The Celtic Gundestrup Cauldron

Synonyms:
Celt:

The Gundesdtrup Cauldron represents a collection of thirteen plates found deposited in a dry section of the Raevemose peat bog, Gundestrup, Himmerland, Denmark. This remarkable collection of 97%-pure silver plates (some of which are partly gilded) was discovered in 1891 and is kept in the National Museum of Denmark, Copenhagen. The plates themselves are thought to date from the late Celtic La Tène period (late second to first century BCE). Of the plates there is one round base plate, five long rectangular curved plates and seven smaller rectangular plates (with an eigth plate having been lost). The round plate forms the base, the long rectangle plates form the inside and the short rectangular plates from the outside of a large bowl-shaped vessel some 69cm in diameter and 42 cm in height. The assembled bowl (or cauldron as it is more commonly called) is shown above, left. Due to the ornamental nature of the bowl and its size it is often assumed that the bowl was used for either sacrificial or sacral purposes.

The vessel itself was re-assembled into its present form by Sophus Müller in 1892 and it was Klindt-Jensen who labelled the interior plates A–E and the external plates a–g (which is the labelling system used for all the images on the left. The base of the vessel (shown above) is dominated by the image of a bull which lies in a slumped aspect, as if dying. There is a dog lying at the bull's feet and another dog running over the bull's shoulders whilst there is a depiction of a man bearing a sword near the bull's back (though the man is in a different alignment to all the other animals and his part in the narrative is uncertain).

Of the internal plates plate A is probably the most well known and shows a horned male figure seated in a central position. He holds a torc in his right hand and the ram-horned serpent in his left. He is attended by a stag on his right and a boar on his left. Because of this symbology the figure is generally identified as the god Cernunnos. As well as these figures there are is also a single dog, two lions facing each other and two animals that may either be cattle or antelope. There is also a single humanfigure who rides the back of an animal that may very well be a dolphin. Plate B depicts a goddess flanked by two six-spoked wheels and two elephantine creatures who seem to posess the body and tusks of a wild boar, the hind legs of a bull and the tusk of an elephant. Two griphins and a large hound are also displayed.

Plate C shows the bust of a bearded god who holds a broken wheel in his righ hand (for this reason he is sometimes identified with the Celtic thunder god Taranos. The wheel is supported by a smaller figure with a horned helm who is depicted in a jumping stance. Below the group is a single ram-horned serpent, three griffins and a pair of what may be leopards. Plate D shows what is probably the ritual sacrifice of three bulls by three sword-bearing men and each bull has a dog at its feet and another above its back (indeed, the symbology is very similar to that of the base plate.

Plate E is the next most well nown and undoubtedly the most complex in terms of its symbology. The bottom of the plate shows a row of warriors bearing shields supporting a tree on their spears. These are accompanied by three figures playing boar-headed carnyxes. Above the tree ride four wariors, each with a boar-crested helm (two of these are bearing spears). To the left of these figures there is a dog, apparently leaping up at the tree. On the left-hand side of the panel is a giant figure who is immersing a figure in a cauldron. This plate has been referred to as depicting a 'warrior initiation' though the symbology may be more like that of Bendigeidfran's cauldron of resurrection in the Mabinogi of Branwen ferch Llŷr.

The smaller, external, plates depict the busts of human figures (probably deities); four of which are male and three female (which suggest that the missing eigth plate was probably of a female deity. Plate a shows a bearded figure who holds two other figures aloft by their arms. These figures themselves hold up a boar each. The god himself bears a dog on his right shoulder and a winged horse on the left. Plate b is also of a bearded male deity (this time wearing a torc) who holds a dragon or wyvern aloft in each hand. Across the figure's chest is an elongated dog who holds a man in his jaws and another man in his tail. Plate c is of anothe betorced and bearded deity who holds his arms aloft. On the right shoulder he has a figure in pugilistic stance whilet on the left shoulder is a small rider and a larger leaping figure. Plate d shows another male figure with a very full beard (as for the figure in plate a) . He holds a pair of deer aloft in each hand, holding them by the hind legs so that they dangle downwards.

Plate e shows the first of the goddesses. She wears a torc, had her hands down by her breasts and there are two smaller busts above her shoulders (one of these is definitely male and hte other may be female and both wear torcs). Plate f depicts another goddess with farily complex iconography. Her right hand is upraised and bears a small bird. Her left hand is held below her breasts and either supports a small figure (or has a small figure falling from it). Below her right breast is the supine figure of a dog. The goddess has a torc about her neck and has long hair which is being braided by a figure on her right-hand side. There is a further female figure sitting on her right and above this figure is a dog. At the top of the plate two birds are ascending skywards. The final plate, plate g shows a further betorced goddess wth arms crossed below her breasts. On her right shoulder there is the depiction of a man fighting a lion and on her right shoulder there is a leaping figure who is virtually identical to the one shown in plate c.

There is little doubt that the Gundestrup cauldron represents a piece of Iron Age art. Indeed, it is probably the largest and best known such example. The artwork itself is exquisite and suggests that at least four (and possibly more) craftsmen were involved in its creation. The execution of the pieces suggest craftsmanship from the Balkans (Thrace of Romania). However, much of the iconography is undoubtedly Celtic: from the depictions of Cernunnos with his two torce to the ram-horned serpents, the preponderance of torcs, the shields swords and spears of the warriors as well as their boar-crested helms, the stag and boar images as well as the carnyxes and the solar wheels are purely Celtic forms of imagery. As a result of this the origins of the piece has caused considerable debate. It is possible that the piece is of Thracian manufacture possibly commissioned by the Celtic Scordisci which then fell into the hands of the Cimbri who invaded the Middle lower Danube in 120 BC. An alternate explanation is the the piece was comissioned by a Gaulish leader (who were wealthy with gold by the second century BCE and who are now known to have traded extensively with the east). It then seems that the piece fell into Germanic hands and was transported northwards to Jutland where, according to pollen analysis, the cauldron was originally placed on dry earth and not initially buried only later was it interred in its final resting place of the bog.

Though the interpretation of the iconography represented on the cauldron may never be satisfactorily interpreted with any real certainly. However, there are themes of death and rebirth, of the sacrifice of bulls and this is reminiscent of the Irish practice of bull divination and it may relate to sacral kingship.

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