- The Gods and the Supernatural -
Figure 25.2 Bronze figurine of a bull, Byciskala Cave, Czechoslovakia. Sixth century Be.
Ht I I.4 cm. (Illustrator: Paul Jenkins.)made in the second or first century Be. The circumstances of its manufacture,
use and subsequent deposition have long been the subject of controversy. It was
probably made in south-east Europe by Thracian or Dacian silversmiths. Many of
the iconographic themes are exotic: lions, elephants and griffons adorn the plates.
However, there are a number of unequivocally Celtic motifs: the weapons and
armour belong to the Celtic world, and the deities represented may be paralleled
in the later Romano-Celtic imagery of Gaul and Britain. These include the antlered
god, sometimes identified as 'Cernunnos' because of a first century AD Parisian mon-
ument linking this name with a similar antlered figure (Esperandieu nos. 31 32, 3133;
elL XIII: 3026). On the cauldron, the god is accompanied by a ram-headed snake,
an idiosyncratic cult-animal which occurs consistently with the antlered god in
Romano-Celtic Gaul. This serpent appears a total of three times on the cauldron. The
antlered figure appears with two torques on the vessel, and he is thus represented on
a number of later Romano-Gaulish depictions. Interestingly, as early as the fourth
century Be, an antlered figure with torques and horned snakes is portrayed in the
rock art of Camonica valley in north Italy (Anati 1965). Another undoubtedly Celtic
divine representation on the Gundestrup vessel is the wheel-god, depicted on an
outer plate. Once again, there is good evidence for this deity in Romano-Celtic
imagery (Green 1984).