The Gundestrup Cauldron: Nuragic influence?

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 the creators of the Gundestrup Cauldron as well, since there seemed to me to be a stylistic similarity. I was especially struck by the appearance of what looked to me like horned appendages on the heads of Nuragic warriors depicted as bronze figurines.

One of the roundels on the Gundestrup Cauldron depicts the hunting or sacrifice of a bull. Bulls or half-man, half-bull figures appear to have had religious significance to the Nuragic people as well and were frequently depicted on ships and bronze vases, and used in religious rites. A figure riding a dolphin is also depicted in the decorative panel. Dolphin iconography is common in the art of island peoples.

Nuragic artists themselves were probably influenced by the Phoenicians who began visiting Sardinia around 900 BCE and may account for the "Near Eastern influence" described by some art historians.  Nuragic statues and figurines have been found wearing what appears to be eastern dress. But these are just my own speculations though.

https://www.ancient.eu/Gundestrup_Cauldron/

The roundel of the Gundestrup Cauldron. The scene shows the hunting or sacrifice of a bull. Above the bull is a human figure and there are two hunting dogs and possibly a lizard.  Image courtesy of Claude Valette (CC BY SA)

 

A panel from the Gundestrup Cauldron showing a seated god with stag’s antlers, often identified as Cernunnos, an ancient Celtic god who represented nature, flora and fauna, and fertility. There is also a stag and deer on the left side and on the right five strange animals and a small figure riding what may be a dolphin. Image courtesy of Malene Thyssen (CC BY SA)

 

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The revolutionary Orientalizing Period in Mediterranean art

These gold plaques depicting a winged goddess flanked by lions were created on the island of Rhodes during the so-called "orientalizing period."  This reference in art history is used to describe a development in western art beginning in the latter part of the 8th century BCE when there was a heavy influence from the art of the eastern Mediterranean including Assyria, Phoenicia, and Egypt.  During this time Greek motifs began to shift from geometric designs to the depiction of deities, animals, and mythological creatures. 

Two schools of thought exist regarding the question of whether or not Geometric art itself was indebted to eastern models. In Attic pottery, the distinctive Orientalizing style known as "proto-Attic" was marked by floral and animal motifs. It was the first time discernibly Greek religious and mythological themes were represented in vase painting. The bodies of men and animals were depicted in silhouette, though their heads were drawn in outline. Women were drawn completely in outline. In Corinth, the orientalizing influence started earlier, though the tendency there was to produce smaller, highly detailed vases in the "proto-Corinthian" style that prefigured the black-figure technique.

These changes were triggered by population shifts brought about by both conquest and colonization.  During this period, the Assyrians advanced along the Mediterranean coast, accompanied by Greek and Carian mercenaries, who were also active in the armies of Psamtik I in Egypt.  Phoenicians settled in Cyprus and in western regions of Greece, Greeks established trading colonies at Al Mina, Syria, and in Ischia (Pithecusae) off the Tyrrhenian coast of Campania in southern Italy. The new groups started to compete with established Mediterranean merchants.

The period from roughly 750 to 580 BCE also saw a comparable Orientalizing phase of Etruscan art, as a rising economy encouraged Etruscan families to acquire foreign luxury products incorporating Eastern-derived motifs. Similarly, areas of Italy—such as Magna Grecia, Sicily, the Picenum, Latium vetus, Ager Faliscus, the Venetic region, the Nuragic civilization of Sardinia, and the Iberian peninsula, in particular in the city-state of Tartessos, also experienced an Orientalizing phase at this time. 

Classicist Walter Burkert described the new movement in Greek art as a revolution: "With bronze reliefs, textiles, seals, and other products, a whole world of eastern images was opened up which the Greeks were only too eager to adopt and adapt in the course of an 'orientalizing revolution."

Image: Gold plaques with winged goddesses flanked by lions and dangling pomegranates, a fruit originating within a region from Iran to northern India, Greek from Kamiros, Rhodes, Orientalizing Period 700-600 BCE probably worn as a collar around the neck of clothing, that I photographed at the British Museum in 2016.

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