Spirit of Equinox Witches Broth Cauldron Soup Bowl

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a b c d e f g Olmsted, Garrett S (1979), "The Gundestrup cauldron: its archaeological context, the style and iconography of its portrayed motifs and their narration of a Gaulish version of Táin Bó Cúailnge", Collection Latomus 162 [Latomus: Bruxelle 1979]. ISBN 2-87031-102-8 The cauldron is not complete, and now consists of a rounded cup-shaped bottom making up the lower part of the cauldron, usually called the base plate, above which are five interior plates and seven exterior ones; a missing eighth exterior plate would be needed to encircle the cauldron, and only two sections of a rounded rim at the top of the cauldron survive. The base plate is mostly smooth and undecorated inside and out, apart from a decorated round medallion in the centre of the interior. All the other plates are heavily decorated with repoussé work, hammered from beneath to push out the silver. Other techniques were used to add detail, and there is extensive gilding and some use of inlaid pieces of glass for the eyes of figures. Other pieces of fittings were found. Altogether the weight is just under 9 kilograms. [7] The Gundestrup cauldron is located at the National Museum of Denmark. Source: Wikimedia Commons, Nationalmuseet. This section contains an unencyclopedic or excessive gallery of images. Please help improve the section by removing excessive or indiscriminate images or by moving relevant images beside adjacent text, in accordance with the Manual of Style on use of images. ( Learn how and when to remove this template message) a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Jouttijärvi, Arne (2009), "The Gundestrup Cauldron: Metallurgy and Manufacturing Techniques”, Materials and Manufacturing Processes, 24: 960–966. ISSN 1042-6914

On plate a, the bearded man holds in each hand a much smaller figure by the arm. Each of those two reach upward toward a small boar. Under the feet of the figures (on the shoulders of the larger man) are a dog on the left side and a winged horse on the right side.

Ancient people of Denmark believed that after death they had to take a long journey to get to their afterlife. They typically cremated their dead on a funeral pyre. After the funeral, they placed the ashes into an urn and buried them – often along with some possessions and food for the journey to the afterlife. Therefore, goods in the bogs may have been both sacrifices and items that would accompany the dead on their journey. Perhaps after the owner of the Gundestrup cauldron died, the magical silver piece went into the bog to go to his or her afterlife. Each of the seven exterior plates centrally depicts a bust. Plates a, b, c, and d show bearded male figures, and the remaining three are female. Both Olmsted and Taylor agree that the female of plate f might be Rhiannon of the Mabinogion. Rhiannon is famous for her birds, whose songs could "awaken the dead and lull the living to sleep". In this role, Rhiannon could be considered the Goddess of the Otherworld. [5] [13]

Apart from Cernunnos and Taranis, discussed above, there is no consensus regarding the other figures, and many scholars reject attempts to tie them in to figures known from much later and geographically distant sources. Some Celticists have explained the elephants depicted on plate B as a reference to Hannibal's crossing of the Alps. [5] Olmsted, Garrett (2001), "Celtic Art in Transition during the First Century BC", Archaeolingua: Volume 12: 2001: ISBN 9638046376. Other details with more tentative Celtic links are the long swords carried by some figures, and the horned and antlered helmets or head-dresses and the boar crest worn on their helmet by some warriors. These can be related to Celtic artefacts such as a helmet with a raptor crest from Romania, the Waterloo Helmet, Torrs Pony-cap and Horns and various animal figures including boars, of uncertain function. The shield bosses, spurs and horse harness also relate to Celtic examples. [26] Gallo-Roman figure of Taranis/ Jupiter with his wheel and thunderbolt, and carrying torcsSandars, 252; Megaws, 174–175; Laings, 85, and 68–69 on the even larger, but very fragmentary, Brå cauldron The large bust of a bearded figure holding on to a broken wheel is at the centre of plate C. A smaller, leaping figure with a horned helmet is also holding the rim of the wheel. Under the leaping figure is a horned serpent. The group is surrounded by three griffins facing left below, and above, two strange animals who look like hyenas, [19] facing right. The wheel's spokes are rendered asymmetrically, but judging from the lower half, the wheel may have had twelve spokes.

Their trumpets again are of a peculiar barbarian kind; they blow into them and produce a harsh sound which suits the tumult of war"Kaul, Fleming (ed), Thracian Tales on the Gundestrup Cauldron, 1991, Najade Press, ISBN 9073835011, 9789073835016

Sandars, Nancy K., Prehistoric Art in Europe, Penguin (Pelican, now Yale, History of Art), 1968 (nb 1st edn.) Koch, John ed., "Gundestrup cauldron" in Celtic Culture: A Historical Encyclopedia, 2006, ABC-CLIO, ISBN 1851094407, 9781851094400, google books Ultimately, we may never know exactly what the purpose of the Gundestrup cauldron was. We may never discover why someone had carefully buried it in the peat bog. It certainly meant enough to someone to transport it or have someone transport it to Denmark from a very faraway place, probably the Balkans. Perhaps it also meant enough for that person to take it to the grave and into the afterlife. Other details of the iconography clearly derive from the art of the ancient Near East, and there are intriguing parallels with ancient India and later Hindu deities and their stories. Scholars are mostly content to regard the former as motifs borrowed purely for their visual appeal, without carrying over anything much of their original meaning, but despite the distance some have attempted to relate the latter to wider traditions remaining from Proto-Indo-European religion. An examination of lead isotopes similar to the one used on the silver was employed for the tin. All of the samples of tin soldering are consistent in lead-isotope composition with ingots from Cornwall in western Britain. The tin used for soldering the plates and bowl together, as well as the glass eyes, is very uniform in its high purity. [1] [2]The antlered figure in plate A has been commonly identified as Cernunnos, who is named (the only source for the name) on the 1st-century Gallo-Roman Pillar of the Boatmen, where he is shown as an antlered figure with torcs hanging from his antlers. [27] Possibly the lost portion below his bust showed him seated cross-legged as the figure on the cauldron is. Otherwise there is evidence of a horned god from several cultures. In addition, there is a piece of iron from a ring originally placed inside the silver tubes along the rim of the cauldron. [1] [2] It is assumed that there is a missing eighth plate because the circumference of the seven outer plates is smaller than the circumference of the five inner plates. [1] [2] [4] [5] Cauldrons can be found from the late Bronze Age period; these include vast ones with a volume of 60–70 litres (16–18 USgal). [3] Symbolism and mythology [ edit ] A cauldron over a fire in William Blake's illustrations to his mythical Europe a Prophecy first published in 1794. This version of the print is currently held by the Fitzwilliam Museum Metallurgy [ edit ] Inside panel A with the famous horned figure Inside panel D with bull-slaying, replica A silver Thracian plate from another grave found in Stara Zagora, Bulgaria also shows incredible similarities to the Gundestrup cauldron. The metal-work, the griffins, the stripes on the clothing of a man believed to be Hercules, and the postures of the fantastic animals reflect those of the caldron.