The Gundestrup Cauldron is a large vessel of intricate silverware that was found in a peat bog in northwestern Denmark in 1891, but is thought by many to have been manufactured in Thrace, near the Black Sea. It is dated to the first-century BCE, or slightly after. The incomplete item, which was found in pieces, is formed from panels which show a variety of figures, symbols and animals that correspond to Celtic (and wider) mythology. The original use of the cauldron is unknown although it appears to have been ritually buried or hidden.
One of its most well-known scenes is the interior of Panel A. This features a cross-legged figure identified as the Celtic horned god Cernunnos. Other deities found in Europe (France and Italy), from the second-century BCE, are represented in a similar cross-legged pose. It is thought this iconography may have sourced from earlier Near Eastern prototypes. Funnily enough, in New Testament times, the homeland of the Celts was identified as Anatolia, where they were called the Galatians by Paul the Apostle.
The Gundestrup Cernunnos figure also bears a strong likeness to the horned deity on the Pashupati (‘Lord of Animals’) clay seal (and others) found at Mohenjo-Daro, a site whose artefacts are dated to the upper portion of the third-millennium BCE.
The resemblance of the cross-legged pose in which these figures are shown to “yogic” postures of Asia has also been noted. The historian of religion, Mircea Eliade, had attempted to unify experiences of paranormal heat and inner light, from Arctic Circle shamanism to indigenous Australian magicians, into a yoga everywhere hypothesis. Since then, Thomas McEvilly “An Archaeology of Yoga” (1981); “The Spinal Serpent” (2002), embarked on a similar cross-cultural comparison of spine-energies (kuṇḍalinī), subtle anatomies and body postures from ancient Greece, Australia, Celtic Europe, Indus Valley Civilization, Egypt and Mesopotamia. David Gordon White, Sinister Yogis (2012) explored some of those forms. More recently, in his The Origins of the World’s Mythologies (2012), Michael Witzel, professor of Sanskrit at Harvard, pursues a deeper antiquity to “yoga” practice in a way that echoes McEvilly and Eliade:
Closely related to hunting magic and sacrifice is the institution of a shaman-like figure (or witch doctor)… This figure is first seen in some cave paintings in France (Les Trois Frères, Le Gabilou, Lascaux), at c. 14,000 BCE, in typical professional dress consisting of animal skins. … the shaman appears in various forms with the San, Andamanese, and Australians. They all mention the difficulty of mastering the force inherent in the calling, which often manifests itself as heat that rises up the spine. Obviously, this is a very old Pan-Gean trait: the concept of shamanic heat, and the careful management of this “power,” which (snakelike) moves up the spine, is a fact still known to Yogic practitioners. In its simplest form, it is found with the San, Andamanese, and Australians. It has its most prominent outcome in the various forms of Indian yoga that have been developed, rationalised, and discussed in more than 2,000 years of oral and written Indian traditions. (2012: 367)
For Witzel, this would bring the ‘Dancing Sorcerer’ of Les Trois Frères together with yogis, shamans and animal masters from everywhere into one diffuse yet basic category, whether they had been depicted in specific postures or were horned or not. However, it is curious why there is a near 2000-year gap between the horned deity depicted on Indus Valley seals and a sudden resurgence of comparable “yogic” figures on artefacts. These are sometimes flanked with animals, and come from four geographically distinct regions: India, Transoxiana, Europe and Thrace, all of which date closely to the first-century BCE.
The Gundestrup Cernonnos figure is unique because the cauldron is very detailed even though the scenes may be abstruse. It is notable how much the horns of the stag to the left of Cernonnos are alike which suggests a special relationship between the two, as if the stag is a mythical twin or brother. The horned man is also gesturing a neck collar (torc) to the beast identical to the one he is wearing that further proposes a familial tie. Is the stag a twin or brother abroad in the Celtic otherworld? If so, was he slain or hexed? The cauldron bears many other pairing motifs. Another design appears to be that of gods and sky wheels. Panel A also shows a human figure riding a dolphin which may have bearing upon the sun god Apollo, who in one episode rode a dolphin. With these themes in view, it is probably not coincidence that when the cauldron was made, the solstice sun was transiting to Gemini.
Indeed, this seems to be a strong fabric in the mythology that connects the Gundestrup scenes.
More anon…
(all images courtesy of wikipedia)