The Gundestrup cauldron was found in 1891 in a bog in Himmerland, Jutland (Denmark). Weighing almost nine kilos and measuring 69 cm in diameter, the vessel was found dismantled and laid in a dry spot of the marshy area, as pollen analysis has shown.
It is thought that the silver plates, all finely decorated, originally formed the covering of a large cauldron, perhaps made of wood, which was later dismantled and probably deposited as a votive offering; for this reason the sequence of the plates is unknown and the order in which they are currently presented is an arbitrary reconstruction.
Structure and imagery
The outside of the cauldron must have been adorned with eight almost square plates (approx. 25.5 cm x 26 cm), of which only 7 have survived: the missing plate may have depicted a fourth female deity.
The scenes, classified with lower-case letters, are as follows:
– a, b, c, d: each of these four plates bears the bust of a male deity, with arms raised in the gesture of prayer.
– e, g: each of these two shows a goddess, with arms crossed or resting on her chest.
– f: a goddess with her right hand raised, on which a bird is perched.
Each of these figures is distinguished by a different hairstyle, beard, shape of torc (or by the absence of this ornament), as well as by secondary motifs depicting people, animals, attendants of the god or allusions to a myth associated with him. Unlike the inner plates, certain backgrounds and details have been enhanced with gilding.
On the inside, five large plates (approx. 41 cm x 20 cm) were arranged vertically around a circular base on which a recumbent bull is depicted in high relief. These plates, classified with capital letters, show:
– A: the god with stag’s antlers, known in Gaul as Cernunnos, sitting cross-legged with a torc in his right hand and the ram-headed serpent in his left, surrounded by animals (a stag, a boar, ibexes, lions and even a large fish, perhaps a dolphin, ridden by a small figure).
– B: a goddess framed by elephants and griffins, similar to the one depicted on outer plate g, but with two figures, probably male, one of whom is fighting a wild beast.
– C: the god with the wheel, generally identified as Taranis, who also appears on plate c.
– D: three large bulls, in front of each of which stands a figure pointing a sword at the animal’s throat: three running quadrupeds (dogs or wolves?) frame the main theme above and below, which is generally regarded as a sacrificial killing.
– E: this plate shows a sort of military procession, with four horsemen at the top following the ram-headed serpent towards the right; at the bottom, three carnyx players marching towards the left are depicted, preceded by a man wearing a helmet crowned with a boar and carrying his weapon on his shoulder, and by six foot soldiers equipped with spear and shield: in front of them a figure more than twice their height, with carefully braided hair, holds a man of normal size upside down above an object that might be a vessel, a tub made of staves. Between the two rows a tree is laid horizontally, its bare roots turned towards the large figure, above a dog standing on its hind legs. This scene has been interpreted as a human sacrifice by drowning, but also as a depiction of the figure’s passage to the otherworld, after immersion in the tub that grants immortality.
Manufacture
From the marks of the punches used to decorate the plates, it has been possible to establish that three different sets were used, probably corresponding to three craftsmen. This finding matches the results of stylistic analysis: one craftsman would have made four outer plates (c, d, e, g) and three inner ones (B, C, D); another two outer plates (b, f) and two inner ones (A, E), and a third would have made the base with the bull. One outer plate (a) cannot be attributed, as it bears no punch marks.
Origin and dating
The weapons and ornaments depicted make it reasonable to suppose that it was made between the end of the 3rd century BC and the beginning of the second half of the 1st century BC. Opinions differ, however, as to its place of origin: scholars mainly attribute it to two areas, present-day France and the lower Danube regions. The reason for this disagreement lies in the ambivalent evidence offered by the object itself: on the one hand the style and workmanship are clearly Thracian, on the other some of the motifs are unmistakably Celtic, some of them very common in Gaul. In particular, the very nature of the object, a cauldron, is consistent with Celtic ritual and has never been found in Thrace; on the other hand, the technique of silver embossed in high relief and partially gilded is typical of Thracian craftsmanship between the 4th and the 1st century BC. The way the animals’ coats are rendered is also typically Thracian in conception, as is the presence of dogs and fantastic animals such as griffins. A particular stylistic feature is the curl on the forehead of the great bull on the base plate: although such swirls or triskeles are well known in Celtic art, they never appear on the foreheads of bulls there, whereas this feature seems typically Thracian. As for the faces and clothing, it is hard to draw satisfactory parallels, since they can be found both in Thrace and in Gaul, apart from one detail on a Thracian phalera found in a tomb at Stara Zagora (Bulgaria), which shows Heracles fighting the lion dressed in a garment identical in every respect to the one seen several times on the cauldron, with a blouse and tight trousers ending at the knee with their striped pattern. Note the affinity between this military procession and the only other narrative work of Celtic art, the Hallstatt sword scabbard, which is more than three centuries older.
As for the torcs, although typically Celtic and very common in the West, they were also widespread among the eastern and south-eastern Celts, as in the case of the Dying Gaul. Furthermore, two torcs belong to a rare non-Celtic group, whose origin probably lies in southern Russia, on the Black Sea.
The shields depicted on the cauldron are the long, typically Celtic type, but finds in Bulgaria and Romania prove that shields of this kind were also used by non-Celtic eastern tribes.
In south-eastern Europe the horn as a musical instrument has never been found in the form in which it appears on the cauldron, whereas finds and depictions are frequent in western Europe; the helmets shown are also Celtic: those with birds or boars as crests are known among both western and eastern Celts.
Some of the iconographic motifs seem to find their best parallels in Thracian silverwork, but the horned god (Cernunnos), attested in the West, is absent in the East, as is the ram-headed serpent.
Conclusions
The cauldron was certainly not intended for private use but for ceremonial use in an important community sanctuary, from which it seems likely to have been taken following a conflict.
On the basis of all these observations, it has been suggested that the Celtic tribe of the Scordisci, who in the 3rd century BC settled partly in Thrace, could account for all the elements and apparent contradictions observed in the Gundestrup cauldron; in north-western Bulgaria, several necropolises document an apparently peaceful coexistence with Thracian tribes, which is also alluded to by historical sources. Even if this were true, the mystery of how it ended up in Denmark still remains to be solved; perhaps it was brought there by the Cimbri who, during their wanderings across Europe, came into contact with the Scordisci. It is no coincidence that the region of Jutland where the vessel was found still bears the name of the Cimbrian tribe, Himmerland. This hypothesis, however convincing, remains one of the countless theories put forward to date; unfortunately, at present none of them seems entirely conclusive.
Bibliography
– I Celti; scientific direction by Sabatino Moscati, Otto Hermann Frey, Venceslas Kruta, Barry Raftery and Miklòs Szabò; Bompiani publisher; 1997
– I Celti; Venceslas Kruta; L’Ippocampo publisher; 2007