#Archaeology31 #FolkloreThursday

Hmmmm. Today's theme is a bit tricky.

Not only is it not Thursday (...or is it? It's 2021, so I have no idea!), but I also don't have any torc folklore.

So...

...I bring you #FibbingFolkloreNotThursday

Thread.

It's a little known fact that the Snettisham Great Torc isn't really Iron Age, but was actually made from gold excavated from the #Saxon #SuttonHoo ship burial in 1939!

Oh yes, really! It's true!

Ever wondered where the rest of this purse went? Well, here's your answer - the lid was taken off + the rest of the gold purse was melted down to make the torc.

(The lid would have been melted down too were it not for the garnets, which would have completely ruined the alloy!)

However, there wasn't quite enough gold from the purse so they also melted down the second one of these - originally one of a matched pair of buckles, mounted on the braces that used to hold up Raedwald's trousers!

(I know - gold braces! The extravagance of these Saxons, eh?)

When they finally had enough gold, the Great Torc could be made.

Initial designs for the torc were far more extravagant than the torc that was eventually created.

As you can see here, the preliminary torc terminal designs were rather OTT...

... whilst the idea for matching cufflinks was soon abandoned when it was pointed out that Boudica didn't wear dress shirts!

(However, if confirmed, the rumour of a recently excavated - and beautifully preserved - bowtie from an IA grave in France could yet prove this wrong!)

Eventually a design was settled upon - 'just make the bloody terminals like that Scottish one, we're running out of time!' - and the Great Torc was magicked into life by a blacksmith, called Fred, working in a secret location in Dudley.

Clandestinely buried in a field in Norfolk in early 1940, for the next eight years it was carefully watched over by the secretive 'Order of the Torc' until - whilst The Illuminati were on a coffee break - a terrible incident with a tractor brought it to light...

With the discovery, the members of the Order scattered, vanishing into the shadowy underworld of torc conspiracy + myth.

However, I think it's time for the real story to be told + can't wait to see it covered in the new film, 'The Dig' - the public deserves to know the truth!