The Gundestrup Cauldron: Mysteries of an Ancient Silver Treasure

In this final episode of the Bog Banter mini-series, hosts Katy Reiss and Laura Fawks Lapole uncover the story of the Gundestrup Cauldron—a massive silver artifact found buried in a Danish bog. Dating back to 150 BC, this intricately carved cauldron features mysterious depictions of gods, warriors, and mythical creatures from Celtic and Thracian cultures. Was it a sacred offering, war treasure, or something even more ominous? Katy and Laura delve into the theories behind its dismantling, burial, and its journey from southeastern Europe to Denmark. Join them as they explore the fascinating blend of archaeology, mythology, and history surrounding this incredible find.

Perfect for history lovers, archaeology enthusiasts, and anyone captivated by ancient mysteries and cultural connections!

Transcript

Laura: [00:00:00] Hello and welcome to Wildly Curious, a podcast that tells you everything you need to know about nature and probably more than you wanted to know. I'm Laura.

Katy: And I'm Katy, and today is going to be our final episode of Bog Banter. Things found in bogs.

Laura: pop banter.

Katy: Bog, bog, NPR, bog banter. Like, you know, they always say everything's so, so soothing. So, just like the Cave Chronicle guys, we've been doing these mini episodes, , just in between the seasons until our season, our next season will start.

Just so you guys can kind of, I don't know, hear about some cool things found in

Laura: we're, we're, we're giving you, we're helping you scratch that curiosity itch.

Katy: of just, tis the season for bogs? I don't Bogs. Like, tis the season. All right, so the one I'm going to be talking about is also not a body. So we've had the Bog Bog Bog Bog Good lord. Bog Butter. Guess Guess I was like, can't talk. And then we had [00:01:00] Laura's Frankenstein bodies. Then we had my Trollan man of Perfect preservativity if that's a word and then we had your Yeah, pickled dinosaur brains and today we're going to be talking about the gundestrup cauldron like a cauldron like a

Laura: Oh, that, dude, that was gonna be, I saw that, I didn't read anything about it, but I was, when I was looking for cool things found in bogs, I saw this, and this was my, like, backup.

Katy: this is this is a cool one. So Again, not a person an object. It was a massive silver cauldron buried in a danish bog

Laura: Dude, you find that, and you put it right the F back. Are you kidding

Katy: right? That was my thought, like, you

Laura: do

Katy: not mess with it.

Laura: pull a silver

Katy: I mean, right? Right? Well, hold on, it gets, it gets even, there's even more red flags here. Why, you shouldn't have, shouldn't have done this. So it was found [00:02:00] in 1891, again, by peat cutters, working in a bog near gundestrup, Denmark.

Laura: Back when they definitely still believed in magic.

Katy: Right? .

Found in one piece either. It had been dismantled into several large fragments which were buried at different depths in the peat. This deliberate placement suggests that whoever buried it wanted to ensure it stayed hidden or perhaps protected. Right? Right? So when the, , fragments were first unearthed, the craftsmanship of the cauldron left everyone in awe.

I mean, it is crazy. So

Laura: the picture, it's amazing.

Katy: it's made of 95 percent silver. The cauldron had all over it, very, very intricate engraving showing what appeared to be gods, animals, warriors, just all kinds of like different. Pictures and, and, and scene scenes essentially.

Laura: old do they think that it is? [00:03:00] Did

Katy: Um, yes, I'm going to get into that in a

Laura: Oh, okay, okay, okay.

Katy: So what made this even more interesting? They think it was, thought to be dated between 200 to through 200 B. C. to 300 A. D. And then. They then narrowed it down to, they think, 150 BC to 1 BC, which is terrifyingly accurate. Like, 1 BC. One year before Jesus.

Laura: I actually don't think this is the cauldron that I saw. I think there actually might be another cauldron that somebody has found somewhere else, which is even more

Katy: Even more terrifying. Yeah. Let's see here. It was a very unique style. It didn't match any known Danish craftsmanship of the time. Archaeologists could not Quickly realized that this was likely made from somewhere far from Denmark, perhaps southeastern Europe In a region known today from as like Bulgaria or Romania and this meant that the cauldron then had traveled a long way either as a prized trade [00:04:00] item or a supply Maybe like they fought a war and then came back or a sacred object on its journey because again remember we talked in One of the episodes about how it was used for sacrifice and they saw it as a portal between you know The living and then you know ain't you know gods and everything So the cauldrons burial and the bog raised even more questions Why would someone dismantle such a valuable object and leave it in the remote?

Was it an offering to the gods? W was it just like a hidden treasure or something else entirely? So, yes. the cauldron is a masterpiece in, in, in craftsmanship, even for that age. Again, 95 percent silver. It had great detail and it weighed, like, on, on different panels, it weighed about 20 pounds.

Which was a heck of a lot of silver, even for, for back then.

Laura: And like finding that much silver to make that out

Katy: Right? Was, was a

Laura: would have had to take

Katy: Yeah, so they think, [00:05:00] again, like I said, that it likely came from the Balkans. But, oh, when I said about the two different cultures, the various cultures on it, they could see it had influences from Celtic, but also Thracarian cultures.

So the Thracarian, I think is how you say it, is from that Bulgaria, Romania, or present day Bulgaria, Romania, like that area. So it had, it was found in, Denmark, but it had Celtic and then, this Thracarian through, Bulgaria, Romania, Northern Greece area influence on, the art. So it was, like, a ha a weird combination of, , two completely different areas.

Laura: Which almost then makes you think like was it a marriage thing

Katy: Yeah, or, like, what the heck, or they were saying, like, yes, yeah. So it had 13 panels, 

Laura: also like is like a pretty random number like a magic

Katy: Right? It had a circular base, all covered with, like I said, with carvings. Some of the images depicted [00:06:00] gods, animals, warriors, mythical creatures, some of which appeared to be engaged in ritualistic or otherworldly scenes.

 One is an image with a horned god.

Laura: Oh, yes, this is the cauldron that I saw. The thing with it, he's got like antlers.

Katy: yeah, yeah, yeah. They possibly think that he's the Celtic deity Cern Cernos, I guess, but he's

Laura: Oh, yeah, suerenos or whatever.

Katy: Yeah, so he's seated cross legged and surrounded by animals. Other objects depict warriors preparing for battle, a bull sacrifice, and other, just, odd odd scenes here, but it does have a Very incredible amount of detail especially for this time frame And the culture of like just how the heck did you get that much silver back then?

So again, then the big question is why would someone dismantle and bury such a valuable and intricately crafted object in a bog? We talked about it or I talked about it a little bit here is that they think like right now the most [00:07:00] likely and widely accepted theory is that it was a ritual offering to the gods , we've talked about in several of these other episodes that in many of the cultures cauldrons were seen as a symbol of abundance fertility And the cycle of life and death and so burying a cauldron in a bog, which is the whole Principle why they would sacrifice the bogs in general.

 May have just been like an act of devotion meant to Seek your favor from the gods of like here's something very valuable to me that i'm gonna give to you

Laura: do that, then you would give it as an entire piece, right? Here's the whole cauldron, put together,

Katy: way god. You don't have to piece it together.

Laura: Yeah, why would you give something that's broken up?

Katy: Yeah, or was that symbolic and it's and it's gesture in itself. Again, like I said another one was that they think it was maybe from a war like did it Because the style was so different and it wasn't made in denmark.

, it could have been brought back So they just don't know and another one was like was it a gift like a trade or a gift of some [00:08:00] sort that eventually became part of the local culture that they Adopted from people moving around. They don't they don't really know

Laura: freaked out by the cauldron and they were like, This thing is messed up. It's done terrible things. Babies were in it. Like, whatever. And,

Katy: be done with

Laura: yeah, yeah. Buried this thing to the four points of the compass. So that it can never be rejoined. Like, that's terrifying. I'm telling you, man.

I would never touch something. I would never put it back together. Even if I touched it, I'd be like, alright, this is clearly like,

Katy: This is like, like in the movie The Mummy, if you're in a pyramid and you find like jars and organs, like why would you? Yeah, don't, why would you do that? Don't

Laura: Curses on your entire family.

Katy: And your cow. No, if anybody knows. Mulan. Yeah, cause you could. Anyway, but yeah, I would never, I would never, Yeah, do that.

I don't

Laura: cool, but I'd be so freaked. I mean, I'd find one panel and I'd be like, wow, this is really cool. And then, but, yeah.

Katy: [00:09:00] But

Laura: like, yeah, yeah. Once you're like, ooh, okay, nope, nope. Not putting in that final piece, that 13th piece. It's it's a weird, it's like a weird.

Katy: then also too the fact that you've gotten like whoever had to take it apart Like you don't just like take apart a cauldron a silver cauldron. You know what I mean? If this doesn't like Snap apart easily, you're not like popping pieces together It's like you had to like hack it up, you

Laura: it up. Yeah, that's why it makes me think, right, it was very intentional. I mean, obviously it was intentional.

Katy: but like

Laura: right? For what

Katy: for what reason yeah crazy crazy Anyway, that was that's the gun strip cauldron Yeah. Well, that is the last, bog banter. That was a, that, those were fun. Yeah. Yeah, a lot of questions for a lot of these ones because we just again as we start to Explore and find more. Sometimes it's more questions than have answers That's for sure and with some of these definitely definitely did. All right guys We'll go check us out on patreon to support us so we can keep bringing you content like [00:10:00] this , and then we will be starting up here in the next week or two with our new season season

Laura: Woo woo! Season 11.

Katy: fourth fourth year

Laura: Yeah.

Katy: Mind blowing Mind blowing. Well, thank you guys, and we will talk to you next season.

Laura: Bye, everybody.