Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 3.djvu/45

Rh remarks in his elaborate description, was double the weight of that presented by the Gauls to Augustus.

The heaviest there found was plain, open at each end, on which was engraved a cross and pellet in each quarter, weighed 4 lb. 10 oz. 10 dwts. = 209l. 5s. 6d. Another, more elliptical and decorated at its centre, with concentric and vandyked pattern, weighed 1 lb. 6 oz. 1 dwt. 9.89 grs. = 75l. 17s. 8d.

Some varieties have been also found in Germany : a thin torques, with circular ornaments; another, not cylindrical throughout, but flat inside, to fit better to the arm, with concentric and vandyked engraved lines on the exterior edge, and another with circular ornaments on the same place, A solid torques of this type, of gold, and another with a quadruple row of pellets, were found near the castle of Trimleston, county Meath, Ireland. A singular object, resembling a solid torc, but in its ornamental decoration bearing much resemblance to Anglo-Saxon ornaments, probably one of the very latest of the class, was found on the Polden hills, Somersetshire.

A second variety of the solid tore, but decidedly of the earlier age, is in the collection of the British Museum. The body is plain but thin, the bulbs oblong, slightly concave, and decorated at the side with an engrailing. This has been anciently twisted into a knot, probably in order to fit a younger or female wearer, or perhaps intended for an armilla, since two more of these were found with It.

So much conjecture has prevailed with respect to the bulbous termination of the torques, that some observations seem due here to this part of the subject. The earliest torques are undoubtedly penannular and bulbous: in Persian, Greek, and Roman art, these bulbs were fashioned into the heads of serpents, probably from their shape artistically suggesting the idea. In an inscription relative to a torques dedicated to