Enormous 3,000-Year-Old Gold Torc Unearthed in England May Have Been Worn By Pregnant Woman

A lucky metal detectorist has found a huge Bronze Age gold torc or circular belt that is being called the greatest archaeological find in England for more than 100 years, says a story about the find in The Guardian. The torc is almost pure gold, and experts believe it was fashioned more than 3,000 years ago.

The article says an expert believes that the torc or gold ring is so big that a pregnant woman may have worn it around her expansive waist. The person with the metal detector, who is not being named, found the 730-gram (25.75 ounces or 1 pound 9.75 ounces) torc within 50 miles (80.5 kilometers) of Must Farm, a highly important Bronze Age village that burned and was preserved in the peat of a marsh. However, the exact siteor even type of site where the detectorist found the torchas not been identified.

The type of torc resembles one found in 1844 in Grunty Fen, which is not far from Cambridgeshire. That torc, found by a man cutting peat, is in the collection of Cambridge University’s museum of archaeology. The one from 1844, however, was coiled up, unlike the huge torc found recently.