/rRfac0QWHJI/v-deo.html maybe? Also if you guys are interessted in prehistoric goldsmithing i strongly recommend to look up the golden hat of Schifferstadt, golden hat of Ezelsdorf/Buch, golden hat of Avanton. These are superthin goldfoil hats, that look like "old wizard hats", are from ~1500-800 b.chr. and are considered to be probably part of the same cultur that left behind the nebra sky disk (which is also quite fascinating in case you dont know about it yet). en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_hat
Social Media folk, when you put a second camera on the side of someone's face, and she is not looking into it, but there is no-one there for her to actually be talking to, it is just creepy. Side cameras only work in a two person situation. It is fine for us to observe her as a subject if she is engaged by someone, but if we are just looking at the side of her face for no reason, it gets uncomfortable and plain weird! On the other hand, Julia was excellent.
im not sure when they were first used by smiths but there is a very simple tool called a draw plate that was used for wire sizing. It is purely a plate with an ever shrinking pattern of holes in it through which you pass or rather pull the wire. This action draws the diameter of the wire down and stretches it out slightly each time. It also leaves the wire uniform in shape so that can explain why in the last example all the wire looks exactly like the others. Its worth a search here on youtube to see this tool in action for illustration purposes. @alecsteele a good young english smith has a video on using one for the first time to draw out some gold to use as a wire wrapped inlay on a sword grip. If the celts knew of this tooling method then it could help you further understand the tooling process of making jewellery in that time period to present day.
different way to make wire is to hammer out a plate an cut thin, square wire off it. you can spiral twist or roll the wire (depending on hardness) and/or sand down the edges to round. i believe I read the Etruscans(?) made filigree wire that way on wearing one, and wearing out/work hardening the metal, don't forget that metalsmithing was a very specialized job in that very few had the knowledge to do it. 'just heat it up to anneal it' isn't as easy to do without damage when done in a charcoal fire rather than a modern torch or kiln. Plus, getting rid of the oxidation/fire scale and re-polishing the metal isn't simple or intuitive. it looks simple to use vinegar and salt to remove oxidation, but, especially at the time, very difficult to throw out the hard to acquire 'pickling' and not drink the now toxic brew...
I have, and it induces massive respect and awe of these circa 9th century creators. The BM used to employ a very capable goldsmith a decade or so ago to replicate many items such as these. As a retired goldsmith myself I would have enjoyed meeting with him.
This was found in a field in Snettisham, Norfolk. If you are ever down that way the field is easy to locate. Take the Dersingham By Pass towards Hunstanton, take the first exit at the Snettisham roundabout and the field is immediately on your left. Unsurprisingly it is on one of the highest points in the area. If your an illegal treasure hunter, don't bother looking there. When the discovery was made, the archaeologists systematically dug the entire field down to bedrock, there is nothing else to find. Interesting story though, the excavation was supposedly funded by them cancelling a dig in Egypt to pay for it. Also a torc end from one of the Snettisham torcs was found years later in another field several miles away, probably transported there in mud stuck to the blade of a plough.
The apprentice/master relationship is responsible for much of the labor intensive work we see in ancient times. A young man would "sell" his labor for being taught a trade. This is still used in some areas of industry such as welding, which I myself was an apprentice.
What I’d have liked to know is how heavy the original torc was? But you’ve got to respect the artisan and the art. It’s remarkable, refined and so precise........ ⚛️☮️🌏
I had a bracelet that was made in the same fashion. I stopped wearing it because it would pull the hairs on my arm. Ouch. Why would this not be the case for neck hairs? Maybe we all have it wrong and a torc is not jewellery at all but rather a grooming tool.
@Gerrit Peacock Not all Celts fought naked, they wore _Braccae_ which were trousers, and the _Sagum_ is of Gallic origin also. I think its a common misconception that the Celts fought naked. I also think it depends on what part of the Celtic world you were in, whether the British Isles or the Gaul, their cultures were slightly different but shared a fundamental ancestor.
Now you know how to make a torc, you might be wondering how you would actually wear it? Never fear, Julia has that topic covered too: blog.britishmuseum.org/how-do-you-put-on-a-torc/
The British Museum, I have something of a question if I may. Casting with wax and clay molds was explained a bit, instead of making the ingot of bronze or gold could they have simply used molds for making the wire instead of all the labor intensive hammering? I will check back later to see if this gets a reply, I've always loved these subjects but have never had the opportunity to work with museums.
I *was* wondering that!
Joshua Warchild PhD I do not have answers but copper and bronze(copper and tin) work harden quite rapidly.The only way to anneal is to heat past the triple point and then quench. The opposite of steel. No idea when wire drawing through a harder ( iron or steel) die was first thought of. Gold can be drawn,literally drawn by pulling as it is malleable and ductile, only superseded by platinum. Either way,the golden torque wire with attached finials represents mind boggling hours spent by some who were absolute masters of the metal. Described as iron age objects,so one thing learned by history is techniques have been invented,lost and relearned again and again. Probably simple techniques with simple tools used. The more primitive the technique, the greater the mastery is needed. Very possibly through some sort of die. Microscopic study of the wire might reveal clues.
Seems to be a dead link now.
timothy park- nope
I love hearing people who are so passionate about what they do
... especially when they're thieves like the British Museum.
I don't understand how passionate historians can reconcile their passion and not want items returned to their owners.
When they get on an enthusiastic train of knowledge & passion, then smirk at the camera xx
@@jokersgiddygrin findsies keepsies.
@@jokersgiddygrin This is based on a CELTIC torc from Norfolk you knob.
Thank you, Dr. Julia Farley, for your video. For those who are unfamiliar with metals such as gold, silver and copper and their alloys, metals have properties of ductility and malleability. Ductility refers to the metal’s ability to be elongated into wire. Malleability refers to the metal’s ability to be compressed into sheet. However hammering, forging, elongating and twisting produces considerable deformation stress in the metal which hardens it but can also crack due to excessive fatigue. Therefore in order to reduce the stress imparted by work hardening, the metal needs to be periodically annealed to soften the metal. Annealing is done by heating the metal to a high enough temperature and then allowing it to cool whereby stress is alleviated..
This series is priceless. So much passion from each and every curator indicates a culture at the British Museum that encourages young people to choose these fields.
I so enjoyed this, I am a fourth generation metal worker, whose ancestors came to Australia from Ireland 'in 1890 as blacksmiths and coach builders and in turn have developed a successful metal working business in Old Sydney town.
I have long had a fascination for Celtic metalwork. Like you, I have studied many of these ancient Hallstatt and Le T'ene metal art pieces and have carved and Lost Wax cast pieces using modern equipment myself, in Silver and Bronze. You are so correct when you state that it can go wrong in so many ways. The work of many of these artisans who used the most simple primitive tools and materials is simply astounding. What you have described through your experience is a wonderful awakening and you present it well.
My life's work was in bronzesmithing and silversmithing. The skilled smith could hammer out wire as fine as that gold torc. I did lots of hammering heavy wire to six-sided and then twisting. I too have drawn out silver wire. But for gold wire as thick as that used in this torc, hammering out out would have been sufficient. It is amazing how after many years the hand holding the hammer knows just how to do this process. I wish I were in good enough health to continue.
@@mollyswan-sheeran2670 One of my greatest lamentations about artisans is all that knowledge, once transmitted physically onto /into objects, to create such beauty, is eventually lost. A lifetimes practise and honing is gone, or, as in your sounding situation, one is simply unable to continue. I empathise with you, as my failing sight makes drawing less possible.
I guess that is part of what makes art so wonderful, is that it is not easily come by.
I thought she was going to show us, not just torc about it.
Oh 🤔I thought that was just a clever joke, but you are right, all she does is talk about it and describes how she made it. I wonder why they didn't film and show that part. A little disappointing really 🙁
Of course we only have depictions of them on naked bodies, just saying...
I too think she is very good looking, but I have to admit the fact she is talking about something without sounding snobbish is why I am taking her seriously.
Ya this lady is so much worse than what i’ve come to expect from this channel
Yes, in the interest of historical accuracy, Julia should wear the torc the way the ancient Celtic warriors did. I.e. wear the torc....and nothing else.
This is the type of quality video I want to watch on this channel.
I love to listen to people talk about topics they love, it could be anything, when the person is passionate it's fascinating
Torcs are such an iconic Celtic thing. They're lovely.
Snettisham would probably fall into the kingdom of the Iceni.
Great talk, thank you! At 8:30 it's mentioned that the wire was hand hammered to get a uniform diameter and length. There must be some sort of sort of drawplate or wire pulling technique which ancient goldsmiths used, otherwise making it all by hand, hammering it to the desired length is just a mind boggling amount of work.
You have a lovely voice and calm manner, I could listen to you for hours. Thank you 🙏
What the people want is science, fun and craftsmanship. Thank you.
I have made a few bits of jewelry in silver....so i know making that torc in bronze would have been really hard work. Big shout to ya Girl for doing so, and highlighting the skill, time and effort it takes to craft something in this way. Respect to all at the British museum.
Sue is an amazing presenter, bringing history and the people who wielded these swords to life!
This is an excellently produced video. Dr. Farley is a fascinating teacher and a total dreamboat
another knockout yes
intelligent women Rock -
farley is an irish last name, no ?
one day those "celts" in The Perfid will be allowed to learn about the celts in iberia where the monuments Get A Roof.
amazing torque she made.
Hell Yeah ! I met her once and had (have) SUCH a crush
Fascinating stuff. Unlikely I would have learnt about this anywhere else. Great video.
The fine wire for the Snettisham torc would have had to been drawn to size through a series of smaller and smaller tapered holes in dies. There is quite simply no other way to do it without using grooved rollers, which without lathes and industry they can't have had. Without being drawn the wire simply would not be that even and smooth. Fullers probably were used for the initial reduction of the ingot to a size where it could be drawn.
Art to some extent is driven by available materials, you just wouldn't even contemplate making a fine wire torc unless you had wire to play with. Which means there had to be a relatively easy process to make it.
OK so that's just opinion, but opinion based on many years of metalwork. That's the way I would do it given Celtic technology. Is there any archeological evidence for drawing dies? Evidence like small semi precious stones such as agate with small tapered holes in them, perhaps misunderstood as beads?
You, friend, just demonstrated how important it is for traditional craftspeople to talk with archaeologists.
There are indeed lots of Celtic beads such as you describe, in glass and stone.
(www.jstor.org/stable/25506814?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents)
As well as bronze plates that are assumed to be belt buckles, with a series of small holes in them that look awfully similar to modern draw plates to my eyes, and I'm not even a metalworker.
It might not be out of line for you to email the museum.
Forgive my ignorance here, but I'm assuming once the metal had been forged out from the ingot into the basic wire form with I'm assuming a channel in an anvil/stone as described in the video.
Would the wire then be fired up to working temp and fed through the drawing beads by hand? Or would those beads simply be for evening off braids of wire to uniformity?
I'm not sure I get how without pressure rollers wire could be fashioned in enough quantity and quality to be a building component.
Captain Codpiece. pulling wire is a very very simple and quick process. you just pull the wire thru the hole and then thru series of smaller and smaller holes. in between you need to anneal the wire. the wire is pulled while its cold. just look up on youtube how to pull gold wire. I can pull several meters of gold wire within an hour.
Yes there is evidence of draw plates. they have been found in several digs.
was looking for that comment ... the guys back then werent stupid and I cant immagine that some crazy lord orders his 20 slaves to hammer around for a year instead of doing something actualy useful .... But ya only theories we have
I love that Julia did some smithing. Nice work, she has my respect. You can really appreciate a craft and understand it intimately if you experience it first hand. Sadly there are too many historians who never try this and only read about a subject in question. Living history is far more exciting and engaging.
Such a inviting session for the modern jewelry maker who really wants a challenge. So glad you approached this from the artisan view rather than the selfish wants of the noble or wealthy patrons who hired for these items. Duly impressed that your working knowledge has shown you the importance of many working to build a consistently beautiful device no matter its intend purpose by the user. Your comments of the hand worked wire to produce uniformity for each wire twisted, think you said 68, is an unusual observation when most look only upon the end finials that adorn this object. My thanks for sharing young lady.
Julia makes an excellent point about the value of direct experience in understanding physical objects. Actually trying to make something yourself without using modern techniques can reveal an enormous amount about the challenges faced by our forebears and how they dealt with those challenges.
I'm interested in early music. When I was a small child almost all Baroque and Renaissance music was played on modern instruments. Since then, musicians have learnt a huge amount from playing replicas of old instruments that wasn't obvious from just the score on its own.
Her enthusiasm was awesome. She draws you in and makes you want to learn more.
Congratulations, this was marvelous and the lady presented it perfectly, her knowledge and enthusiasm came across perfectly.
I, too, was fascinated with the artistry and complexity of some of the jewelry when I saw the King Tut exhibit decades ago in Seattle. I was especially taken with a very small piece showing a man sitting with his knees up, feet flat and hands on his knees. The detail blew me away. Tiny fingernails and toenails. Then I went to the gift shop where there was a replica and it wasn't even close to the original. It made me realize how much time and effort someone spent making the figurine.
Judging by the weight of learned previous comments, and drawing from long-made personal observations, I think scholars have long underestimated the raw human intelligence common to ours that existed in the past. They found ways to do things through experience and observation; the only mystery is how modern minds fail to acknowledge how much was known in the past.
BTW, I have just discovered this series, it is awesome and a credit to both the Museum and British scholarship as a whole. I regret having only a day in the Museum while on a visit from NZ in "96. Oh well, I had to make room for the V & A as well!
Agreed! It's very easy to think of early humans as simple and ignorant, but over the years I've forced myself to think of them as far more in tune with the natural world than any of us.
Tena koe,
I think the Neanderthals have got an awfully bad wrap too actually; they were running around a hellova lot longer than Homo Sapiens have managed-and WITHOUT fucking the planet up.
Fascinating and intelligently presented.With the final torc - not hours of work, but weeks, even months. This fine and intricate metalworking was introduced gradually from the continent, and one can only imagine how slowly the knowledge and skills were absorbed and established - and the status of the metal worker grew in importance in his local tribe or village.
UA-cam at it`s best - wonderful video :)
And she's right! How did they become such fantastic craftsmen, with so little in way of tools and construction aides. Awe inspiring when we think process.
Hammer, anvil, draw plate, forge. Practice, practice practice.
Great video, the series makes me want to become a museum curator!
Wow! Thanks for helping me understand how these were made. I don't think I've ever fully appreciated the amount of work that goes into these. I would see things like these in the museums, give a passing glance, and continue on.
Fascinating!
Particularly as the young lady gave it a go herself and explained her appreciation for how involved making one of these torcs is.
As for how to make a Celtic torc, just tell them you follow Hibernain.
Just visited the British Museum a couple of weeks ago and was stunned by the sheer size of the collection, but even more by the craftsmanship of the ancient cultures.
We have some Celtic relics over here n Bavaria as well, and there is a reproduction settlement close by where there was a fair lately where visitors could fiddle together some wire rings to produce a little chain-mail (I still use mine as a key-ring, or rather 47 key-rings). It only occurred to me afterwards that even though it seems to be a lot of effort to create a whole shirt this way, we still missed all the work that went into producing all that wire in the first place.
Wow! I feel l hit the jackpot with this Curator's Corner. I make jewellery and love Celtic jewellery and art so to see an explanation of how this torc was made was wonderful.
Craftsmanship is something even time cannot overcome sometimes! Your work was nice for your first. As an artist I suggest anyone and everyone try some. Then consider the labor and love that went into something you've created the next time you try to buy hand crafted items and not haggle for a cheaper price. Keeping this in mind as well. An artists best work is created when there mind and heart are at their lightest and full of pure good energy and blessings for its new owner.
This shows you the time in those days wasn't as precious as it is today.. people obviously had time to work on things like that and make them perfect.... especially in this mass produce world we live in.. everyone wants things now.. truly amazing workmanship...
I don't think they did have the time. I think they had very busy lives
@@viv5645 had very busy lives making jewellery... that was probably there trade. Jewellery makers..
@@skatedd2451 - seriously.
@@viv5645 little space people made them and their little Spaceland seriously
The people who made the big torc must have been masters of metal working. And it makes you think what other things they must have made, and how many torcs they must have made, because the finished article is the pinnacle of torc making, they clearly knew everything about how to make them by the time that one was made.
Thanks you very much Julia for your pasion in this celtic art...thanks for sharing...
After many years of admiring the ancient torcs of the Celts (I'm Welsh, so the history resonates) I could hardly believe my eyes when I went wandering the countryside villages of southern China some ten to 20 years ago and witnessed young women (Hmong nation) dressed in their traditional clothes, wearing torcs to market. Until recently, this was much more widespread, but China has changed so much, so quickly, I guess that already, they'd have stopped wearing such things to market. There is a lot of dressing up for tourists and folkloric shows these days - and tourists can dress up in the clothes for photos. There are extremely elaborate examples of Hmong silver torcs and other jewelry kept within families, and others made for sale.
For me the most fascinating part is not just the tremendous work to make an object so refined but the fact that you say it is not known how they where worn or exactly what they where used for!
I can't help buy want to theorize a little.
That thing looks sturdy enough to both hold up your toga or animal skin but also you would have a decent chance of surviving an attack to your neck from a sword. It would slide up the side and be stopped by the big knob at the top.
All I can do is imagine the motion required buy it seems like standing face on it would be nearly impossible to hack a person's head off until you removed the thing.
I REALLY LOVE THIS SERIES.
Possibly the most interesting thing I've watched on youtube this year.
Very interesting. Torcs come in various styles, and from various Celtic tribes. Their purpose has been controversial, but I believe they provided the wearer protection against a weapon attack upon their neck. The weapon, generally a sword would have to be parallel to the torc to pierce the neck, otherwise the torc would block the striking weapon . The torc would also provide protection against an animal attack upon the neck, but this would be a less important use, although the Roman's used attack dogs in some battles. I purchased some ancient bronze torcs at major European auctions about 25 years ago, and there is significant variance amongst them.
Wise deduction, I agree - neck protection, and they may have taken on a desire for apparel context - thus becoming a product that could be purchased for vanity purposes.
Would like to view photos of your collection, if you have them on any public media - please provide a link.
Thanks
That's an interesting idea, but I don't see how that could protect someones neck from a blow from a sword.
I think its a bit of a far-fetched conclusion but it could be plausible.
That would make sense. From what I've read, the Celts did take heads.
I've loved them since the first one i saw. They are fascinating! I have a beautiful sterling and gold set of neck ring and bracelet or arm ring, with amethysts set in the ends. I wish i had occasion to wear the neck ring more often.
I'd enjoy seeing more of the collection if you could share. Just a video showing us different ones and tell a little about each one
My father was a lost wax mould expert and it's quite interesting to find out that it is such a very old technique. Even now, with modern CNC machines and CAD design it is still quite difficult, so I can't even imagine how difficult it was back in the iron age.
getting some Art education from The British Museum is fun. Thank you so much
love the way you explained lost wax method process
I love this show. I just found it yesterday and I have been bin watching it ever since. Once I finish the show Curator’s Corner I am going to be checking out the other videos TBM has. I want to see if the Smithsonian also has great videos like this. I hope they do. This was a great idea.
My Lady, you Can talk the torc. Thanks for sharing.
Atleast she''s honest, if she had claimed she managed to hand make that i'd have called BS. Hard to imagine how strong an old world blacksmith was.
Wonderful vid, massively interesting, fantastically enthusiastic gifted curator. Thanks!
Julia could be talking about aluminum foil and I would be mesmerized...
I didn't realize that I was being ASMR'd, and getting educated at he same time.
It always puzzles me how people whose lives were in most regards quite primitive, were somehow so sophisticated in metallurgy and metal working. Fascinating.
Thank you for this 😊 you do a great job hope you’re still doing it !
Fascinating--and a beautiful result.
Those torcs are huge! They must weigh a ton! I don't know if they had drawplates back then, but that is how you make wire by hand now. For the thinner wire, start with smaller ingots. Pull the ingot through the drawplate a few times, through smaller and smaller holes, then anneal the wire to soften then rinse and repeat until it's the thickness you want.
The drawplate makes very even wire.
Most of the larger torcs are in fact made from hollow rolled gold/silver tubes, not wire. Imagine the skill it took to manually hammer an ingot into a sheet of metal thin enough to role into a tube, incredible skill..
Great Video, loved the exhibition. It does make you stop and appreciate it. I work with lost wax quite a lot but I can't imagine hammering out that much wire. The amount of hours yes but also the hours to get that good!
I love the fact that she is using a pair of welpers rather than needle nose to craft her metalwork.
1:20 which is why gold and silver are valuable in the first place. While rarity can help an items value, it usually needs some kind of use for it to become valuable enough to be a commonly accepted trade item. Because gold and silver are so easy to work with, they can be easily made into decorations, which also means that the artist doesn't need to put in as much hard work in order to add fancy details.
I have no metalwork experience but would certainly take a crack at making a torc if I did. They are something that I didnt even now existed till 10 mins ago.
As usual, this was a great video. I had never heard of this kind of cup, but that would have been so funny. Thanks again.
"I'm able to pick this one up in my hands and be quite relaxed with it, because this isn't part of our collection--" For half a second, I 100% thought she was going to finish that sentence with, "It's from somebody else's collection."
Its not just old crusty antiques in the British museum apparently, there's some very beautiful newer exhibits to look at.
Thank you for making this video. I really enjoyed it! Sending you greetings from Memphis, TN. Cheers!
it would be neat to see the footage of the making!
The clay packing and the melting wax did it for me 👍
Brilliantly described, and clearly explained; thanks!
Absolutely astonishing
Great piece of work. Well done.
The Celts were very smart people. If they had the knowledge to smelter the precious metal, wouldn't it be logical to assume that they also had a much simpler and more efficient method of rolling the wire?
Even Roman soldier or aristocrats had swords from Celtic tribes
the question is: what would it be? labor was cheap and reliable, machines not so much.
It was only particularly hard for her as well because she used bronze (I suspect copper).
And also, she was set up for a lot of difficulty from the get go because of the guage she used.
It also was likely that they used a form of abrasive to help smooth out the material after a certain point.
So....
They would cast the bar, draw it out to be a very long rectangle, from there, hammer the corners to start turning it into a octagon, then a 16-agon (sorry I am too lazy to look up the word, so I take the humorous way out), from three, maybe a half circle channel or reverse-fuller type of groove device.
From there it was time and patience to get it the same thickness. It's possible (off the top of my head), that they could have pulled it through a piece of hard wood or stone that had a very small hole carved/chipped into it (and then smoothed out) to pull it through to help get it a bit more consistent or check for gross irregularities. But since a lot of surviving ones are gold. Maybe they could have even been pulled through as a form of primitive rolling mill. Again, that's 100% speculation.
Then/or, abrasives could be used to take away persistent tool marks, and then leather or cloth could be used to polish it up and remove scratches from abrasives.
And realize, they had nothing but time. And like she said, several on them could have worked on it.
Also, I would be of the belief that the terminals were cast on and then carved to their final shape. I'm not sure. Especially given the materials they had. Maybe, I dunno, when I think of clay i think it is very unyielding compared to hard wax. So molding that AROUND an intricately carved wax design doesn't seem very plausible to me.
BUT, if she meant powdered/granulated bentonite clay or a historical equivalent of "green sand", then yeah totally, that makes sense.
Regardless, badass video, I want to actually give it a try now myself.
You can change the properties of clay very easily by changing the water content, so my guess is they would have built up the clay mould with layers of clay changing the water content depending on the level of detail required and iteratively letting it dry out. After all letting something dry only requires time and space, no labour, both of which they had plenty.
@William Toohey I tend to agree with your assessment. Scholars tend to over complicate things much like giving an engineer a task then not limiting budget or time. They will make the most complicated thing you have ever seen. When it comes to most of these subjects scholars tend to make the same mistake whether it is how it was done or for the purpose of an object. Stupid simple is generally the key to most things, that's not saying our ancestors were stupid but to look for the simplest answer possible, so simple in fact that you feel stupid for not seeing the answer at first glance.
Thats why it was called a trade. The apprentice traded labour for room and board and the knoledge of the master.
Wow! That makes sense - I've learned lots reading all these comments but this was the most surprising, thank you
Yeah, I picture a group of young apprentices doing all the donkey-work.......rolling all those wires for the main body of the torc.
Silver and Gold are much softer metals, so when you said you made it out of bronze i was like, noooo! xD I've worked with bronze, steel, brass, copper, aluminum, and honestly, you couldn't have chosen a more difficult metal to work with unless you'd gone with steel. But i love bronze, so i sympathize. lol
The great torque from Snettisham, made of electrum, which you show, may have been made, as has been suggested, in or around 70 BC, but I like to think of it as the royal insignia of the kings of the Iceni, who had minted their own coins, down to Prasutagus - famed for his wealth says Tacitus - wealth which stimulated Seneca, Nero's former tutor into lending 90 million sesterces (a third of his fortune), and which exited the greed of both Nero and his procurator - it was the latter who sent in the bailiffs after Prasutagus died, and whose rapacity, says Tacitus, drove the Britons to war. On this basis it is attractive to hypothesise that the Snettisham treasure was buried in 60 AD, to avoid it's seizure by the Roman bailiffs. Its magnificence being well known, it's concealment enraged the Romans who took reprisals on Boudicca and the royal family. They rebelled, so that the procurator who had only 300 men fled London, taking ship no doubt on the Thames as did the Roman merchants. They didn't fancy being hung, burned and crucified along with the 70,000 Romans and provincials who perished. Total casualties came to 150,000, a plausible figure for Tacitus was a Senator with access to official records, or those who knew of them
I just want to mention: Copper and most of its alloys have an interesting property. Once worked (Hammered, stretched, bent, etc) it hardens, like most metals. However, when heated again and quenched (Put in water), instead of hardening like most metals, it instead becomes soft. So this would make working it quite a bit easier.
This was a great torc talk.
Excellent video. So informative! Thank you!
Isn’t it funny how we put so much effort into items that we only wear on occasion, and we wear super easy to make items far more often.
Well jewelry has always been meant to impress and make people look distinguished, it is just a way to flaunt ones vanity.
That is a great presentation, thank you!
The drawing process as the previous gentleman suggested is the only way to create consistent wires in that period. But this adds another distinct level of complexity.
These drawing dies need to be made from hard materials such as high carbon iron. The drawing process requires drawing through consecutively smaller holes and they must be accurately drilled into the hard die. The Torque you displayed had a massive amount of wire in it and it was relatively fine and consistent , perhaps because it was a repro. I'm keen to see a photo of the original now.
A great resource book to assist in the unravelling of these pieces is Oppi Untracht's "Jewellery concepts and technology." The Bible on jewellery metalwork.
A video documenting the metalwork she described attempting would have been neat. Maybe in the future?
You do not hammer wire to get a smooth and even look. And you do not need a rolling mill either. When you have a basic shape, slightly tapered in one end, you pull that ingot through a series of (tapered) holes in a heavy steel plate. You will need to grease the holes and you will need to anneal the wire several times during the process. You will have to use a special gripper to get a good grip on the wire and maybe a system of pulleys. But that gold wire shown can easily by hand drawn.
And some of the earlier comments point out that organic items would have been used (and lost over the years) before steel was, the whole thread is really interesting
I’m a journeyman tinsmith and a journeyman sheetmetal worker, I have 11 years of metal work training plus over 30 years experience. I would say you made he wire on he hardest way possible. Their are easier less time consuming methods. This is an example of an expert in one field trying another field and not knowing what they are doing. Thus, making false assumptions about the capabilities of our ancestors.
Highly doubtful you know anything about metalworking to harp on someone else for trying to reach a understanding about the craft. Nobody ever gained experience with out doing anything. Experience would have taught you to have appreciation for anyone that showed interest.
@@arikkraft5755 I wasn’t harping, I was just stating a fact, From a professional perspective. Experience has taught me that not all apprentices are worth teaching regardless of their level of interest.
@@alpha9526 Your opinion is your's it not a fact. A response from anyone in a professional capacity is only relevant when credentials can be verified. Further more talent can always be cultivated provided someone is given proper guidance.
8:00 i would have guessed, that such small diameter wires would be a little easier to produce than those finger-thick rods. Today goldsmiths produce fine wires in small diameters by ... well yes - first casting a bar, hammering it in some sort of shape but here comes the "easy part". There is a steelplate with holes in it, today probably drilled and filed, but in iron age absolutly possible by using awls. Through those steelplate holes you pull the prehammered rod (which is of course easier with silver/gold alloys since they are smoother to form) and slowly work your way from bigger holes to the smaller diameters. I myself had the luck to produce silver wire like this when i was trying the goldsmith profession some decade ago xD - the metal does need some soft-annealing every now and then so it wont break but over-all i'd consider this to be a technique that could have been used in iron age already ... ua-cam.com/video/rRfac0QWHJI/v-deo.html maybe? Also if you guys are interessted in prehistoric goldsmithing i strongly recommend to look up the golden hat of Schifferstadt, golden hat of Ezelsdorf/Buch, golden hat of Avanton. These are superthin goldfoil hats, that look like "old wizard hats", are from ~1500-800 b.chr. and are considered to be probably part of the same cultur that left behind the nebra sky disk (which is also quite fascinating in case you dont know about it yet). en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_hat
Social Media folk, when you put a second camera on the side of someone's face, and she is not looking into it, but there is no-one there for her to actually be talking to, it is just creepy. Side cameras only work in a two person situation. It is fine for us to observe her as a subject if she is engaged by someone, but if we are just looking at the side of her face for no reason, it gets uncomfortable and plain weird! On the other hand, Julia was excellent.
love a girl who can make things and shes smart.
You did a great job. Looks amazing.
im not sure when they were first used by smiths but there is a very simple tool called a draw plate that was used for wire sizing. It is purely a plate with an ever shrinking pattern of holes in it through which you pass or rather pull the wire. This action draws the diameter of the wire down and stretches it out slightly each time. It also leaves the wire uniform in shape so that can explain why in the last example all the wire looks exactly like the others. Its worth a search here on youtube to see this tool in action for illustration purposes. @alecsteele a good young english smith has a video on using one for the first time to draw out some gold to use as a wire wrapped inlay on a sword grip. If the celts knew of this tooling method then it could help you further understand the tooling process of making jewellery in that time period to present day.
different way to make wire is to hammer out a plate an cut thin, square wire off it. you can spiral twist or roll the wire (depending on hardness) and/or sand down the edges to round. i believe I read the Etruscans(?) made filigree wire that way
on wearing one, and wearing out/work hardening the metal, don't forget that metalsmithing was a very specialized job in that very few had the knowledge to do it. 'just heat it up to anneal it' isn't as easy to do without damage when done in a charcoal fire rather than a modern torch or kiln. Plus, getting rid of the oxidation/fire scale and re-polishing the metal isn't simple or intuitive. it looks simple to use vinegar and salt to remove oxidation, but, especially at the time, very difficult to throw out the hard to acquire 'pickling' and not drink the now toxic brew...
I’ve done some casting and forging, too. I can’t imagine making that whole thing by hand!
I have, and it induces massive respect and awe of these circa 9th century creators. The BM used to employ a very capable goldsmith a decade or so ago to replicate many items such as these. As a retired goldsmith myself I would have enjoyed meeting with him.
"I'm going to make a torc without the correct material, and with tools they didn't have."
M'kay!
That scarf thing you are wearing is handmade. Very nice.
This was found in a field in Snettisham, Norfolk. If you are ever down that way the field is easy to locate. Take the Dersingham By Pass towards Hunstanton, take the first exit at the Snettisham roundabout and the field is immediately on your left. Unsurprisingly it is on one of the highest points in the area. If your an illegal treasure hunter, don't bother looking there. When the discovery was made, the archaeologists systematically dug the entire field down to bedrock, there is nothing else to find. Interesting story though, the excavation was supposedly funded by them cancelling a dig in Egypt to pay for it. Also a torc end from one of the Snettisham torcs was found years later in another field several miles away, probably transported there in mud stuck to the blade of a plough.
Thank you, started watching these they are fascinating
Is this where the word "torque" for a rotational force, comes from?
Same root, the Latin "torquere", meaning "to twist", still used in Italian as "torcere", although I guess English picked it up from French.
the other way round. the word is based on latin root, which describeds the obvious method of producing this item.
Very informative, thanks so much! I would love to see a video on one of the many examples of trichinpoloy chain that are in the museum! :)
This video is so friggin' metal
Interesting to hear about these things from someone who can "torc the torc"
The apprentice/master relationship is responsible for much of the labor intensive work we see in ancient times. A young man would "sell" his labor for being taught a trade. This is still used in some areas of industry such as welding, which I myself was an apprentice.
Very interesting ...enjoyed .Thank you for sharing this..
What I’d have liked to know is how heavy the original torc was? But you’ve got to respect the artisan and the art. It’s remarkable, refined and so precise........ ⚛️☮️🌏
fantastic. Hence the object signifies the resources and objectifies the power, prestige and complexity of the society that created it.
I had a bracelet that was made in the same fashion. I stopped wearing it because it would pull the hairs on my arm. Ouch. Why would this not be the case for neck hairs? Maybe we all have it wrong and a torc is not jewellery at all but rather a grooming tool.
That's exactly why I don't wear watches with metal straps, happens every time I've tried without fail. Hate that s**t lol
I've made several torcs in silver and not had that kind of problem
Celts shaved all their body, except the head and mustache.
I don't think that they are supposed to have space between the two pieces...so nothing should get stuck
Veron Veritas For me, the hairs didn’t get caught in the open ends but rather around the twists.
I believe the weight of the Snettingham torc is 13lbs. Not something you would wear everyday.
Perhaps, if you're not a Celt. :)
It's actually 20 cm diameter, 1kg in weight, just FYI.
Ignatius Caesar oh it’s only about 2 1/4 lbs. that makes more sense. Still that’s a lot of weight hanging around your neck.
@Gerrit Peacock
Not all Celts fought naked, they wore _Braccae_ which were trousers, and the _Sagum_ is of Gallic origin also.
I think its a common misconception that the Celts fought naked.
I also think it depends on what part of the Celtic world you were in, whether the British Isles or the Gaul, their cultures were slightly different but shared a fundamental ancestor.