Title: The Gundestrup Cauldron
Creator: Unknown
Date: 150 B.C. – 0 A.D.
Period: Iron Age
Location: Contemporary Southwest Romania or Northwest Bulgaria
Culture: Celtic
Material: Silver
Dimensions: Diameter: 69 cm, Height: 42 cm
Repository: National Museum of Denmark
References: https://artsandculture.google.com/asset/the-gundestrup-cauldron-unknown/iQHPaEZeYsXT1g; National Museum of Denmark: https://en.natmus.dk/historical-knowledge/denmark/prehistoric-period-until-1050-ad/the-early-iron-age/the-gundestrup-cauldron/
Description: The Gundestrup Cauldron is a silver bowl displaying animals and various people and faces. The details jut out of the dish, contrasting the smoothness of the silver material with significant texture. The shape of the silver dish with a base plate and a large lip around the edge suggests that the silver dish is a cauldron as opposed to a simple bowl. However, as the cauldron is made of silver it probably served a more symbolic purpose that a practical one. A man sitting cross-legged features prominently on one of the plates, facing the inside of the bowl. He is wearing a headdress, perhaps displaying his status in society or as a deity. Thus, the cauldron perhaps served a purpose in death rituals, given its symbolic silver composition and the presence of deity’s on the plates. Surrounded by animals, this particular plate is remarkably similar to the Pashupati Seal of thousands of years prior in Mohenjo Daro of the Indus Valley. Various other faces and less detailed bodies are featured on the Cauldron along with a variety of animals, from horses to deer.
