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91-582: Torcs have been found in Scythian , Illyrian , Thracian , Celtic , and other cultures of the European Iron Age from around the 8th century BC to the 3rd century AD. For Iron Age Celts, the gold torc seems to have been a key object. It identified the wearer, apparently usually female until the 3rd century BC, thereafter male, as a person of high rank, and many of the finest works of ancient Celtic art are torcs. Celtic torcs disappeared in

182-566: A store of value may have been an important part of their use. It has been noted that the Iberian gold examples seem to be made at fixed weights that are multiples of the Phoenician shekel . With bracelets, torcs are "the most important category of Celtic gold", though armlets and anklets were also worn; in contrast finger-rings were less common among the early Celts. The earliest Celtic torcs are mostly found buried with women, for example,

273-546: A classical style, and the piece may have been made by Greeks in the Celtic taste, or a "Graeco-Etruscan workshop", or by Celts with foreign training. Spiral ribbon torcs, usually with minimal terminals, continue a Bronze Age type and are found in the Stirling Hoard from Scotland, and elsewhere: "Although over 110 identifiable British [includes Ireland] ribbon torcs are known, the dating of these simple, flexible ornaments

364-511: A core, or woven gold wire. A rarer type twists a single bar with an X profile. Except in British looped terminals, the terminals of Iron Age torcs are usually formed separately. The "buffer" form of terminal was the most popular in finds from modern France and Germany, with some "fused buffer" types opening at the rear or sides. In both buffer types and those with projecting fringes of ornament, decoration in low relief often continues back round

455-417: 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 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

546-535: 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 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

637-446: 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

728-600: A relic, that no man dares swear falsely when it is laid before him." It is of course possible that this torc long pre-dated the reign of Prince Cynog and was a much earlier relic that had been recycled during the British Dark Ages to be used as a symbol of royal authority. It is now lost. There are mentions in medieval compilations of Irish mythology ; for example in the Lebor Gabála Érenn (11th century) Elatha wore 5 golden torcs when meeting Eriu . After

819-478: A variety of techniques but complex decoration was usually begun by casting and then worked by further techniques. The Ipswich Hoard includes unfinished torcs that give clear evidence of the stages of work. Flat-ended terminals are called "buffers", and in types like the "fused-buffer" shape, where what resemble two terminals are actually a single piece, the element is called a "muff". There are several types of rigid gold and sometimes bronze necklaces and collars of

910-450: Is also found in northern Italy, where the hoops often end by being turned back upon themselves so that the terminals face out to the sides, perhaps enabling closure by hooking round. Both of these mostly used plain round bars or thin rods wound round a core. In the terminals of British torcs loops or rings are common, and the main hoop may be two or more round bars twisted together, or several strands each made up of twisted wire. Decoration of

1001-543: 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 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

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1092-576: 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

1183-617: Is derived from the Scythian endonym Skuδa , meaning lit.   ' archers ' which was derived from the Proto-Indo-European root skewd- , itself meaning lit.   ' shooter, archer ' . This name was semantically similar to the endonym of the Sauromatians, *Saᵘrumata , meaning "armed with throwing darts and arrows." From this earlier term Skuδa was derived: The Urartian name for

1274-429: Is elusive", perhaps indicating "a long-lived preference for ribbon torcs, which continued for over 1,000 years". The terminals were often slightly flared plain round cylinders which were folded back to hook round each other to fasten the torc at the throat. Other Celtic torcs may use various ways of forming the hoop: plain or patterned round bars, two or more bars twisted together, thin round rods (or thick wire) wound round

1365-405: 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 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

1456-456: 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 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

1547-1066: Is how Polybius described the gaesatae , Celtic warriors from modern northern Italy or the Alps , fighting at the Battle of Telamon in 225 BC, although other Celts there were clothed. One of the earliest known depictions of a torc can be found on the Warrior of Hirschlanden (6th century BC), and a high proportion of the few Celtic statues of human figures, mostly male, show them wearing torcs. Other possible functions that have been proposed for torcs include use as rattles in rituals or otherwise, as some have stones or metal pieces inside them, and representations of figures thought to be deities carrying torcs in their hand may depict this. Some are too heavy to wear for long, and may have been made to place on cult statues. Very few of these remain but they may well have been in wood and not survived. Torcs were clearly valuable, and often found broken in pieces, so being

1638-599: Is mentioned by other authors. It is not clear whether the Gallo-Roman "Warrior of Vacheres", a sculpture of a soldier in Roman military dress, wears a torc as part of his Roman uniform or as a reflection of his Celtic background. Quintilian says that the Emperor Augustus was presented by Gauls with a gold torc weighing 100 Roman pounds (nearly 33 kilograms or 73 pounds), far too heavy to wear. A torc from

1729-639: Is more tentatively thought to be Taranis , the solar or thunder "wheel-god" named by Lucian and represented in 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

1820-455: 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. 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

1911-577: 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 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;

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2002-484: 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 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

2093-585: Is preferred by Scythologists such as Askold Ivantchik . Within this broad use, the Scythians proper who lived in the Pontic Steppes are sometimes referred to as Pontic Scythians . Modern-day anthropologists instead prefer using the term "Scytho-Siberians" to denote this larger cultural grouping of nomadic peoples living in the Eurasian steppe and forest steppe extending from Central Europe to

2184-633: 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 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

2275-512: 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 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

2366-580: The Migration Period , but during the Viking Age torc-style metal necklaces, mainly in silver, came back into fashion. Similar neck-rings are also part of the jewellery styles of various other cultures and periods. The word comes from Latin torquis (or torques ), from torqueo , "to twist", because of the twisted shape many of the rings have. Typically, neck-rings that open at the front when worn are called "torcs" and those that open at

2457-653: The Pontic Scythians , were an ancient Eastern Iranic equestrian nomadic people who had migrated during the 9th to 8th centuries BC from Central Asia to the Pontic Steppe in modern-day Ukraine and Southern Russia , where they remained established from the 7th century BC until the 3rd century BC. Skilled in mounted warfare , the Scythians replaced the Agathyrsi and the Cimmerians as

2548-586: The Roman conquest of Britain , from about 75 AD for a century or more, a different type called the "beaded torc" appears in Roman Britain , mainly in the northern "frontier" region, in two types, A with separate "beads" and B made in one piece. These are in copper alloy rather than precious metal, and evidently more widely spread in society than the elite Iron Age Celtic examples. Most Achaemenid torcs are thin single round bars with matching animal heads as

2639-719: The Tolstaya burial and the Karagodeuashk kurgan ( Kuban area), both dating to the 4th century BC. A torc is part of the Pereshchepina hoard dating to the 7th century AD. Thin torcs, often with animal head terminals, are found in the art of the Persian Achaemenid Empire , with some other elements derived from Scythian art. Depictions of the gods and goddesses of Celtic mythology sometimes show them wearing or carrying torcs, as in images of

2730-492: The 1st century BC Winchester Hoard , is broadly in Celtic style but uses the Roman technique of laced gold wire, suggesting it may have been a "diplomatic gift" from a Roman to a British tribal king. A very late example of a torc used as ceremonial item in early Medieval Wales can be found in the writings of Gerald of Wales . The author wrote that there still existed a certain royal torc that had once been worn by Prince Cynog ap Brychan of Brycheiniog (fl. 492 AD) and

2821-411: The 2nd century BC (illustrated). Many finds of torcs, especially in groups and in association with other valuables but not associated with a burial, are clearly deliberate deposits whose function is unclear. They may have been ritual deposits or hidden for safekeeping in times of warfare. Some may represent the work-in-progress of a workshop. After the early period, torcs are especially prominent in

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2912-540: The 3rd century AD, last remnants of the Scythians were overwhelmed by the Goths , and by the early Middle Ages , the Scythians were assimilated and absorbed by the various successive populations who had moved into the Pontic Steppe. After the Scythians' disappearance, authors of the ancient, mediaeval, and early modern periods used their name to refer to various populations of the steppes unrelated to them. The name

3003-876: The Bronze Age but up to 20% in the Iron Age—can help decide the question. There are several flared gold torcs with a C-shaped section in the huge Mooghaun North Hoard of Late Bronze Age gold from 800 to 700 BC found in County Clare in Ireland. To the East, torcs appear in Scythian art from the Early Iron Age , and include "classicizing" decoration drawing on styles from the east. Torcs are also found in Thraco-Cimmerian art. Torcs are found in

3094-654: The Celtic cultures reaching to a coast of the Atlantic , from modern Spain to Ireland, and on both sides of the English Channel . Some very elaborately worked torcs with relief decoration in a late form of La Tène style have been found in Britain and Ireland, dating from roughly the 3rd to 1st centuries BC. There may be a connection with an older tradition in the British Isles of elaborate gold neckwear in

3185-738: The Celtic tribe known as the Scordisci commissioned the cauldron from native Thracian silversmiths. According to classical historians, 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

3276-590: 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 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

3367-578: The Hellenistic period, authors such as Hecataeus of Miletus however sometimes extended the designation "Scythians" indiscriminately to all steppe nomads and forest steppe populations living in Europe and Asia, and used it to also designate the Saka of Central Asia. Early modern scholars tended to follow the lead of the Hellenistic authors in extending the name "Scythians" into a general catch-all term for

3458-624: The Iranic pastoralist nomads who lived in the steppes of Central Asia and East Turkestan in the 1st millennium BC. The Late Babylonian scribes of the Achaemenid Empire used the name "Cimmerians" to designate all the nomad peoples of the steppe, including the Scythians and Saka. Gundestrup cauldron 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

3549-715: 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

3640-478: 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

3731-670: The Scythians might have been Išqigulu ( 𒆳𒅖𒆥𒄖𒇻 ). Due to a sound change from /δ/ ( / ð / ) to / l / commonly attested in East Iranic language family to which Scythian belonged, the name Skuδa evolved into Skula , which was recorded in ancient Greek as Skōlotoi ( Σκωλοτοι ), in which the Greek plural-forming suffix -τοι was added to the name. The name of the 5th century BC king Scyles ( Ancient Greek : Σκυλης , romanized :  Skulēs ) represented this later form, Skula . The name "Scythians"

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3822-560: 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 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

3913-467: The back "collars". Smaller bracelets and armlets worn around the wrist or on the upper arm sometimes share very similar forms. Torcs were made from single or multiple intertwined metal rods, or "ropes" of twisted wire. Most of those that have been found are made from gold or bronze, less often silver, iron or other metals (gold, bronze and silver survive better than other metals when buried for long periods). Elaborate examples, sometimes hollow, used

4004-501: 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

4095-483: 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 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;

4186-494: 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

4277-648: The dominant power on the western Eurasian Steppe in the 8th century BC. In the 7th century BC, the Scythians crossed the Caucasus Mountains and frequently raided West Asia along with the Cimmerians. After being expelled from West Asia by the Medes , the Scythians retreated back into the Pontic Steppe in the 6th century BC, and were later conquered by the Sarmatians in the 3rd to 2nd centuries BC. By

4368-615: The form of gold lunulas , which seem centred on Ireland in the Bronze Age , and later flat or curved wide collars; gold twisted ribbon torcs are found from both periods, but also imported styles such as the fused-buffer. The most elaborate late Insular torcs are thick and often hollow, some with terminals forming a ring or loop. The most famous English example is the 1st-century BC multi-stranded electrum Snettisham Torc found in northwestern Norfolk in England (illustrated), while

4459-408: 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 the most specific details that are clearly Celtic are the group of carnyx players. The carnyx war horn was known from Roman descriptions of

4550-466: The god Cernunnos wearing one torc around his neck, with torcs hanging from his antlers or held in his hand, as on the Gundestrup cauldron . This may represent the deity as the source of power and riches, as the torc was a sign of nobility and high social status. The famous Roman copy of the original Greek sculpture The Dying Gaul depicts a wounded Gaulish warrior naked except for a torc, which

4641-499: 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 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

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4732-635: The gold torc from the La Tène period chariot burial of a princess, found in the Waldalgesheim chariot burial in Germany, and others found in female graves at Vix in France (illustrated) and Reinheim . Another La Tène example was found as part of a hoard or ritual deposit buried near Erstfeld in Switzerland. It is thought by some authors that the torc was mostly an ornament for women until

4823-467: 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 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

4914-482: The hoop as far as the midpoint of the side view. In Iberian torcs thin gold bars are often wound round a core of base metal, with the rear section a single round section with a decorated surface. The c. 150 torcs found in the lands of the Iberian Celts of Galicia favoured terminals ending in balls coming to a point or small buffer ("pears"), or a shape with a double moulding called scotiae . The pointed ball

5005-617: 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

5096-478: 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 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

5187-404: The late 3rd century BC, when it became an attribute of warriors. However, there is evidence for male wear in the early period; in a rich double burial of the Hallstatt period at Hochmichele , the man wears an iron torc and the female a necklace with beads. A heavy torc in silver over an iron core with bull's head terminals, weighing over 6 kilos, from Trichtingen, Germany, probably dates to

5278-642: The later European Bronze Age , from around 1200 BC, many of which are classed as "torcs". They are mostly twisted in various conformations, including the "twisted ribbon" type, where a thin strip of gold is twisted into a spiral. Other examples twist a bar with a square or X section, or just use round wire, with both types in the three 12th– or 11th-century BC specimens found at Tiers Cross, Pembrokeshire, Wales. The Milton Keynes Hoard contained two large examples of thicker rounded forms, as also used for bracelets. The terminals are not emphasized as in typical Iron Age torcs, though many can be closed by hooking

5369-519: The limits of the Chinese Zhou Empire, and of which the Pontic Scythians proper were only one section. These various peoples shared the use of the "Scythian triad," that is of distinctive weapons, horse harnesses and the "Animal Style" art. The term "Scytho-Siberian" has itself in turn also been criticised since it is sometimes used broadly to include all Iron Age equestrian nomads, including those who were not part of any Scythian or Saka. The scholars Nicola Di Cosmo and Andrzej Rozwadowski instead prefer

5460-526: 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. The antlered figure in plate A has been commonly identified as Cernunnos , who

5551-497: 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 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

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5642-463: 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 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

5733-409: The nickname Torquatus (the one who wears a torc), and it was adopted by his family. After this, Romans adopted the torc as a decoration for distinguished soldiers and elite units during Republican times. A few Roman torcs have been discovered. Pliny the Elder records that after a battle in 386 BC (long before his lifetime) the Romans recovered 183 torcs from the Celtic dead, and similar booty

5824-419: 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, 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,

5915-425: 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

6006-405: The peat bog at the time of the discovery showed that the land had been dry when the cauldron was deposited, and 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

6097-409: 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 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

6188-435: The plates and bowl together, as well as the glass eyes, is very uniform in its high purity. Finally, 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

6279-400: 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 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

6370-458: 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 the Leibniz Lab on the same bee's wax dated some 400 years earlier than reported in his article. According to Ronald Hutton , because

6461-413: The production time of the glass to between the second century BC and first century AD. The workflow of 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

6552-419: 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 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

6643-412: The same oppidum . Later Celtic torcs nearly all return to having a break at the throat and strong emphasis on the two terminals. The Vix torc has two very finely made winged horses standing on fancy platforms projecting sideways just before the terminals, which are flattened balls under lions' feet. Like other elite Celtic pieces in the "orientalizing" style, the decoration shows Greek influence but not

6734-537: 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

6825-437: 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 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

6916-447: The simple terminals together. Many of these "torcs" are too small to be worn round the neck of an adult, and were either worn as bracelets or armlets, or by children or statues. Archaeologists find dating many torcs difficult, with some believing torcs were retained for periods of centuries as heirlooms, and others believing there were two periods of production. Differing ratios of silver in the gold of other objects—typically up to 15% in

7007-670: The single hollow torc in the Broighter Gold hoard, with relief decoration all round the hoop, is the finest example of this type from Ireland, also 1st century BC. The Stirling Hoard , a rare find in Scotland of four gold torcs, two of them twisted ribbons, dating from the 3rd to 1st century BC, was discovered in September 2009. The Roman Titus Manlius in 361 BC challenged a Gaul to single combat, killed him, and then took his torc. Because he always wore it, he received

7098-630: 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 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

7189-513: The term "Scythian" has however been criticised for lumping together various heterogeneous populations belonging to different cultures, and therefore leading to several errors in the coverage of the various warrior-nomadic cultures of the Iron Age-period Eurasian Steppe. Therefore, the narrow use of the term "Scythian" as denoting specifically the people who dominated the Pontic Steppe between the 7th and 3rd centuries BC

7280-2506: The terminals in the finest examples is complex but all abstract. In these two types the hoop itself normally has no extra decoration, though the large torc in the Irish Broighter Gold hoard is decorated all round the hoop, the only Irish example decorated in this way. Scythian West Asia (7th–6th centuries BC) Akkadian (in West Asia) Median (in West Asia) Phrygian (in West Asia) Urartian (in West Asia) Thracian (in Pontic Steppe) Ancient Greek (in Pontic Steppe) Proto-Slavic language (in Pontic Steppe) Ancient Mesopotamian religion (in West Asia) Urartian religion (in West Asia) Phrygian religion (in West Asia) Ancient Iranic religion (in West Asia) Thracian religion (in Pontic Steppe) Pontic Steppe Caucasus East Asia Eastern Europe Northern Europe Pontic Steppe Northern/Eastern Steppe Europe South Asia Steppe Europe Caucasus India Indo-Aryans Iranians East Asia Europe East Asia Europe Indo-Aryan Iranian Indo-Aryan Iranian Others European The Scythians ( / ˈ s ɪ θ i ə n / or / ˈ s ɪ ð i ə n / ) or Scyths ( / ˈ s ɪ θ / , but note Scytho- ( / ˈ s aɪ θ ʊ / ) in composition) and sometimes also referred to as

7371-418: The terminals, facing each other at the front. Some Early Celtic forms depart from the normal style of torc by lacking a break at the throat, and instead are heavily decorated at the continuous front, with animal elements and short rows of " balusters ", rounded projections coming to a blunt point; these are seen both on the sculpted torc worn by the stone " Glauberg Warrior" and a gold torc (illustrated) found in

7462-422: 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 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

7553-403: The time that the Gundestrup cauldron was created, silver was obtained through cupellation of lead / silver ores. From comparisons of 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

7644-693: 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

7735-557: The use of the term "Early Nomadic" for the broad designation of the Iron Age horse-riding nomads. While the ancient Persians used the name Saka to designate all the steppe nomads and specifically referred to the Pontic Scythians as Sakā tayaiy paradraya ( 𐎿𐎣𐎠 𐏐 𐎫𐎹𐎡𐎹 𐏐 𐎱𐎼𐎭𐎼𐎹 ; lit.   ' the Saka who dwell beyond the (Black) Sea ' ), the name "Saka" is used in modern scholarship to designate

7826-404: The various equestrian warrior-nomadic cultures of the Iron Age-period Eurasian Steppe following the discovery in the 1930s in the eastern parts of the Eurasian steppe of items forming the "Scythian triad," consisting of distinctive weapons, horse harnesses, and objects decorated in the "Animal Style" art, which had until then been considered to be markers of the Scythians proper. This broad use of

7917-638: 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 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

8008-417: Was annealed to allow shapes to be beaten into high repoussé ; these rough shapes were then filled with pitch from 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

8099-554: Was initially used by ancient authors to designate specifically the Iranic people who lived in the Pontic Steppe between the Danube and the Don rivers. In modern archaeology, the term "Scythians" is used in its original narrow sense as a name strictly for the Iranic people who lived in the Pontic and Crimean Steppes, between the Danube and Don rivers, from the 7th to 3rd centuries BC. By

8190-400: Was known as Saint Kynauc's Collar. Gerald encountered and described this relic first-hand while travelling through Wales in 1188. Of it he says, "it is most like to gold in weight, nature, and colour; it is in four pieces wrought round, joined together artificially, and clefted as it were in the middle, with a dog's head, the teeth standing outward; it is esteemed by the inhabitants so powerful

8281-421: 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 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

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