page_title: Gundestrup cauldron
section_title: Interpretation and parallels
hierarchical_section_title: Gundestrup cauldron / Interpretation and parallels
caption_attribution_description: seal discovered during excavation of the Mohenjodaro archaeological site in the Indus Valley has drawn attention as a possible representation of a "yogi" or "proto-siva" figure.[3] This "Pashupati" (Lord of Animals, Sanskrit paśupati)[4][5] seal shows a seated figure, possibly ithyphallic, surrounded by animals. There are three faces to this figure 1 each on the side and this could be that of the four headed Brahma with the fourth head hiding behind. One can see clearly the long nose and mouth wide lips on the two sides. Tag: 12: M-304 A
context_page_description: The Gundestrup cauldron is a richly decorated silver vessel, thought to date from between 200 BC and 300 AD, or more narrowly between 150 BC and 1 BC. This places it within the late La Tène period or early Roman Iron Age. The cauldron is the largest known example of European Iron Age silver work. It was found dismantled, with the other pieces stacked inside the base, in 1891 in a peat bog near the hamlet of Gundestrup in the Aars parish of Himmerland, Denmark. It is now usually on display in the National Museum of Denmark in Copenhagen, with replicas at other museums; during 2015–16 it was in the UK on a travelling exhibition called The Celts.
  The cauldron is not complete, and now consists of a rounded cup-shaped bottom making up the lower part of the cauldron, usually called the base plate, above which are five interior plates and seven exterior ones; a missing eighth exterior plate would be needed to encircle the cauldron, and only two sections of a rounded rim at the top of the cauldron survive. The base plate is mostly smooth and undecorated inside and out, apart from a decorated round medallion in the centre of the interior.
context_section_description: For many years, some scholars have interpreted the cauldron's images in terms of the Celtic pantheon, and Celtic mythology as it is presented in much later literature in Celtic languages from the British Isles.  Others regard the latter interpretations with great suspicion. Much less controversially, there are clear parallels between details of the figures and Iron Age Celtic artefacts excavated by archaeology.  
  Other details of the iconography clearly derive from the art of the ancient Near East, and there are intriguing parallels with ancient India and later Hindu deities and their stories. Scholars are mostly content to regard the former as motifs borrowed purely for their visual appeal, without carrying over anything much of their original meaning, but despite the distance some have attempted to relate the latter to wider traditions remaining from Proto-Indo-European religion.
caption: The Pashupati Seal (Lord of Animals) from the Indus Valley Civilization[20] is remarkably similar to the antlered figure of plate A.[5][21]
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