72-408: The Gundestrup cauldron is a richly decorated silver vessel , thought to date from between 200 BC and 300 AD, or more narrowly between 150 BC and 1 BC. This places it within the late La Tène period or early Roman Iron Age . The cauldron is the largest known example of European Iron Age silver work (diameter: 69 cm (27 in); height: 42 cm (17 in)). It was found dismantled, with
144-417: 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 it weighs just under 9 kilograms (20 lb) . While
216-418: A female figure wielding a sword; three dogs are also portrayed, one over the bull's head and another under its hooves. Presumably all of these figures are in combat; the third dog, located beneath the bull and near its tail, seems to be dead, and is only faintly shown in engraving , and the bull may have been brought down . Below the bull is scrolling ivy that draws from classical Greco-Roman art. The horns of
288-470: 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. 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
360-522: A number of Iron Age images; there are also many wheels that seem to have been amulets . The many animals depicted on the cauldron include elephants , a dolphin , leopard -like felines, and various fantastic animals, as well as animals that are widespread across Eurasia , such as snakes, cattle, deer, boars and birds. Celtic art often includes animals, but not often in fantastic forms with wings and aspects of different animals combined. There are exceptions to this, some when motifs are clearly borrowed, as
432-531: A silversmith to produce objects and store them as stock. Historian Jack Ogden states that, according to an edict written by Diocletian in 301 A.D., a silversmith was able to charge 75, 100, 150, 200, 250, or 300 denarii per Roman pound for material produce. At that time, guilds of silversmiths formed to arbitrate disputes, protect its members' welfare, and educate the public of the trade. Silversmiths in medieval Europe and England formed guilds and transmitted their tools and techniques to new generations via
504-587: Is laser beam welding . Silversmiths may also work with copper and brass , especially when making practice pieces, due to those materials having similar working properties and being more affordable than silver. National Museum of Ireland The National Museum of Ireland ( Irish : Ard-Mhúsaem na hÉireann ) is Ireland's leading museum institution, with a strong emphasis on national and some international archaeology, Irish history, Irish art , culture, and natural history . It has three branches in Dublin ,
576-420: Is a metalworker who crafts objects from silver . The terms silversmith and goldsmith are not exact synonyms , as the techniques, training, history, and guilds are (or were, at least) largely the same but differed in that the end product may vary greatly (as may the scale of objects created). In the ancient Near East (as holds true today), the value of silver was lower than the value of gold, allowing
648-573: Is depicted on outer plate f , which is adjacent and opposite to plate E . 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. Taylor presents a more pancultural view of
720-609: Is highly unlikely that only one ethnic group was responsible for the development of the Gundestrup cauldron. Instead, the make and art of the cauldron can be thought of as the product of a fusion of cultures, each inspiring and expanding upon one another. In the end, based on accelerator datings from beeswax found on the back of the plates, Nielsen concludes that the vessel was created within the Roman Iron Age. However, an addendum to Nielson's article indicates that results from
792-423: 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
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#1732772763272864-780: The Cimbri , a Teutonic tribe, went south from the lower Elbe region and attacked the Scordisci in 118 BC. After withstanding several defeats at the hands of the Romans, the Cimbri retreated north, possibly taking with them this cauldron to settle in Himmerland , where the vessel was found. According to Olmsted (2001) the art style of the Gundestrup cauldron is that utilized in Armorican coinage dating to 75–55 BCE , as exemplified in
936-624: The Hall of Antiquities , along with the RIA. Following this the museum opened five days a week to the public. The Science and Art Museum was established in 1877, becoming the National Museum of Science and Art in 1900, and the National Museum of Ireland after independence. It also included the collection of the Museum of Irish Industry , which had been founded in 1847. The collections of both
1008-615: The Helden phalera, then there are a number of silver items of the type exemplified by the Gundestrup cauldron originating in northwest France, dating to just before the Roman conquest . Nielsen believes that the question of origin is the wrong one to ask and can produce misleading results. Because of the widespread migration of numerous ethnic groups like the Celts and Teutonic peoples and events like Roman expansion and subsequent Romanization, it
1080-473: The Musée gallo-romain de Fourvière at Lyon and the Musée d'archéologie nationale at Saint-Germain-en-Laye . Since the cauldron was found in pieces, it had to be reconstructed. The traditional order of the plates was determined by Sophus Müller , the first of many to analyze the cauldron. His logic uses the positions of the trace solder located at the rim of the bowl. In two cases, a puncture mark penetrating
1152-670: The Royal Dublin Society (RDS) and the Royal Irish Academy (RIA). The earliest parts of the collections are largely geological and mineralogical specimens, which the RDS collected as a means to improve the knowledge and use of such resources in Ireland. The establishment of the museum collections is generally deemed to have begun with the purchase of the collection of Nathanael Gottfried Leske in 1792. One of
1224-531: The apprentice tradition. Silverworking guilds often maintained consistency and upheld standards at the expense of innovation. Beginning in the 17th century, artisans emigrated to America and experienced fewer restrictions. As a result, silverworking was one of the trades that helped to inaugurate the technological and industrial history of the United States silverworking shift to industrialization. Very exquisite and distinctly designed silverware, especially
1296-538: The archaeology and natural history museums adjacent on Kildare Street and Merrion Square , and a newer Decorative Arts and History branch at the former Collins Barracks , and the Country Life museum in County Mayo . The National Museum of Ireland descends from the amalgamation of parts of the collections of a number of Dublin cultural institutions from the 18th and 19th centuries, including primarily
1368-502: The entomology and ornithology specimens. After Giescke's death in 1833, John Scouler was appointed curator in 1834. During this time the collections were open to the public two days a week from noon to 3pm, and to students at all times. By this time the need for a new museum was deemed to be critical. This led to the construction of the building which now houses the Natural History Museum on Merrion Street. With
1440-534: The iconography derive from the Near East . Hospitality on a large scale was probably an obligation for Celtic elites, and although cauldrons were therefore an important item of prestige metalwork, they are usually much plainer and smaller than this. This is an exceptionally large and elaborate object with no close parallel, except a large fragment from a bronze cauldron also found in Denmark, at Rynkeby ; however
1512-473: The "buffer" type, a fairly common Celtic artefact found in Western Europe, most often France, from the period the cauldron is thought to have been made. 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
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#17327727632721584-659: The 19th century by poor people or agricultural labourers, when population expansion led to the cultivation of land which had not been touched since the Middle Ages. Indeed, without the intervention of George Petrie of the Royal Irish Academy and like-minded individuals from the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland , most of the metalwork would have been melted down for the intrinsic value of its materials, as did frequently happen despite their efforts. Contemporary Irish are more tuned to their heritage, as can be seen in
1656-541: The 3rd Duke of Leinster . Here the Leskean Cabinet continued to be displayed, along with newly accessioned collections from professor of mineralogy and geology, Charles Lewis Giescke , curiosities, and the Hibernicum which was a display of minerals and geological specimens from the island of Ireland. Giescke was the first to refer to the museum as the "National Museum of Ireland", in 1832, in his catalogue of
1728-486: The Boatmen , where he is shown as an antlered figure with torcs hanging from his antlers. 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. The figure holding the broken wheel in plate C is more tentatively thought to be Taranis , the solar or thunder "wheel-god" named by Lucian and represented in
1800-714: The Irish Manannán , a god of the sea and the Otherworld . Another possibility is the Gaulish version of Apollo , who was not only a warrior, but one associated with springs and healing besides. Olmsted relates the scenes of the cauldron to those of the Táin Bó Cuailnge , where the antlered figure is Cú Chulainn , the bull of the base plate is Donn Cuailnge , and the female and two males of plate e are Medb , Ailill , and Fergus . Olmsted also toys with
1872-517: The Leibniz Lab on the same bee's wax dated some 400 years earlier than reported in his article. According to Ronald Hutton , because the cauldron's source metals have been traced to the Black Sea region, and depicts elephants, the cauldron should no longer be considered [strictly] Celtic . The decorated medallion on the circular base plate depicts a bull. Above the back of the bull is
1944-531: The Museum's administrative centre, a shop and a coffee shop. This section has displays of furniture, silver, ceramics and glassware, as well as examples of folk life and costume, and money and weapons. A Chinese porcelain vase from about 1300 AD, the Fonthill vase , is one of the features. The Soldiers & Chiefs exhibition features military artefacts and memorabilia tracing Ireland's military history from 1550 to
2016-478: The Near East. On several of the exterior plates the large heads, probably of deities, in the centre of the exterior panels, have small arms and hands, either each grasping an animal or human in a version of the common Master of Animals motif, or held up empty at the side of the head in a way suggesting inspiration from this motif. Apart from Cernunnos and Taranis, discussed above, there is no consensus regarding
2088-585: The RIA and RDS formed the basis for the Archaeology and History section of the Museum at Kildare Street. This is the site originally opened in 1890 as the Dublin Museum of Science and Art , in the building designed by Sir Thomas Newenham Deane and his son, Thomas Manly Deane . Until 1922, the museum complex also included Leinster House , now the home of the Oireachtas . The museum operated in
2160-723: The Roman world, and special exhibitions are regularly mounted. This section includes famous examples of early medieval Celtic metalwork in Ireland such as the Ardagh Chalice , the Tara Brooch , and the Derrynaflan Hoard . Prehistoric pieces include the Iron Age Broighter Gold and over 50 gold lunulas (not all on display), and other Bronze Age jewellery. Many of these pieces were found in
2232-546: The artisanal craft that goes by the name of Swami silver , emerged from the stable of watchmaker-turned-silversmith P.Orr and Sons in the South Indian city of Madras (now Chennai) during the British rule in 1875. Silversmiths saw or cut specific shapes from sterling and fine silver sheet metal and bar stock; they then use hammers to form the metal over anvils and stakes. Silver is hammered cold (at room temperature). As
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2304-482: The back to make them firm enough for further detailing with punches and tracers. The pitch was melted out, areas of pattern were gilded, and the eyes of the larger figures were inlaid with glass. The plates were probably worked in a flat form and later bent into curves to solder them together. It is generally agreed that the Gundestrup cauldron was the work of multiple silversmiths. Using scanning electron microscopy, Benner Larson has identified 15 different punches used on
2376-660: The billon coins of the Coriosolites . This art style is unique to northwest Gaul and is largely confined to the region between the Seine and the Loire , a region in which, according to Caesar, the wealthy sea-faring Veneti played a dominant and hegemonic role. Agreeing with this area of production, determined by the art style, is the fact that the Not only does the Gundestrup cauldron enlighten us about this coin-driven art style, where
2448-555: The boy riding a dolphin is borrowed from Greek art, and others that are more native, like the ram-headed horned snake who appears three times on the cauldron. The art of Thrace often shows animals, most often powerful and fierce ones, many of which are also very common in the ancient Near East, or the Scythian art of the Eurasian steppe , whose mobile owners provided a route for the very rapid transmission of motifs and objects between
2520-563: The buildings at Kildare Street and Merrion Square until the late 20th century projects at Collins Barracks and County Mayo. As of 1975, the visitable collections were summarised as "Primary: Irish antiquities and history, fine arts (excluding painting and sculpture) and natural history (excluding botany), and additionally: Egyptian, Greek and Roman antiquities, Far Eastern art and ceramics, and ethnography and zoology," with an additional collection of folk life material not on display. The museum published occasional works focusing on particular parts of
2592-410: The bull are missing, but there is a hole right through the head where they were originally fitted; perhaps they were gold. The head of the bull rises entirely clear of the plate, and the medallion is considered the most accomplished part of the cauldron in technical and artistic terms. Each of the seven exterior plates centrally depicts a bust. Plates a , b , c , and d show bearded male figures, and
2664-599: The cauldron's images; he concludes that the deities and scenes portrayed on the cauldron are not specific to one culture, but many. He compares Rhiannon, whom he thinks is the figure of plate f , with Hariti , an ogress of Bactrian mythology. In addition, he points to the similarity between the female figure of plate B and the Hindu goddess Lakshmi , whose depictions are often accompanied by elephants. Wheel gods are also cross-cultural with deities like Gaulish Taranis and Hindu Vishnu . Silversmithery A silversmith
2736-494: The civilizations of Asia and Europe. In particular, the two figures standing in profile flanking the large head on exterior plate F , each with a bird with outstretched wings just above their head, clearly resemble a common motif in ancient Assyrian and Persian art , down to the long garments they wear. The figure is usually the ruler, and the wings belong to a symbolic representation of a deity protecting him. Other plates show griffins borrowed from Ancient Greek art of that of
2808-705: The collection, archaeological acquisitions and one volume on the role of the museum. See also Category:Collection of the National Museum of Ireland The museum operates at four locations, each with a thematic focus: The National Museum of Ireland – Archaeology on Kildare Street has displays on prehistoric Ireland, including early work in gold, church treasures and objects from the Viking and medieval periods. The Kingship and Sacrifice exhibition includes well preserved bog bodies and Ralaghan Man . There are special displays of items from Egypt , Cyprus and
2880-445: The concentration of lead isotopes with the silver work by other cultures, it seems that the silver came from multiple ore deposits, mostly from Celtic northern France and western Germany in the pre- Roman period. Lead isotope studies also indicate that the silver for manufacturing the plates was prepared by repeatedly melting ingots and/or scrap silver. Three to six distinct batches of recycled silver may have been used in making
2952-428: The concentration of silver and copper. The less pure gilding , which is thicker, can be considered a later repair, as the thinner, purer inlay adheres better to the silver. The adherence of the overall gold is quite poor. The lack of mercury from the gold analysis suggests that a fire-gilding technique was not used on the Gundestrup cauldron. The gilding appears to have instead been made by mechanical means, which explains
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3024-490: The curved base. In addition, there is a piece of iron from a ring originally placed inside the silver tubes along the rim of the cauldron. 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. A set of careful full-size replicas have been made. One is in the National Museum of Ireland , and several are in France, including
3096-482: The earliest iterations of the RDS museum was at Hawkins Street House, where the Leskean Cabinet was displayed along with a collection of casts and busts. This exhibition was open to the public between noon and 3pm, on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Aside from the exhibition, there was a lecture hall, laboratory and library. From here, the museum moved to Leinster House in 1815 when the RDS purchased it from
3168-455: The early 20th century. Country Life is the most recent part of the museum to be opened. It is located just outside Turlough village, on the N5 eight kilometres east of Castlebar , in County Mayo , and was opened in 2001. The museum is focused on ordinary life from the mid-19th century to the mid-20th century, with much of the material coming from rural Ireland in the 1930s. There are displays on
3240-726: The example of the Irish Bog Psalter , which was discovered and reported by an alert machine operator in July 2006. The museum is home to the mummy of an egyptian woman named Tentdinebu . National Museum of Ireland – Decorative Arts and History , including the Great Seal of the Irish Free State , is the part of the collection kept at the large Collins Barracks site, a former military barracks named after Michael Collins in 1922. This site, opened in 1997, also holds
3312-577: The exceptional wetland deposits in Scandinavia have produced a number of objects of types that were probably once common but where other examples have not survived. It has been much discussed by scholars, and represents a fascinatingly complex demonstration of the many cross-currents in European art, as well as an unusual degree of narrative for Celtic art , though we are unlikely ever to fully understand its original meanings. The Gundestrup cauldron
3384-421: The function of closely spaced punch marks on the gilded areas. 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. Finally,
3456-498: The glass inlays of the Gundestrup cauldron have been determined through the use of X-ray fluorescence radiation to be of a soda-lime type composition. The glass contained elements that can be attributed to calcareous sand and mineral soda, typical of the east coast of the Mediterranean region. The analyses also narrowed down the production time of the glass to between the second century BC and first century AD. The workflow of
3528-431: The home, the natural environment, communities and forces for change. The Museum is overseen by a board of directors, of whom two are nominated by the Royal Irish Academy and one by the Royal Dublin Society , both of which have contributed significantly to the institution; the remainder are appointed by the relevant minister. It is led operationally by a Director, under whom are a Head of Collections and Learning and
3600-474: 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 . Among
3672-613: The idea that the female figure flanked by two birds on plate f could be Medb with her pets or Morrígan , the Irish war goddess who often changes into a carrion bird. Olmsted sees Cernunnos as Gaulish version of Irish Cu Chulainn . As Olmsted indicates, the scene on the upper right of plate A , a lion, a boy on a dolphin, and a bull, can be interpreted after the origin of the bulls of the Irish Táin , who take on various matched animal forms, fighting each other in each form, as indicated in
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#17327727632723744-405: The inner and outer plates also helps to establish the order. In its final form, the plates are arranged in an alternation of female-male depictions, assuming the missing eighth plate is of a female. Not all analysts agree with Müller's ordering, however. Taylor has pointed out that aside from the two cases of puncturing, the order cannot be determined from the solder alignments. His argument is that
3816-511: The larger-metalwork smiths were also the mint-masters producing the coins, but the cauldron also portrays cultural items, such as swords, armor, and shields, found and produced in this same cultural area, confirming the agreement between art style and metal analysis. If as Olmsted (2001) and Hachmann (1990) suggest, the Veneti also produced the silver phalerae, found on the Isle of Sark , as well as
3888-420: The manufacturing process consisted of a few steps that required a great amount of skill. Batches of silver were melted in crucibles with the addition of copper for a subtler alloy. The melted silver was cast into flat ingots and hammered into intermediate plates. For the relief work, the sheet-silver was annealed to allow shapes to be beaten into high repoussé ; these rough shapes were then filled with pitch from
3960-669: The metal is hammered, bent, and worked, it 'work-hardens'. Annealing is the heat-treatment used to make the metal soft again. If metal is work-hardened, and not annealed occasionally, the metal will crack and weaken the work. Silversmiths can use casting techniques to create knobs, handles and feet for the hollowware they are making. After forming and casting, the various pieces may be assembled by soldering and riveting. During most of their history, silversmiths used charcoal or coke fired forges , and lung-powered blow-pipes for soldering and annealing. Modern silversmiths commonly use gas burning torches as heat sources. A newer method
4032-409: The most specific details that are clearly Celtic are the group of carnyx players. The carnyx war horn was known from Roman descriptions of the Celts in battle and Trajan's Column , and a few pieces are known from archaeology, their number greatly increased by finds at Tintignac in France in 2004. Another detail that is easily matched to archaeology is the torc worn by several figures, clearly of
4104-527: 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 . Because of the double-headed wolfish monster attacking the two small figures of fallen men on plate b , parallels can be drawn to the Welsh character Manawydan or
4176-607: The other pieces stacked inside the base, in 1891, in a peat bog near the hamlet of Gundestrup in the Aars parish of Himmerland , Denmark ( 56°49′N 9°33′E / 56.817°N 9.550°E / 56.817; 9.550 ). It is now usually on display in the National Museum of Denmark in Copenhagen , with replicas at other museums; it was in the UK on a travelling exhibition called The Celts during 2015–2016. The cauldron
4248-459: The peat gradually grew over it. The manner of stacking suggested an attempt to make the cauldron inconspicuous and well-hidden. Another investigation of Rævemose was undertaken in 2002, concluding that the peat bog may have existed when the cauldron was buried. The cauldron was found in a dismantled state with five long rectangular plates, seven short plates, one round plate (normally called the "base plate"), and two fragments of tubing stacked inside
4320-514: The planned expansion and development of the museum, Scouler requested that a curator or Director be employed by the RDS. This led to the appointment of Alexander Carte in 1851. Carte overhauled and reorganised the collections, overseeing acquisitions from Sir Francis McClintock , Sir William Wilde , and Sir Richard Griffith . The museum took part in the International Exhibition of Art-Industry of 1853, exhibiting objects in
4392-412: The plates are not directly adjacent to each other, but are separated by a 2 cm gap; thus, the plates in this order cannot be read with certainty as the true narrative, supposing one exists. However, Larsen indicates, not only did his study vindicate the order for the inner plates established, by Muller, Klindt-Jensen, and Olmsted, but the order of the outer plates is also established by the rivet holes,
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#17327727632724464-490: The plates, falling into three distinct tool sets. No individual plate has marks from more than one of these groups, and this fits with previous attempts at stylistic attribution, which identify at least three different silversmiths. Multiple artisans would also explain the highly variable purity and thickness of the silver. The silverworking techniques used in the cauldron are unknown from the Celtic world, but are consistent with
4536-592: The present. Special exhibitions are mounted regularly; in summer 2007, for example, replicas of six Irish High Crosses that were subsequently shown internationally. The Natural History Museum, which is part of the National Museum, although often thought of as distinct, is on Merrion Street in Dublin and houses specimens of animals from around the world. It is also known as the Dead Zoo by locals. Its collection and Victorian appearance have not changed significantly since
4608-589: The remaining three are female. For many years, some scholars have interpreted the cauldron's images in terms of the Celtic pantheon, and Celtic mythology as it is presented in much later literature in Celtic languages from the British Isles . Others regard the latter interpretations with great suspicion. Much less controversially, there are clear parallels between details of the figures and Iron Age Celtic artifacts excavated by archaeology. Other details of
4680-490: The renowned Thracian sheet-silver tradition. The scenes depicted are not distinctively Thracian, but certain elements of composition, decorative motifs, and illustrated items (such as the shoelaces on the antlered figure) identify it as Thracian work. Taylor and Bergquist have postulated that the Celtic tribe known as the Scordisci commissioned the cauldron from native Thracian silversmiths. According to classical historians,
4752-423: The repairs to the cauldron, of which there are many, is inferior to the original craftsmanship. Silver was not a common material in Celtic art, and certainly not on this scale. Except sometimes for small pieces of jewellery, gold or bronze were more usual for prestige metalwork. At the time that the Gundestrup cauldron was created, silver was obtained through cupellation of lead / silver ores. From comparisons of
4824-537: The scene with warriors on the lower part of Plate E as a Gaulish version of the "Aided Fraich" episode of the Táin where Fraich and his men leap over the fallen tree, and then Fraech wrestles with his father Cu Chulainn and is drowned by him, while his magic horn blowers play "the music of sleeping" against Cu Chulainn. In the "Aided Fraich" episode, Fraich's body is then taken into the underworld by weeping banchuire to be healed by his aunt and wife Morrigan. This incident
4896-434: The solder alignments, and the scrape marks. The Gundestrup cauldron is composed almost entirely of silver, but there is also a substantial amount of gold for the gilding, tin for the solder and glass for the figures' eyes. According to experimental evidence, the materials for the vessel were not added at the same time, so the cauldron can be considered as the work of artisans over a span of several hundred years. The quality of
4968-691: The two lions fighting on the lower right of plate A . Plate B could be interpreted after a Gaulish version of the beginning of the Irish Táin , where Medb sets out to get the Donn bull after making a circuit around her army in her chariot to bring luck to the Táin . Olmsted interprets the scene on plate C as a Gaulish version of the Irish Táin incidents where Cu Chulainn kicks in the Morrigan 's ribs when she comes at him as an eel and then confronts Fergus with his broken chariot wheel. Olmsted (1979) interprets
5040-520: The vessel was found in Denmark, it was probably not made there or nearby; it includes elements of Gaulish and Thracian origin in the workmanship, metallurgy , and imagery. The techniques and elements of the style of the panels relate closely to other Thracian silver, while much of the depiction, in particular of the human figures, relates to the Celts , though attempts to relate the scenes closely to Celtic mythology remain controversial. Other aspects of
5112-425: The vessel. Specifically, the circular "base plate" may have originated as a phalera , and it is commonly thought to have been positioned in the bottom of the bowl as a late addition, soldered in to repair a hole. By an alternative theory, this phalera was not initially part of the bowl, but instead formed part of the decorations of a wooden cover. The gold can be sorted into two groups based on purity and separated by
5184-408: Was discovered by peat cutters in a small peat bog called "Rævemose" (near the larger " Borremose " bog) on 28 May 1891. The Danish government paid a large reward to the finders, who subsequently quarreled bitterly amongst themselves over its division. Palaeobotanical investigations of the peat bog at the time of the discovery showed that the land had been dry when the cauldron was deposited, and
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