- Chapter Twenty-Two -
The range of morphological and decorative types is very large indeed. Such rings
may be closed (in some cases implying acquisition in infancy) or open, or may have
a closing device such as a mortise-and-tenon joint, a hook and eye, a covering sleeve,
or a complicated key-twist mechanism. They may be hollow or solid, twisted
or smooth, with engraved linear and geometric decoration or cast 'plastic' relief
decoration. Some have buffer terminals with curvilinear decoration around the
buffers. One group found in south-west Germany, eastern France and the Swiss
plateau cemeteries has coloured decoration in the form of discs (generally three or
five, though and one and seven are known) of opaque red glass, sometimes alter-
nating with cast bronze knots or lobes with deep-cut S-or spiral decoration filled
with the same red substance. These disc-torques often occur in graves with match-
ing fibulae (disc on foot) and disc-bracelets (with one to four discs). In other areas,
for example elsewhere in Germany, northern France and Hungary, neck-rings of
similar style were decorated with Mediterranean red coral enhanced by pins and
small decorative plaques of gold.
In the later La Tene periods some tubular gold neck-rings are covered with wild
rococo ornament that must have made them very uncomfortable to wear, and there
are also large loop-and buffer-ended gold neck-rings with complex repousse or
engraved decoration. To this latter group belong the famous Snettisham torque from
Suffolk and the Broighter torque from Co. Offaly, Ireland, both of which were found
in circumstances which may suggest votive offering or deliberate concealment. The
Snettisham area has in recent years produced a large number of gold neck-rings of
various types, again probably from deposits of ritual significance.
Necklaces made from a variety of bead types are known in both Hallstatt and La
Tene periods. In some rich graves of the earlier period complex necklaces made of
strands of beads held apart by spacers occur in jet, amber, bone and coral, as well as
bronze and glass. Single-string necklaces have similar beads, often in combination.
Glass beads include blue ones with white zigzag decoration and yellow ones with
blue and white 'eyes'. Amber beads include large lathe-turned disc-shaped examples
up to 6 em across or more, and biconical beads of similar length. Coral beads may
be spherical, or composite in a similar style to the pin-heads described above, and in
some rare cases may be branches of coral longitudinally pierced.
A common combination in La Tene I, particularly in the Marne region of France,
is of blue glass and coral beads, the latter being either spherical, or raw branches,
occasionally with linear decoration to the stem. A wider range of glass beads, includ-
ing pale green translucent examples, in La Tene I and II leads in La Tene III to poly-
chrome ring-shaped beads of the type found at Stradonice (Bohemia).
PENDANTS AND AMULETS
Pendants should be discussed alongside necklaces, for frequently they are hung in
groups around the neck, and they can be attached to solid neck-rings as well as being
incorporated in 'standard' necklaces. Their positioning is not restricted to the neck
area, however: they are often found at the hip or waist, suggesting that they were
suspended from a belt. Though found in both male and female graves, they appear