Antiquities Exhibits

Mark Cartwright of the Ancient History Encyclopedia just published and excellent article on the Gundestrup Cauldron and I wish to share it with you.  But first some of my personal musings about the object. The Gundestrup Cauldron, dated to the 1st century BCE, was discovered by workers cutting peat blocks in a bog near Gundestrup, North Jutland, Denmark on 28 May 1891 CE. The details of the decorative reliefs on the cauldron show a clear Celtic influence but some motifs, particularly the exotic animals (lions or leopards, elephants, and griffins), suggest, too, a Near Eastern influence so that scholars generally attribute its manufacture to peoples living in the Lower Danube region, specifically Dacia or Thrace (which is today’s Romania and Bulgaria). The use of silver is another link with the Lower Danube region as it is rare in Celtic art but not so in Thracian art.  When I first encountered Nuragic art from Sardinia, I wondered if those people may have had an influence on t...

Cauldron with Siren and Demon Attachments, Bronze, found in the "Midas Mound" at Gordion Turkey, 740 BCE. This large cauldron, found inside the tomb known as the Midas Mound was likely built by King Midas for his father and was used to store liquids for the funerary feast.  The siren and demon figurines are not only decorative but also symbolic, probably intended to inspire awe and to offer protection to the deceased.  Part of the collections of the Museum of Anatolian Civilizations photographed at the Penn Museum in Philadellphia.  Cauldron with Siren and Demon Attachments, Bronze, found in the "Midas Mound" at Gordion Turkey, 740 BC photographed at the Penn Museum by Mary Harrsch.