The Pietroasele Torc and the Conversion of the Goths

Abstract

The runic inscription on a torc found in 1837 as part of a treasure at what is now Pietroasele, Romania, has long been taken to be a product of Gothic paganism. The torc is generally thought to preserve a reference to the Goths and to holiness, and to be a cultic artefact. Yet the Pietroasele treasure is typically argued by archaeologists to have been deposited at the time of the collapse of the Hunnic Empire and the adoption of Christianity by the Ostrogothic kings. The inscription may be better analysed as a Christian text that makes reference to the holy lands of the Goths.