of the mind of man. Thus the same extended observation, careful comparison, and due reflection, which enable the anatomist to pronounce upon the structure of an extinct animal from the inspection of a single bone, may lead the archæologist to the mental reproduction of a departed race from scattered and apparently insignificant remains. These considerations have induced me to attempt in the present paper, a classification and description of the chief remains of Celtic art, the Torques and its varieties. It is unnecessary to preface the result of my inquiries by a discussion of that much vexed question, viz. the descent of the Celtic races. It cannot be doubted that the origin of the Celts is to he sought among those eastern hordes, which from the earliest periods were naturally pressing on towards the west, and having at length surmounted the natural mountain-barriers of Asia, spread themselves laterally southwards on its rich and fertile plains; whence they were gradually driven still more to the west by the pressure of the swarms behind them. The Celts exhibit at an early period decided traces in their language, customs, and such simple arts as they exercised, of an Indo-Germanic descent. With these remarks I shall proceed to the subject I propose to treat of.
The torques. The Latin word torques[1] has been applied in a very extended sense to the various necklaces or collars for the neck, found in Britain, and other countries inhabited by the Celtic tribes. This word has been supposed to be derived from the Welch[2] or Irish[3] torc, which has the same signification, but the converse is equally plausible, that this was derived from the Latin. It bears great analogy to the Anglo-Saxon word to twist, and is agreed by all writers to have alluded to the twisted form of the ornament. The earlier Greek authors[4] when employing the term, and the later when translating from the Latin, use the word στρέπτον[5] that which is twisted, proofs if any were wanted, that its shape was twisted when they first became acquainted with it[6].
The first people who appear from their monuments to have used this twisted gold ornament for the neck are the Per-
- ↑ The authors in this country who have written on the torques, have universally followed the learned John Scheffer, "de Antiquis Torquibus." 16mo. Holm. 1656.
- ↑ Pughe, in Archæol., vol. xxi. p. 557.
- ↑ Petrie in Proc. Royal Irish Acad. 1827.
- ↑ Xenoph. Cyr., lib. i.
- ↑ Dio. LXII. s. 1. Joseph. x. 2. Suid. voce τορκουατος.
- ↑ Cf. Isidor. Orig. xix. c. 31.
