WEBVTT - From the Vault: The Cauldron, Part 3 0:00:06.200 --> 0:00:08.119 Hey, you welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind. My 0:00:08.240 --> 0:00:09.440 name is Robert Lamb. 0:00:09.440 --> 0:00:12.399 And I'm Joe McCormick, and it's Saturday. We're heading into 0:00:12.480 --> 0:00:14.600 the vault for an older episode of the show. This one, 0:00:14.640 --> 0:00:18.400 originally published June fourteenth, twenty twenty two, is part three 0:00:18.520 --> 0:00:22.400 of our exploration of the Cauldron. Let's ladele some out here. 0:00:25.960 --> 0:00:29.760 Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio. 0:00:35.800 --> 0:00:38.319 Hey, welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind. My name 0:00:38.400 --> 0:00:39.000 is Robert. 0:00:38.800 --> 0:00:41.680 Lamb and I'm Joe McCormick. And Hey, we were out 0:00:41.720 --> 0:00:43.400 for a little bit, but now we're back, and you 0:00:43.440 --> 0:00:46.559 know what, we're back with more cauldrons. Our brains are 0:00:46.760 --> 0:00:49.400 like pots, and those pots are full of pots, and 0:00:49.440 --> 0:00:52.919 the pots have pots in them, and it never stops. 0:00:53.400 --> 0:00:56.560 I know, my wife is still teasing me about this. 0:00:56.600 --> 0:00:59.440 It's like, you guys are still doing episodes about cauldrons 0:00:59.480 --> 0:01:02.400 and soup, and I'm like, yeah, there's like we're probably 0:01:02.440 --> 0:01:05.319 going to do three or four of these total, and 0:01:05.640 --> 0:01:07.960 we're still not going to cover everything. And a lot 0:01:08.000 --> 0:01:09.840 of it comes down to the fact, and certainly go 0:01:09.880 --> 0:01:11.560 back and listen to those first two episodes if you 0:01:11.600 --> 0:01:13.880 haven't It comes down to the fact that we're talking 0:01:13.880 --> 0:01:19.280 about ancient technology, and since it we inevitably use technology 0:01:19.640 --> 0:01:24.559 as a way of understanding ourselves, understanding the cosmos, et cetera. 0:01:24.920 --> 0:01:27.520 It ends up becoming a part of our not only 0:01:27.520 --> 0:01:31.160 are a discourse, but of course our religions and so forth. 0:01:31.200 --> 0:01:33.520 And we see that with the cauldron for sure. 0:01:34.040 --> 0:01:37.479 Yes, though I have to say one of the big 0:01:37.520 --> 0:01:39.440 examples we're going to talk about in this episode. I 0:01:39.480 --> 0:01:41.240 don't know if the whole episode will end up focusing 0:01:41.240 --> 0:01:44.920 on it, but it's a really interesting historical artifact that 0:01:45.080 --> 0:01:50.000 is called a cauldron. Like it is called the Gunduestrup cauldron. 0:01:50.760 --> 0:01:52.640 But I was reading a paper on it, and the 0:01:52.760 --> 0:01:56.080 very first sentence of the paper, this author insists that 0:01:56.160 --> 0:02:00.240 it is not a cauldron, it is a ceremonial container. 0:02:00.720 --> 0:02:03.560 Yeah. I mean this is something that is kind of 0:02:03.640 --> 0:02:07.280 under the surface of many of these discussions, right Like 0:02:07.440 --> 0:02:09.920 obviously not all of these people would have called this 0:02:09.960 --> 0:02:12.520 a cauldron, and then you get into discussions of Okay, 0:02:12.560 --> 0:02:14.160 is it a cauldron or a pot, Is it a 0:02:14.160 --> 0:02:16.639 cauldron or a bowl? Is it a cauldron or some 0:02:16.680 --> 0:02:20.120 other kind you know, what exactly. 0:02:19.800 --> 0:02:23.120 Is the sh will Daddy. Oh, Okay, this is a cauldron. 0:02:23.200 --> 0:02:27.040 Come on, it's a big metal pot. I think we 0:02:27.080 --> 0:02:28.119 can call it a cauldron. 0:02:28.560 --> 0:02:32.040 Yeah. So yeah. As we've discussed in previous episodes, we 0:02:32.080 --> 0:02:35.399 wanted to get into European traditions with a cauldron, and 0:02:35.919 --> 0:02:40.920 cauldrons in Europe are sometimes uncovered in bogs places, as 0:02:40.960 --> 0:02:44.200 we've discussed in the show before, that had sacred connotations 0:02:44.240 --> 0:02:46.840 to the ancient people who visited them. They were a 0:02:46.880 --> 0:02:49.799 place between land and water, and so they were also 0:02:49.880 --> 0:02:52.680 seen as a place between life and death. So various 0:02:52.720 --> 0:02:56.000 funeral rites seem to have been conducted its various bogs 0:02:56.080 --> 0:03:00.600 and peat bogs, and given the low oxygen city soil 0:03:00.800 --> 0:03:04.160 of bog environments, we often gain a great deal more 0:03:04.200 --> 0:03:07.040 insight into what occurred there, especially when it comes to 0:03:07.200 --> 0:03:12.960 organic materials that would have otherwise decayed. So bodies were 0:03:13.080 --> 0:03:16.480 left in these bogs and teared in these bogs, and 0:03:16.800 --> 0:03:20.640 we also see examples of cauldrons and cauldron like artifacts. 0:03:21.160 --> 0:03:26.160 One notable bog retrieved cauldron is the Gundestrap cauldron, an 0:03:26.200 --> 0:03:30.239 incomplete but very stunning silver artifact discovered in a bog 0:03:30.360 --> 0:03:35.400 in Himmelund, Denmark in eighteen ninety one. Now, while dating 0:03:35.440 --> 0:03:38.360 has been a matter of some discussion here exact dating anyway, 0:03:38.400 --> 0:03:42.560 it's suspected to date back to between one fifty BCE 0:03:43.320 --> 0:03:46.200 and the dawn of the Common Era. It was evidently 0:03:46.360 --> 0:03:49.760 given to the bog and an act of sacrifice, perhaps 0:03:49.760 --> 0:03:53.920 to a god or god's, but its origins don't seem 0:03:53.920 --> 0:03:57.200 to be quite Danish. It bears images that are generally 0:03:57.200 --> 0:04:03.800 associated with more Southern cultures, lying d or griffins. There 0:04:03.840 --> 0:04:06.360 seems to be a hornet or antlered god on there, 0:04:06.400 --> 0:04:10.760 alongside other potential gods and goddesses. It contains scenes of 0:04:10.840 --> 0:04:14.440 warriors falling in battle, and there is actually an image 0:04:14.760 --> 0:04:19.359 of a magic cauldron that is on this cauldron with 0:04:19.440 --> 0:04:22.960 a gigantic figure, perhaps a god or a goddess, about 0:04:22.960 --> 0:04:25.960 to dunk a smaller man into its depths. 0:04:26.240 --> 0:04:30.000 That's right, we got cauldrons on our cauldrons and I 0:04:30.040 --> 0:04:32.880 want to come back to more interpretation of this panel 0:04:32.960 --> 0:04:33.360 later on. 0:04:34.240 --> 0:04:37.640 Yeah, definitely, as we're talking about the Gundestrup cauldron, look 0:04:37.720 --> 0:04:39.960 up images of it. That's spelled g U n d 0:04:40.200 --> 0:04:43.040 E S t r u P. There are a lot 0:04:43.080 --> 0:04:45.560 of images online that show the various panels here the 0:04:45.640 --> 0:04:49.920 various the various images that we're going to be discussing here, 0:04:49.920 --> 0:04:52.719 including this one of what is clearly a giant of 0:04:52.760 --> 0:04:57.960 some sort taking a man and dunking him headfirst into 0:04:58.640 --> 0:05:01.880 a bucket or cauldron or vessel of some sort adjacent 0:05:01.960 --> 0:05:05.599 to this battle scene. So the exact origins of the 0:05:05.640 --> 0:05:08.280 cauldron here are still a matter of debate, with some 0:05:08.400 --> 0:05:11.880 pointing to the Thracians or what is in these would 0:05:11.880 --> 0:05:15.359 have been people from what is now Bulgaria and Romania. 0:05:15.960 --> 0:05:19.839 Yet there are also Celtic helmets and trumpets depicted on 0:05:19.839 --> 0:05:23.240 the cauldron, suggesting it might have been made in a 0:05:23.440 --> 0:05:28.040 place in the aforementioned region where Thracians and Celts coexisted, 0:05:28.400 --> 0:05:32.000 though it's uncertain how this then wound up in Denmark. 0:05:32.240 --> 0:05:34.680 Could have been a tribute, it could have been spoils 0:05:34.680 --> 0:05:37.840 of war. Either way, it may be accurate to think 0:05:37.920 --> 0:05:41.120 of the Gundestrap Cauldron as not a product of a 0:05:41.160 --> 0:05:44.400 single culture, a single place, or even a single time, 0:05:44.400 --> 0:05:47.680 but something that was created by mingling cultures on the move, 0:05:48.200 --> 0:05:50.919 in part due to Roman expansion and conquest during this 0:05:51.000 --> 0:05:56.640 time period, and ultimately constructed by different artisans over many years. 0:05:56.440 --> 0:05:58.599 Oh, I didn't think about the Roman connection. But yeah, 0:05:58.640 --> 0:06:01.120 so if this would have been in the first century BCE, 0:06:01.560 --> 0:06:04.119 and the middle of that century was when Julius Caesar 0:06:04.200 --> 0:06:07.479 himself was waging a war of conquest in Gaul against 0:06:08.080 --> 0:06:12.960 Celtic tribes in that region, so yeah, that's an interesting possibility. 0:06:13.040 --> 0:06:17.040 So yeah, Rob, you dug this thing up, not physically, 0:06:17.120 --> 0:06:19.800 but yes, you had brought it into our outline. But 0:06:19.880 --> 0:06:23.159 I got really obsessed with it, and I found I 0:06:23.160 --> 0:06:27.240 find this artifact so interesting, specifically because of the different 0:06:27.480 --> 0:06:30.799 mysteries about it its provenance, like you were just talking about, 0:06:30.800 --> 0:06:35.720 but also about what it's depicting, because there are tons 0:06:35.760 --> 0:06:39.040 of question you know, it clearly is showing scenes that 0:06:39.160 --> 0:06:43.039 are part of a rich mythology that we apparently know 0:06:43.520 --> 0:06:47.159 little to nothing about, and so there are a lot 0:06:47.160 --> 0:06:50.320 of attempts to try to understand what the different panels 0:06:50.360 --> 0:06:54.200 are depicting and if and if so, how they connect 0:06:54.360 --> 0:06:58.560 to mythologies that we might know something about. But coming 0:06:58.600 --> 0:07:01.440 back to that provenance question, Yeah, I think it's so 0:07:01.520 --> 0:07:07.960 interesting that there are at least three different distinct regional inputs. Now, 0:07:07.960 --> 0:07:11.400 as you already mentioned, based on physical characteristics of the cauldron, 0:07:11.520 --> 0:07:15.400 like the silversmithing techniques that were used to create it, 0:07:15.400 --> 0:07:18.200 it seems to be a product of Southeastern Europe. Yes, 0:07:18.240 --> 0:07:22.280 but most scholars pointing to the metalworking techniques of the 0:07:22.360 --> 0:07:25.440 Thracians who live in as you said, what is today 0:07:25.480 --> 0:07:28.440 Bulgaria or Romania. And I was trying to figure out 0:07:28.480 --> 0:07:33.240 what are some examples of this distinctive style that's so 0:07:33.520 --> 0:07:36.400 strongly linked to Thracian culture. Well, I was reading about 0:07:36.400 --> 0:07:39.280 this on the website for the National Museum of Denmark, 0:07:39.320 --> 0:07:42.240 which has a lot of great materials about the Gundestrup cauldron, 0:07:42.520 --> 0:07:46.560 and they compare the Gundestrup cauldron to the metalworking on 0:07:46.640 --> 0:07:50.920 a gilded silver pitcher from Bulgaria from roughly three hundred BCE, 0:07:51.360 --> 0:07:54.160 and looking at it, I would agree, Yeah, the techniques 0:07:54.360 --> 0:07:58.560 and the artistic style look extremely similar, like the way 0:07:58.600 --> 0:08:02.040 the animal figures are in embossed. Remember that this is 0:08:02.080 --> 0:08:04.600 not just like an illustration or a carving, but this 0:08:04.760 --> 0:08:09.280 is like hammered and punched metal. So it has raised 0:08:09.360 --> 0:08:12.360 animal figures with like textures that you could feel with 0:08:12.400 --> 0:08:16.240 your fingers running over them. And those textures are very 0:08:16.240 --> 0:08:19.840 similar between the two works. So like the animal figures 0:08:20.160 --> 0:08:23.840 are embossed and punched with patterns of texture that seem 0:08:23.880 --> 0:08:27.240 to indicate hair or fur, and it's extremely distinctive. You 0:08:27.280 --> 0:08:31.200 see some of the same patterns on the apparent herringbone 0:08:31.560 --> 0:08:34.560 patterns on the clothing of the people on the Gunda 0:08:34.559 --> 0:08:38.040 strip cauldron. So based on the techniques, it's pretty clear 0:08:38.080 --> 0:08:40.240 that it was created by an artisan who had been 0:08:40.280 --> 0:08:44.520 trained in the traditions of Southeastern Europe. But as you 0:08:44.600 --> 0:08:49.160 also said, the imagery depicts objects and motifs associated with 0:08:49.240 --> 0:08:52.080 the culture of the Celts who were in more kind 0:08:52.120 --> 0:08:56.200 of western central Europe at the time, and a few 0:08:56.240 --> 0:08:59.800 examples of this would be a Celtic musical instrument known 0:08:59.840 --> 0:09:03.080 as the carnix, which we can discuss in more detail later, 0:09:03.679 --> 0:09:10.240 certain types of Celtic ceremonial jewelry such as an object 0:09:10.360 --> 0:09:12.200 called a torque, which I can also get to in 0:09:12.240 --> 0:09:14.679 a minute, and things like that. So those are your 0:09:14.679 --> 0:09:18.960 two inputs. It's like Celtic subject matter done in the 0:09:19.000 --> 0:09:22.920 metal working style of the Thracians or of Southeastern Europe, 0:09:23.080 --> 0:09:25.640 and then it's found in the territory of neither one. 0:09:25.679 --> 0:09:28.880 It's found up in Jutland in modern day Denmark in 0:09:28.920 --> 0:09:32.280 a bog. So yeah, you really have to wonder how 0:09:32.320 --> 0:09:36.080 all this comes together. Did a Celtic person commission a 0:09:36.240 --> 0:09:40.600 Southeastern European silversmith to make a pot containing images from 0:09:40.679 --> 0:09:44.200 their culture and mythology? Or maybe did it somehow arise 0:09:44.280 --> 0:09:47.439 from a border region where these cultures came into contact, 0:09:47.720 --> 0:09:50.199 and then somehow this item ends up in the bogs 0:09:50.240 --> 0:09:50.880 of Jutland. 0:09:51.440 --> 0:09:54.920 It would be like finding what a Bulgarian band that 0:09:55.040 --> 0:09:59.120 only does covers of Celtic music in modern Denmark and 0:09:59.200 --> 0:10:01.080 wondering how they came to be there. 0:10:01.280 --> 0:10:05.800 Ah, yes, the thrash metal polka bands of Canada. Now 0:10:05.840 --> 0:10:08.040 I wanted to mention just a little bit more about 0:10:08.960 --> 0:10:12.400 the state that this cauldron, the so called cauldron was 0:10:12.400 --> 0:10:17.000 in when it was discovered. So altogether this object weighs 0:10:17.040 --> 0:10:21.360 about nine kilograms or about twenty pounds, and it appears 0:10:21.400 --> 0:10:25.079 to have been deposited in the bog deliberately, especially because 0:10:25.120 --> 0:10:28.240 it was disassembled when it was put into the bog. 0:10:28.320 --> 0:10:32.800 So this cauldron has many detachable features, so the rim 0:10:32.880 --> 0:10:36.400 can be taken off, and the silver image panels which 0:10:36.480 --> 0:10:39.360 line the sides of the pot, those can be taken off, 0:10:39.720 --> 0:10:42.040 and when it was found they were all removed and 0:10:42.160 --> 0:10:45.640 placed inside the vessel, So I don't know, you see that, 0:10:45.760 --> 0:10:47.840 and that makes it sound like this wasn't just sort 0:10:47.840 --> 0:10:49.640 of like it wasn't like it fell off a wagon 0:10:49.800 --> 0:10:52.160 or something. That sounds like somebody put it in there. 0:10:53.320 --> 0:10:55.679 There is no text anywhere on it, so it's not 0:10:55.720 --> 0:10:58.439 like a political cartoon where everything's labeled so you know 0:10:58.480 --> 0:11:01.880 what it means. It's you just have to infer from 0:11:01.920 --> 0:11:05.680 the imagery. So that makes it difficult to identify things. 0:11:05.679 --> 0:11:09.000 But the imagery, as you already said, Rob, is fascinating. 0:11:09.040 --> 0:11:12.439 There are animals you would not expect to see. There 0:11:12.480 --> 0:11:16.920 are lions, There are images of gods that we know 0:11:17.080 --> 0:11:19.800 little or nothing about. In fact, there are even images 0:11:20.000 --> 0:11:21.480 of elephants. 0:11:21.920 --> 0:11:24.800 Ah, and yeah that should be surprising, especially like where 0:11:24.800 --> 0:11:26.920 are these images of elephants coming from? 0:11:27.000 --> 0:11:29.160 Yeah, exactly. So at this point, I just want to 0:11:29.200 --> 0:11:31.760 pick out a few of the individual plates and focus 0:11:31.840 --> 0:11:34.880 on what's going on on them, one at a time. 0:11:35.040 --> 0:11:36.880 So the first one I wanted to look at, I've 0:11:36.880 --> 0:11:38.440 got a picture for you to look at, Rob, but 0:11:38.480 --> 0:11:40.840 of course we will describe it for you out there, 0:11:40.880 --> 0:11:44.280 the listener. So it shows a god or a mythic 0:11:44.320 --> 0:11:49.959 figure that's mostly human in form, except it has antlers 0:11:50.000 --> 0:11:53.440 like a stag growing from its head. And this figure 0:11:53.520 --> 0:11:57.040 is sitting cross legged right next to an actual stag. 0:11:57.600 --> 0:11:59.440 And then on the other side of it, there are 0:11:59.480 --> 0:12:03.080 a bunch of other animals. There are four legged, predatory 0:12:03.080 --> 0:12:06.240 looking animals that might be dogs or maybe lions, I 0:12:06.280 --> 0:12:09.520 can't tell for sure. And then I love this a 0:12:09.640 --> 0:12:12.640 tiny dude riding on the back of a fish. Yes, 0:12:13.200 --> 0:12:16.360 is it now compared to the god with the antlers, 0:12:16.440 --> 0:12:18.720 the dude is much smaller, But I don't know if 0:12:18.720 --> 0:12:21.840 it's a question of perspective. Maybe he's farther away, or 0:12:21.880 --> 0:12:25.160 maybe maybe this is just separate imagery, or maybe the 0:12:25.160 --> 0:12:27.120 god is supposed to be really big, or maybe the 0:12:27.160 --> 0:12:29.520 dude's supposed to be really small. I can't tell what 0:12:29.559 --> 0:12:32.400 the deal with the size difference is. But if it 0:12:32.520 --> 0:12:35.280 is a regular sized man on the fish's back that 0:12:35.360 --> 0:12:37.240 is a very big fish, it's got to be like 0:12:37.400 --> 0:12:38.920 dolphin or shark sized. 0:12:39.840 --> 0:12:42.760 Yeah. And there's also kind of a different flavor to 0:12:42.840 --> 0:12:46.560 these two images. So the hornet or antlered God or 0:12:46.559 --> 0:12:48.880 whatever this being is supposed to be is in it 0:12:49.000 --> 0:12:52.920 has a kind of a serene pose. His legs. His 0:12:53.080 --> 0:12:57.360 or her legs are crossed, holding as what a serpent 0:12:57.400 --> 0:13:00.720 in one hand and I'm not sure what the implement 0:13:00.840 --> 0:13:01.800 is in the other hand. 0:13:02.000 --> 0:13:05.040 Oh well, that is a Celtic object. Actually, I think 0:13:05.080 --> 0:13:08.720 this is an object that is bigger than just Celtic culture, 0:13:08.760 --> 0:13:11.840 but it was big in Celtic culture called a torque, 0:13:11.880 --> 0:13:15.040 which is a type of metal ring worn around the 0:13:15.120 --> 0:13:19.559 neck that seems to have had significance for multiple Iron 0:13:19.559 --> 0:13:24.439 Age European cultures, symbolizing power. It's power or status or rank, 0:13:24.600 --> 0:13:27.439 sort of like a crown. So if somebody's wearing a torque, 0:13:27.520 --> 0:13:29.920 that would seem to indicate that they are a leader 0:13:30.040 --> 0:13:33.000 or a high status person. So this figure with the 0:13:33.040 --> 0:13:36.760 antlers has the torque in his right hand, and then 0:13:36.760 --> 0:13:39.200 in the other hand he's grasping, like you said, the 0:13:39.240 --> 0:13:41.800 neck of a giant snake. But I just wanted to 0:13:41.800 --> 0:13:44.920 point out that the snake has features on its head, 0:13:45.360 --> 0:13:49.200 which one scholar I was looking at identified as rams horns. 0:13:49.400 --> 0:13:51.440 So it's a snake with ram horns. 0:13:51.840 --> 0:13:55.240 Oh wow. So there's clearly a lot going on here, 0:13:55.280 --> 0:13:59.599 as one often finds with depictions of powerful individuals or 0:13:59.679 --> 0:14:03.439 da or demi gods and it's one of these images 0:14:03.480 --> 0:14:05.880 that I think it speaks across the ages. When you 0:14:05.920 --> 0:14:08.360 look at this, you get a sense of power and 0:14:08.400 --> 0:14:13.959 divinity from it. Meanwhile, the individual writing the fish or dolphin, 0:14:15.080 --> 0:14:17.840 it looks more comical to me, and it makes me 0:14:17.920 --> 0:14:20.200 wonder if there is in fact it is supposed to 0:14:20.280 --> 0:14:23.440 be comical on some level, like even if it is 0:14:23.800 --> 0:14:25.960 a god of some sort, maybe it is a tricks 0:14:26.000 --> 0:14:29.480 to God. Maybe it's something that is not supposed to 0:14:29.480 --> 0:14:32.840 be interpreted with the same air of reverence as we 0:14:32.960 --> 0:14:35.000 have with this central individual. 0:14:35.400 --> 0:14:38.000 Yeah, I agree, fish boy looks very funny, and I 0:14:38.000 --> 0:14:41.760 think it's partly in the way his knees are bent 0:14:42.040 --> 0:14:45.160 and he's sort of reaching forward while riding the fish, 0:14:45.240 --> 0:14:49.160 almost as if you can imagine him kind of rocking 0:14:49.200 --> 0:14:51.480 and kicking back and forth and saying like, go faster, 0:14:51.560 --> 0:14:52.120 come on. 0:14:53.560 --> 0:14:58.320 Now. Obviously, another possible explanation for differences could also be 0:14:58.440 --> 0:15:02.520 different authors over time. But as we alluded to earlier. 0:15:02.360 --> 0:15:04.400 But an interesting thing I wanted to point out again. 0:15:04.600 --> 0:15:07.120 So there's a lot we don't know about what these 0:15:07.160 --> 0:15:10.640 images are supposed to depict. But this antler headed god 0:15:10.840 --> 0:15:12.840 who is holding a torque in one hand, is also 0:15:12.960 --> 0:15:15.760 wearing a torque around his neck, so he appears to 0:15:15.760 --> 0:15:20.400 be a leader or high status figure himself. But maybe 0:15:20.400 --> 0:15:23.760 by holding a torque in one hand, I don't know, 0:15:23.840 --> 0:15:26.640 just speculating, but maybe it means he can also make 0:15:26.680 --> 0:15:29.400 a king. He can also give the crown to another. 0:15:37.040 --> 0:15:39.560 But to go on to discuss another panel, Rob, I 0:15:39.600 --> 0:15:41.840 wanted to come back to one you sort of mentioned earlier, 0:15:41.880 --> 0:15:45.280 the panel that has the cauldron dunking on it, because 0:15:45.640 --> 0:15:48.479 this panel's really interesting and there was some good interpretive 0:15:48.480 --> 0:15:51.720 material on the National Museum of Denmark website about it. 0:15:52.200 --> 0:15:55.800 So this is one of the interior wall panels. This 0:15:55.840 --> 0:15:59.360 would be lining the inner wall of the cauldron, and 0:15:59.400 --> 0:16:01.400 there's a lot going on on it, so let's try 0:16:01.440 --> 0:16:04.440 to break it down piece by piece. So one thing 0:16:04.560 --> 0:16:07.280 is that there is a row of soldiers on the 0:16:07.320 --> 0:16:11.440 bottom and they are on foot, they're holding spears and shields, 0:16:11.480 --> 0:16:14.760 and they are moving toward the left side of the panel. 0:16:15.240 --> 0:16:19.600 And then above them is a straight horizontal tree branch 0:16:19.680 --> 0:16:23.720 with little leaves forking off of it. And then above 0:16:23.840 --> 0:16:27.080 the tree branch are soldiers on horseback moving in the 0:16:27.120 --> 0:16:30.080 opposite direction of the procession. Below they are moving to 0:16:30.120 --> 0:16:33.040 the right side of the panel, and then on the 0:16:33.080 --> 0:16:36.520 lower right side of the panel, there are three warriors 0:16:36.720 --> 0:16:41.560 playing instruments that are known as carnisses. When I first 0:16:41.640 --> 0:16:43.640 looked at these things, I had no idea what they were, 0:16:43.680 --> 0:16:45.760 but I looked them up, and these are a well 0:16:45.800 --> 0:16:47.920 known type of artifact. Rob I've got a close up 0:16:47.920 --> 0:16:50.680 for you to look at here. But the carnix was 0:16:50.880 --> 0:16:54.960 a wind instrument used by the Celts of the Iron Age. 0:16:55.000 --> 0:17:00.200 It is essentially a giant s shaped trumpet, but most 0:17:00.240 --> 0:17:04.400 of the length of this trumpet is a vertical pipe 0:17:04.440 --> 0:17:07.440 reaching far up above your head. So picture a kind 0:17:07.440 --> 0:17:10.840 of long periscope tube, except it's not going to your eye, 0:17:10.880 --> 0:17:13.840 it's connecting to your mouth, and you blow through it, 0:17:14.160 --> 0:17:16.040 and then the sound comes out of this tube that 0:17:16.240 --> 0:17:19.480 ends maybe a whole other person's height above your head. 0:17:20.440 --> 0:17:24.359 And so the bell part of this instrument, the part 0:17:24.400 --> 0:17:27.159 where the sound comes out, would often be shaped to 0:17:27.200 --> 0:17:30.200 look like an open jawed head of an animal such 0:17:30.240 --> 0:17:33.040 as a dragon or a serpent, or maybe sometimes a bore. 0:17:34.440 --> 0:17:38.520 The carnax was identified in ancient literary sources as associated 0:17:38.560 --> 0:17:41.520 with warfare, so you might play it on the battlefield 0:17:41.560 --> 0:17:45.159 for a coordination of tactics or for intimidation of the enemy. 0:17:45.560 --> 0:17:47.040 Ah, long distance communication. 0:17:47.280 --> 0:17:50.680 There you go. But what's going on with the warriors 0:17:50.720 --> 0:17:53.200 on the bottom row of the panel, Well, they seem 0:17:53.240 --> 0:17:55.960 to be moving toward the left side, where one by 0:17:56.000 --> 0:17:59.560 one they will face a god of some kind depicted 0:17:59.600 --> 0:18:02.560 as a giant who is you know, at least twice 0:18:02.600 --> 0:18:06.119 as big as probably three times as big as the warriors, 0:18:06.760 --> 0:18:10.360 and the god or the giant will grasp a warrior 0:18:10.400 --> 0:18:13.520 with both hands, turn him upside down, and then dunk 0:18:13.600 --> 0:18:17.159 him headfirst into a cauldron. Now, I think there's plenty 0:18:17.160 --> 0:18:22.480 of room to question the interpretation of these panels. Again, 0:18:22.520 --> 0:18:24.760 they don't come with words on them, so they don't explain, 0:18:24.920 --> 0:18:29.119 and they don't super clearly connect to mythology that we 0:18:29.200 --> 0:18:32.560 know about. Connections that would be established have to be 0:18:32.640 --> 0:18:35.480 kind of inferred. They might be kind of tenuous. But 0:18:36.480 --> 0:18:40.359 the curators of the National Museum of Denmark argue that 0:18:40.680 --> 0:18:43.439 the warriors on foot in the bottom of this panel, 0:18:43.880 --> 0:18:47.600 they are being represented as probably in the underworld, meaning 0:18:47.640 --> 0:18:50.199 that they were just killed in battle, and so they 0:18:50.200 --> 0:18:53.520 are being depicted as I don't know, the dead forms 0:18:53.560 --> 0:18:56.040 of their former selves and you can tell they're in 0:18:56.040 --> 0:19:01.440 the underworld because they are underneath this horizontal tree bring branch. Apparently, 0:19:01.480 --> 0:19:05.119 the tree branch probably denotes the Earth itself and the 0:19:05.200 --> 0:19:08.520 division between worlds. So if the tree branch is the earth, 0:19:08.800 --> 0:19:10.879 what's below it is the underworld, and what's above it 0:19:10.960 --> 0:19:14.320 is some kind of heavenly afterlife. And from here the 0:19:15.440 --> 0:19:17.879 interpretation goes on to say that as these figures are 0:19:17.960 --> 0:19:21.960 dunked into the cauldron by the God, their fate is decided, 0:19:22.440 --> 0:19:27.399 and this fate might include being resurrected or reincarnated in 0:19:27.520 --> 0:19:31.239 some exalted state, such as in this heavenly realm up 0:19:31.280 --> 0:19:34.119 above on the top of the panel, and perhaps as 0:19:34.160 --> 0:19:37.960 a person of higher status or rank. Remember that the 0:19:37.960 --> 0:19:41.240 soldiers shown above the branch were on horseback, so maybe 0:19:41.240 --> 0:19:44.240 this means a fallen warrior could be resurrected as an 0:19:44.320 --> 0:19:47.639 officer or as a member of the equestrian classes higher 0:19:47.720 --> 0:19:51.480 socioeconomic class. And I thought it was really interesting how 0:19:51.520 --> 0:19:55.159 this recalls the imagery of cauldrons used in visions of 0:19:55.200 --> 0:19:58.440 hell in multiple very different Asian cultures that we talked 0:19:58.440 --> 0:20:01.919 about in the previous part of this where the cauldrons 0:20:01.960 --> 0:20:04.560 were not only an instrument of torture in the realms 0:20:04.600 --> 0:20:08.879 of hell, but they were secondarily a symbol of transformation 0:20:09.080 --> 0:20:12.240 into something more honorable and refined, if you could be 0:20:12.359 --> 0:20:16.159 reincarnated as a sort of better being after the stint 0:20:16.200 --> 0:20:19.600 in hell. And it makes me think again, Like, seeing 0:20:19.600 --> 0:20:23.439 this motif arise in multiple different cultures, separated greatly in 0:20:23.560 --> 0:20:26.880 time and geography and language and all these different barriers, 0:20:27.640 --> 0:20:30.679 makes one wonder if there's not a common, universal human 0:20:30.720 --> 0:20:34.320 experience underlying that theme, which would seem to me to 0:20:34.359 --> 0:20:38.240 be very likely the transformation of raw food into cooked food, 0:20:38.400 --> 0:20:41.800 or of dirty clothing into clean clothing, as would be 0:20:41.960 --> 0:20:45.359 just you know, natural things where we see transformed by 0:20:45.400 --> 0:20:46.400 the work of the cauldron. 0:20:46.800 --> 0:20:50.600 Yeah, like the basic nature of cauldron technology and the 0:20:50.680 --> 0:20:53.879 idea that it enables transformation, It does seem to be 0:20:53.920 --> 0:20:57.200 something you just see in culture after culture after culture, 0:20:57.600 --> 0:21:01.200 just across vast distances on the planet. And the laundry 0:21:01.600 --> 0:21:04.119 note God is important too. I've seen that pop up 0:21:04.119 --> 0:21:07.919 in a few different sources, pointing to specific cauldrons of note, 0:21:08.680 --> 0:21:13.880 and often discussions regarding that cauldron come back to cooking 0:21:14.000 --> 0:21:18.440 and the preparation of food, the transformation of organic matter 0:21:18.520 --> 0:21:22.800 into some sort of delicious or hearty dish. But also 0:21:22.840 --> 0:21:26.120 sometimes laundry is discussed as a possibility as well, And 0:21:26.400 --> 0:21:29.160 I mean that is a transformation. I think we tend 0:21:29.160 --> 0:21:32.360 to totally take for granted that you can have foul 0:21:32.520 --> 0:21:36.640 and soiled clothing, and yet here is this fabulous specialized 0:21:36.680 --> 0:21:39.200 cauldron in your house or at the local laundry mat, 0:21:39.480 --> 0:21:41.840 or in the basement of your building that you put 0:21:41.840 --> 0:21:45.160 these items into, and you come back later and behold, 0:21:45.200 --> 0:21:47.639 they have been refreshed. They are new again. 0:21:48.000 --> 0:21:50.560 Yeah. Man, who doesn't love clean laundry, especially clean sheets. 0:21:50.560 --> 0:21:53.240 It's a wonderful thing. Oh yeah, Okay, I got another 0:21:53.880 --> 0:21:56.479 panel I want to focus on. This one's very special 0:21:56.520 --> 0:21:58.679 and it may be the most important of all of 0:21:58.720 --> 0:22:02.040 them due to its place within the cauldron, and that 0:22:02.200 --> 0:22:04.800 is the panel that is in the bottom of the 0:22:04.840 --> 0:22:05.919 cauldron bowl. 0:22:06.760 --> 0:22:06.920 Now. 0:22:06.960 --> 0:22:08.880 I might not have even noticed this one just by 0:22:08.920 --> 0:22:11.280 looking at pictures of the plates on the Internet, because 0:22:11.760 --> 0:22:14.439 a lot of the photography that's out there focuses on 0:22:14.480 --> 0:22:17.680 the side plates for good reason. But I actually saw 0:22:17.720 --> 0:22:20.720 this one brought up in a curator's video feature from 0:22:20.760 --> 0:22:23.760 the British Museum that was focused on the Gundestrup cauldron. 0:22:23.800 --> 0:22:27.479 I think maybe when they had it on loan or something. 0:22:28.040 --> 0:22:31.280 But it was by an archaeologist named Julia Farley, and 0:22:31.320 --> 0:22:34.000 this was really interesting. So this panel is at the 0:22:34.000 --> 0:22:36.399 bottom of the pot, so if you're looking down into 0:22:36.440 --> 0:22:38.840 the pot, it's what you'd see at the very bottom, 0:22:38.880 --> 0:22:42.040 assuming the pot's empty. And because of that feature, I 0:22:42.080 --> 0:22:44.760 started to think about how if the pot had something 0:22:44.960 --> 0:22:47.840