- Chapter Sixteen -
Mediterranean but the other objects are more difficult to assess. Two twisted rod
bracelets may be local copies of Roman types but in the apparent absence of a
substantial gold industry in Ireland at this time this must be uncertain. The famous
tubular torque uses techniques, such as the use of beaded wires joined to small gold
beads, which are not part of Celtic goldworking anywhere in Britain but, on the
other hand, it is decorated in a distinctly Irish style. The most plausible answer is that
the torque has a continental origin and its body was either renewed or at least
decorated in Ireland. The boat must have been modelled on typical Celtic ships, such
as those of the Veneti referred to by Caesar. Model boats in precious metal have a
long history, with a fourth-century BC model canoe from Hallein in Austria and
the twelfth-eleventh-century BC gold ornamented shale model from Caergwrle in
north-east Wales (for illustration see Eluere 1987a: 29, 98). The analyses of the
Broighter gold show a significant platinum impurity which has been associated with
both European and Mediterranean sources.
In contrast to this small-scale use of gold on the north-western fringe of the Celtic
world, two other areas, the lower Danube and the Balkans in the east, and Iberia
in the south-west, were major consumers of precious metal. There is an important
parallel between the two in that a large proportion of the work was in silver, barely
known in the core area. The most magnificent and enigmatic creation in silver of this
period must be the Gundestrup Cauldron (Bergquist and Taylor 1987; Kaul 1991).
For just over a century this vessel has been one of the principal icons of Celtic
art throughout Europe. The evidence for its Celticity is chiefly its iconography,
for example the wearing of torques, the blowing of a Celtic form of carnyx, and the
attributes of some of the deities apparently portrayed, such as the horned god
Cernnunos. The cauldron, found dismantled, is composed of thirteen silver
sheets worked in repousse, assembled in two friezes facing outwards as well as to the
interior. The base is bowl-shaped with a gilded ornamented plaque in the bottom. A
rim with a circular section is clipped on while the plates themselves are soldered
together with pure tin (Northover unpublished).
Since its discovery, numerous theories for the origin of the cauldron have been put
forward; the two most favoured are Gaul and the lower Danube area. The former
region was proposed because of the specifically Celtic motifs on the cauldron, a
number of which are most frequently found in Gaul. However, present opinion, for
good reason, has settled on the area of present-day Romania and Bulgaria. The use
of high-relief designs in partially gilded silver sheet with distinctive styles of chasing
and engraving are typical of Thracian craftsmanship. The mixing of this with a partly
Celtic iconography has led to the inspiration for the cauldron's being attributed
to the territory of the Scordisci, a Celtic group living on the south-eastern borders
of the Celtic world in a close relationship with the Thracians (e.g. Moscalu 1990).
Other products of the silversmiths of this area were brought west, one of the best
known being the iron-cored silver torque from Trichtingen, Baden-Wiirttemberg
(Fischer 1987; Eichhorn 1987).
In Iberia, too, the styles of precious metalworking represent a fusion of Celtic
designs and motifs with local ideas and influences from the Mediterranean civiliza-
tions of the Phoenicians and the Greeks. The result, often referred to as Celtiberian,
was stylish and inventive. As in the lands of the lower Danube, silver was probably