The Casco de Leiro (Museo Arqueolóxico e Histórico, Castelo San Antón, A Coruña)
The gold Casco de Leiro ("Helmet of Leiro") is a ritual hemispherical cap probably dating to the end of the Late Bronze Age[1] (circa 1,000 to 800 BC) in the town of Leiro (municipality of Rianxo, Galicia, Spain). The circumstances of its discovery show that technically it constitutes part of a hoard.[2]
The cap, hammered from a single casting of gold,[3] is entirely covered with registers of repeated repoussé decoration, hammered over bronze molds, of repeated bosses alternating with bands of repeated concentric circles. The central point is applied with a flat-sided point in the form of a truncated cone. Its maximum diameter is 19.5cm with a height of 15cm to the base of the point, it weighs 270 grams.[4]
Its registers of hammered decoration present parallels with the decors of late Bronze Age conical golden hats of the Schifferstadt type, as well as the Comerford crown (from Ireland) and the gold bowls found at Axtroki, Guipúzcoa, or the so-called Treasure of Villena, Alicante. There is a possibility that its uses were twofold: as a ritual basin, though it is decoratively pierced with an awl, and inverted as an emblem of authority.
The casque was a chance discovery made by a fisherman, José Vicente Somoza, on 7 April 1976 at a small rocky point called Curruncho dos Porcos, by the beach at Leiro (Rianxo) in Galicia, Spain. The site, on the large estuary called the Ría de Arousa, is part of the estuary system of the Ulla, which offers "optimum conditions for navigation" and has served since time immemorial as an easy passage into the heart of Galicia.[5] Removing some earth to flatten a space for a shed in which to beach his boat, he struck a coarsely made[6] earthenware crock that broke as he struck it. He immediately saw that it contained a gold object, and he reported the find to the Guardia Civil of Rianxo and the Department of Archaeology at the Instituto de Estudios Gallegos Padre Sarmiento[Wikidata]. The find was transferred to the Museo Arqueolóxico e Histórico of A Coruña, where it is conserved.[7]
↑ As remarked by Almeida et al., "Galicia Different Place: da cronoloxía do ouro precastrexo e ouros tópicos", Historia Nova: Contribución dos Xoves Historiadores do Galicis3 (1994:30f), noted by Comendador Rey 2003.
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A torc, also spelled torq or torque, is a large rigid or stiff neck ring in metal, made either as a single piece or from strands twisted together. The great majority are open at the front, although some have hook and ring closures and a few have mortice and tenon locking catches to close them. Many seem designed for near-permanent wear and would have been difficult to remove. Torcs have been found in Scythian, Illyrian, Thracian, Celtic, and other cultures of the European Iron Age from around the 8th century BC to the 3rd century AD. For Iron Age Celts, the gold torc seems to have been a key object. It identified the wearer as a person of high rank, and many of the finest works of ancient Celtic art are torcs. Celtic torcs disappeared in the Migration Period, but during the Viking Age torc-style metal necklaces, mainly in silver, came back into fashion. Similar neck-rings are also part of the jewellery styles of various other cultures and periods.
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