Discovered, in Denmark in 1891, dismantled, it arranges the map of Pagan Europe in a new light.
It consists of thirteen plates - there may be one missing - five inner plates and seven outer plates. It has been suggested that they may have been derived from a different shape such as box - not cauldron - because the plates do not fit together so well.
It is widely believed to be of Celtic origin, however many of the designs and motifs are quite alien to the so-called Celtic art (more accurately - La Tene art).
People living in Central Europe, four centuries BC, started to develop their own distinctive style. From the very early stage, this art (commonly recognized as Celtic) displays the delight in ornamental and geometrical patterns and elaborated details. There is very little of it on those plates - no famous spiral-like ornamentation, no complicated symmetry, very little of abstract flowing patterns, no characteristic trinities of gods.
The torques (neck-rings) generally linked with the Celts, were first depicted in Scythian art and used both by Gauls and Thracians, as sign of nobility. The renowned plate with the Horned God is an important figure of Bronze and Iron Age, all over Europe, not only in Celtic tradition.
People living in Central Europe, four centuries BC, started to develop their own distinctive style. From the very early stage, this art (commonly recognized as Celtic) displays the delight in ornamental and geometrical patterns and elaborated details. There is very little of it on those plates - no famous spiral-like ornamentation, no complicated symmetry, very little of abstract flowing patterns, no characteristic trinities of gods.
The torques (neck-rings) generally linked with the Celts, were first depicted in Scythian art and used both by Gauls and Thracians, as sign of nobility. The renowned plate with the Horned God is an important figure of Bronze and Iron Age, all over Europe, not only in Celtic tradition.
There is one La Tene/Celtic identifiable scene, according to archeologists - the depicted warriors carry carnyxes (animal-shaped trumpets), and wear typical Celtic warrior's helmets, on one of those plates, suggesting a date period of 175–150 B.C.
It is generally agreed that the cauldron was made by a Thracian craftsmen with some Celtic, Greek, Etruscan, Anatolian and possibly even Indian influence. The smith techniques and its portrayal of abstract animals are commonly observed in Thracian metal work. Indian parallels see goddess being surrounded by the elephants on plate B. Other animals look more Oriental then European.
Some scholars suggest it was made by Thracians for the Celtic/Gallic/La Tene tribe, who lived in Thrace. From the fourth century B.C. some of those tribes had moved progressively from Central Europe into Balkans and Southern Greece.
Burials from that region and period contain equipment of similar type to that depicted on the cauldron. Some of the migration led to central Anatolia (Galatia), modern Turkey. It is quite possible that this culturally rich region of intermingled influences and idea assimilated from different traditions, had created this melting pot of some kind - Cauldron of Culture.
Could the Gundestrup cauldron be the manifestation of such cultural variety dominating in Hellenized world of that time? Certainly, yes.
Burials from that region and period contain equipment of similar type to that depicted on the cauldron. Some of the migration led to central Anatolia (Galatia), modern Turkey. It is quite possible that this culturally rich region of intermingled influences and idea assimilated from different traditions, had created this melting pot of some kind - Cauldron of Culture.
Could the Gundestrup cauldron be the manifestation of such cultural variety dominating in Hellenized world of that time? Certainly, yes.
To add spices to that melting-pot vision - the plates were found in completely different corner of Europe - inhabited by the Cimbri, a German tribe, at the time of its abandonment. How was it imported so far, and why? Cimbri raided southwards around 120 BCE and invaded the lower Danube, where La Tene people lived, having established trading routes with the Greek world, long ago. Those Celtic people could get the cauldron from their relative tribe, living further south, in Galatia.
From lower Danube, it may have been taken by the Cimbri warrior, back to what is now Himmerland in Denmark, probably already dismantled and carefully stacked under the dry ground as a well-hidden treasure (the bog grew up over it, so it wasn't a votive deposit), near an Iron Age settlement of that time.
It is thus important to see the cauldron not of Celtic-only origins. All those possible multilayered connections are far more fascinating of what is behind its design.
As a melting pot of Iron Age Europe, the cauldron - significant symbol itself, found in countless legends and myths - is not only better off, but closer to the truth, to be linked with the inter-tribal, Pagan and somewhat syncretic Europe, and not only to one of her ancestral branches. And as such, it could more easily be seen as a symbol of PanEuropean Paganism.
You can find its amazing layout and detailed description in the Gallery.
