Gundestrup Cauldron: The Silver Vessel of Celtic Gods

The Gundestrup Cauldron is a richly decorated silver vessel found in a peat bog in northern Denmark in 1891. Made in the late Iron Age, probably between about 150 BC and AD 1, it is covered with images of gods, warriors and animals, including a famous antlered figure often identified as the Celtic god Cernunnos. Although found in Denmark, it was probably made far to the south-east, and its origins remain one of the great puzzles of European archaeology.

Discovery in the bog

On 28 May 1891 peat cutters working in the Rævemose bog near the hamlet of Gundestrup, in the Himmerland district of northern Jutland, uncovered pieces of silver. The cauldron had been deliberately taken apart before deposit: the plates were stacked inside the bowl, and it lay on what was then a dry patch of ground within the bog. One of the outer plates is missing, and only a fragment of the tubular rim survives.

The find was declared treasure and passed to the National Museum in Copenhagen, where the archaeologist Sophus Müller, later its director, studied and published it. Like many other Iron Age objects from Scandinavian bogs, it was almost certainly placed there as a religious offering.

Construction

The cauldron is about 69 centimetres in diameter and 42 centimetres high, and weighs around 9 kilograms. It is made of silver of high purity, with gilding on some surfaces. It consists of a round bowl, a round base plate (medallion) set inside the bottom, five rectangular inner plates and seven outer plates, originally eight. Glass once filled the eyes of some figures.

The images were made by hammering the silver from behind (repoussé) and then chasing fine details from the front. Analysis of the tool marks suggests that several craftsmen worked on the plates.

The images

The scenes are crowded with figures and animals. On one inner plate a seated figure with antlers holds a torc, a Celtic neck ring, in one hand and a ram-horned serpent in the other, surrounded by a stag, a boar, lions and other creatures. Because the name Cernunnos, “the horned one”, is recorded beside a similar antlered image on the Pillar of the Boatmen in Paris (1st century AD), this figure is often identified as that god.

Another inner plate shows a procession of warriors on foot and horseback, with carnyx trumpets shaped like animal heads, while a large figure appears to plunge a man into a vessel. This has been read as a sacrifice, a ritual of rebirth or a scene from a lost myth. A third plate shows a bearded god holding a wheel, often linked with the Celtic sky god Taranis. The base medallion depicts a great bull with a warrior or hunter.

The outer plates carry busts of gods and goddesses, some holding smaller figures or animals. Elephants, griffins and lions also appear, creatures unknown in northern Europe, which point to artistic influences from the Mediterranean or the East.

Where was it made?

The cauldron’s place of manufacture is hotly debated. Its religious imagery, with torcs, carnyxes, antlered gods and Celtic-style equipment, has long been compared with the art of La Tene culture, and earlier scholars saw it as Gaulish work.

The technique, however, closely resembles Thracian silverwork from the lower Danube region, in modern Bulgaria and Romania. The archaeologist Timothy Taylor and others have argued that it was made by Thracian silversmiths, perhaps for Celtic patrons such as the Scordisci who lived along the middle Danube. Scientific analysis of the silver has also pointed to sources outside Scandinavia. How it reached Denmark is unknown. One suggestion links it to the Cimbri, a people from Jutland who migrated south and fought Rome between 113 and 101 BC, though there is no direct evidence.

Myths and facts

The cauldron is often presented as a straightforward illustrated guide to Celtic religion. In fact, almost none of its figures can be named with certainty, and the images mix Celtic, Thracian and other traditions. It is a crucial source, but one to be read with caution.

It is also sometimes called a Viking treasure because it was found in Denmark. It is older than the Viking Age by around a thousand years.

Timeline

• c. 150 BC - AD 1: The cauldron is made, most likely in south-eastern Europe.
• 113-101 BC: The Cimbri, thought to have come from Jutland, fight Roman armies in Europe.
• Late Iron Age (date uncertain): The dismantled cauldron is placed in the Rævemose bog.
• 28 May 1891: Peat cutters discover the cauldron near Gundestrup.
• 2002: Renewed investigation of the find spot at Rævemose recovers a small additional fragment.

Why it matters

The Gundestrup Cauldron is the largest and most elaborate silver vessel surviving from Iron Age Europe. It is a key image of the Celtic world, used in countless books, yet it also shows how far objects, craftsmen and ideas travelled across Europe in the age of Caesar’s Gallic Wars.