In the lower half, a line of warriors bearing spears and shields, accompanied by carnyx players march to the left. On the left side, a large figure - the god Teutates ? - is immersing a man in a cauldron. In the upper half, facing away from the cauldron are warriors on horseback. This has been interpreted as an initiation scene, the god elevating normal warriors to knights.
Giles C. Watson, Cristian Peter Marinescu-Ivan, KM101011, codrinb2001, and mikescottnz-away for a momth added this photo to their favorites.
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mikescottnz-away for a momth 17 months ago | reply
A CONSIDERATION OF THE ICONOGRAPHY OF ROMANO-CELTIC RELIGION WITH RESPECT TO ARCHAIC ELEMENTS OF CELTIC MYTHOLOGY
© Kevin Jones.BA Archaeology & History 2001
www.summerlands.com/crossroads/library/kevin_dissertation...
mikescottnz-away for a momth 15 months ago | reply
For a comparison ...of the four horsemen and ten warriors on the later Celtic / La Tene period Gundestrup Cauldron found broken up in a peat bog in Jutland or the peninsula land of the Cimbri tribe.
www.flickr.com/photos/h_savill/6153460651/
This earlier Hallstatt Celtic wagon was found in a grave at Strettweg in present day Austria. The grave in which this wagon was found was a cremation grave in the seventh century BCE. This bronze wagon has four wheels and each of them has eight spokes. It may have a symbolic meaning because its construction does not seem to be intend a carriage. On the body, there are bronze figures (see details). Twelve warrior-like figures, four horses, and two stags(?) are placed almost symmetrically (see photographs from other directions). In the centre, a tall female figure or diety is standing. She raise her hands skyward to lift a plate on which probably a cauldron would be placed.
Celtic Wagons in Hallstatt Period: Its Technology and Use..
www.unc.edu/celtic/catalogue/chariots/
The wagons in Hochdorf and Vix are different from the wagons in the former Yugoslavia and Strettweg in their appearances. It may suggest the difference of the character and the use of wagons between them. Amount of the loads, the latter could convey, is apparently less than the former. They were made for different purpose. Although the wagons in Hochdorf and Vix are used as carriages of the funeral goods or the body in the last stage of funeral, the wagons from Yugoslavia and Strettweg have a certain meaning of symbol. Their figures of human and animal may suggest their belief, rite, or funeral ceremony, which we do not know exactly about their religion.
Pare classifies ceremonial wagons in the Early Iron Age into four groups according the form.
1.The so-called "Beckenwagen"
2.The wagons bearing zoomorphic or ornithomorphic vessels
3.The so-called "Kesselwagen" bearing a bronze vessel
(The Strettweg wagon is classified in this group by Pare.)
4.The ‘Kesselwagen’with ornithomorphic protomes.
In this classification, (4) includes the wagon with symbolism of water-bird, as the ritual vehicle found in former Yugoslavia. The symbolism of the combination of wheel, vessel, and water-bird was found in the central and western Europe including Italy from previous period. It continued in Hallstatt era and even beyond it. Pare introduced the record of use of wagons by Antigonos of Carystos in the third century BCE.
"They say that in Crannon in Thessaly there are only two ravens. This is why two ravens on a bronze avian wagon (two, because more than two are never seen) are represented on written treaties of friendship as the distinguishing emblem of the city, which it is usual to add in all cases. The wagon was attached for the following reason (for this might seem a strange thing to do): they have a bronze wagon set up as a votive offering which, in times of drought, they shake, praying to the god for water; and this, they say, is then granted. Theopompos reported something even more remarkable. The ravens, according to him, stay in Crannon only until they hatch their young; when they have done this, they leave their young behind and depart. Ktesias tells of something similar in Ecbatana and in Persia. But since...... Myrsilos of Lesbos reports that in the Lepetymnos mountains in Lesbos there is a temple of Apollo and a heroon of Leperymnos, where (as in Crannon) there are only two ravens, although there are many ravens in the places round about" (qtd. in Pare 185).
mikescottnz-away for a momth 8 months ago | reply
Manannán was associated with a "cauldron of regeneration". This is seen in the tale of Cormac mac Airt, among other tales. Here, he appeared at Cormac's ramparts in the guise of a warrior who told him he came from a land where old age, sickness, death, decay, and falsehood were unknown (the Otherworld was also known as the "Land of Youth" or the "Land of the Living").
mikescottnz-away for a momth 3 months ago | reply
The importance of the raven, and birds of prey in general, in Celtic culture and religion is archaeologically confirmed by their frequent appearance on Celtic artifacts and coins. For example, of the more than 500 Celtic brooches with representational decoration now known, from Bulgaria in the east to Spain in the west, more than half depict birds. (Megaw 2001: 87) On the Balkans birds of prey also appear on artifacts such as the Celtic helmet from Ciumesti (Romania), similar examples of which are depicted on the Letnitza treasure and the Gundestrup cauldron (here) – both produced by the Scordisci in northwestern Bulgaria. Depictions of birds of prey are also found on the Celtic chariot fittings from Mezek in southern Bulgaria (Thrace) , and the Celtic sacrificial daggers from Romania and Bulgaria.
balkancelts.wordpress.com/2011/11/02/birds-of-prey/