A Change in Fashion
By Daniel Weiss · Archaeology, September/October 2026
Why it’s worth reading: An excellent account of how archaeologists reconstruct social change from repairs, surviving wooden cores, and the arrangement of buried objects. Weiss explores a new analysis of twelve Snettisham hoards in England, containing more than 70 complete or nearly complete torcs and bracelets.
The argument: Researchers Julia Farley and Jody Joy suggest that burying elaborate neck rings around the time local coinage emerged marked a change in how power was expressed: from unique ornaments worn by prominent individuals to wealth they could distribute. The deliberate arrangement of the objects supports ceremonial deposition rather than hurried concealment. The connection to changing political authority remains an interpretation, not an established fact.
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