CAULDRON.docx

This paper presents the results of an interdisciplinary investigation of a copper alloy cauldron excavated from the Roman settlement of Camp de les Lloses in Barcelona, Spain. The interdisciplinary study included a technical investigation of the alloy and its microstructure and conservation treatment. Compositional information was obtained using energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, followed by metallurgical investigation of the alloy, to better understand fabrication methods. Results indicate that different alloys and construction techniques were used to make the vessel, and suggest that it may have been repaired in antiquity. Conservation of the unstable vessel included consolidation prior to and during treatment, mechanical cleaning to reduce the active corrosion, stabilisation and infilling of the fragile walls of the vessel, and corrosion inhibition. Preventive conservation strategies were also explored for pretreatment storage and final display of the cauldron.

ARCHAEOLOGIA BULGARICA ХХVII, 1, 2023

This article focuses on presenting a specific type of bronze cauldrons found in Thrace and dated to the Classical period. They are low-necked with a hemispherical body, rounded bottom, riveted handle attachments and ring-shaped handles. They can be associated with the classes of material dedicated to feasting equipment and as toiletry objects, and were probably used in certain rituals. Despite their formal stylistic similarities, the geographical and chronological distribution of the presented examples allows some of them to be ascribed to a particular production workshop.

2014

In this article small-sized bronze cauldrons without handles are presented, dating from the 15th to the 17th century. Their distribution is restricted to the Northern part of the Netherlands; they are not encountered in adjacent parts of Germany, nor in Denmark, England or Belgium. This paper will discuss how this type of cauldron may have been used in rituals: tentatively it is argued that they may have been deposited at the occasion of abandonment of a building.

Academia, 2023

If both the Chiemsee and Gundestrup cauldrons were made in Armorica in the decades before Caesar’s conquest, it would explain why the silver in the Gundestrup cauldron shares a source with Armorican coins and why the gold/silver alloy in the Chiemsee cauldron apparently comes from Cornish nuggets only a short sail away. The art style also points to Armorica in the decades before Caesar’s conquest as the source of the two cauldrons. Artistic motifs on both cauldrons (such as the dragon on Chiemsee outer-plate 2 and those on Gundestrup outer-plate b; see Plate 9) relate to different portions of the same Coriosolite coins which share a silver source with the Gundestrup cauldron. Both cauldrons also portray clothing and weapons of the types utilized in northwest France during the first century BC, but the two cauldrons differ in the actual items they display. Both cauldrons share the same value for the measurement unit in their dimensions (1/12 of a pes Drusianus: 2.75 cm; Olmsted 2021b: 125-8). Both cauldrons share the same unit for the Celtic pound: 311 g/C-pound. Neither of these values were known previous to my own studies. Both cauldrons show nearly identical tool marks in the chasing and the use of similar-shaped punches for the repousse work, the same shapes as found on the smaller punches used to produce the Coriosolite coin dies (Olmsted 2022d: vol. 1: 61-65). What I attempt is to reconstruct plot outlines of the myths current in the region defined by the Atlantic Iron Age culture (see Cunliffe 1978, 1991, 2021), a region which includes Armorican Gaul, Ireland, and Wales. The primary bases for these reconstructions are the following: (1) the discovery (which I made fifty years ago) that the narrative portrayals on the inner plates of the silver Gundestrup cauldron align with the major episodes of the eighth-century Irish Táin bó Cuailgne; (2) the discovery (which I made four years ago) that the narrative portrayals on the outer plates of the gold Chiemsee cauldron align with major episodes of the ninth-century Irish Fled Bricrend; and (3) the discovery (also made four years ago) that the Chiemsee inner plates align with important episodes of the eighth-to-eleventh-century poetic descriptions of the events of Tóruigheacht Dhiarmada agus Ghráinne (TDG), a romantic epic which survives in the early modern Irish of the sixteenth century. Since the imagery and art-style of the Gundestrup and Chiemsee cauldrons align with Armorican coins datable to 75-55 BC, the portrayals on these cauldrons demonstrate that mythic versions of these later euhemerized tales were current in Armorica during the decades just prior to Caesar’s conquest. Since the same myths are to be found as narrative portrayals in pre-conquest Armorica and later as tales recited in early medieval Ireland, presumably they were current throughout the Atlantic Iron Age Culture. Such speaks forcefully against its production by a modern forger. It is also unlikely that a modern forger would have been so adept at working in the style of Armorican-coin art in producing the repousse figures to be found on the cauldrons. That one of the two narrations portrayed on the Chiemsee cauldron can be seen to line up with a story actually recorded in Gaul by Poseidonius during the same period in which the numismatic style of the portrayal was in fashion is the clincher in demonstrating its ancient origin.

Acta Archaeologica Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae

2014

This paper presents a re-examination of Iron Age and early Roman cauldrons, a little studied but important artefact class that have not been considered as a group since the unpublished study of Loughran of 1989. Cauldrons are categorised into two broad types (projecting-bellied and globular) and four groups. New dating evidence is presented, pushing the dating of these cauldrons back to the 4th century bc. A long held belief that cauldrons are largely absent from Britain and Ireland between 600 and 200 bc is also challenged through this re-dating and the identification of cauldrons dating from 600–400 bc. Detailed examination of the technology of manufacture and physical evidence of use and repair indicates that cauldrons are technically accomplished objects requiring great skill to make. Many have been extensively repaired, showing they were in use for some time. It is argued that owing to their large capacity cauldrons were not used every day but were instead used at large social gatherings, specifically at feasts. The social role of feasting is explored and it is argued that cauldrons derive much of their significance from their use at feasts, making them socially powerful objects, likely to be selected for special deposition.

JOURNAL OF ANCIENT HISTORY AND ARCHAEOLOGY

Geoarchaeology and Archaeological Mineralogy—2021 Proceedings of 8th Geoarchaeological Conference, Miass, Russia, 20–23 September 2021, 2023

Thispaperpresentstheresultsofthetrace-wearstudyandtheelemental analysis of an Early Iron Age cauldron from the Peschany IV burial ground. The cauldron’s surface revealed traces of the production process; treatments after casting and repair made it possible to reconstruct its production technique. The cauldron was made by investment casting (lost-wax casting). Numerous traces attributed to the repair process suggest that the cauldron was highly prized and kept in use for an extended time. The metal composition analysis of the cauldron discovered at Peschany IV and comparison of the results obtained with the data on the metal composition of similar cauldrons from various publications provided an opportunity to identify the two most common types of alloys. Metal of the Peschany IV cauldron has been referred to as one of two identified alloys, i.e., copper alloy with small quantities of tin and lead. This cauldron has several direct analogies in the Kuban region. In contrast, the same basic metal and impurity composition of its alloy and that of a cauldron from a disturbed grave near the Kunchukokhabl village implies that potentially the raw material of both cauldrons was the same.

The discovery of a fragment of a Hunnic cauldron by a metal detectorist acted as the springboard of this study, in which various aspects of Hunnic cauldrons are discussed: their findspots and find contexts, their typology, their dating and their origins. Questions regarding the broader cultural context of Hunnic cauldrons in the Roman and the Hunnic Empires are also addressed, as are their functional, ritual and social dimensions. The archaeological findings are complemented by metallographic analyses that shed light not only on the composition of the cauldron, but also on its possible use. Preprint version, published in Acta Archaeologica Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae 68 (2017) 75–136. https://doi.org/10.1556/072.2017.68.1.4 http://dx.doi.org/10.1556/072.2017.68.1.4