Tuesday, 31 January 2017

Second volume of The Gundestrup Cauldron: a new theory is now published

The second volume of The Gundestrup Cauldron: a new theory, series examines the context of the cauldron imagery within Celtic and Greek iconography and history and the nature of the classical influences that led to the emergence of early Celtic art. Fully illustrated and contains an appendix with photographs all of the Gundestrup cauldron plates shown in the previous volume.

It is available on Amazon for preview and purchase, or read free with Kindle Unlimited

The third volume: Symbols of Transformation, will be out soon.


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25 comments:

  1. James Fielding31 January 2017 at 18:07

    Looks like a good read, John. Congratulations on finishing it!

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    1. John Hooker FSA1 February 2017 at 14:50

      Thanks, James! I've started the final stages of Volume 3 and it should be published in a week or so.

      Best,

      John

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  2. Dobunni1982@gmail.com4 June 2017 at 15:37

    Hi john I've heard lots about your knowledge of Celtic design and art,its safe to say you're the world leader in dobunni art???

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    1. John Hooker FSA4 June 2017 at 20:31

      I would never make such a grandiose claim. I will only say that the Dobunni interest me as great metal-workers. Their proximity to sources of metal certainly has a lot to do with that and I'm sure they profited heavily in the tin trade as they were in the perfect "middle man" location.

      Best,

      John

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  3. Unknown4 June 2017 at 23:44

    From what I hear from a good friend,you are at least one of the worlds leaders haha
    you do a great job in letting 'us' understand more about how they lived.
    Regards
    Jo Ross
    Dobunni1982@gmail.com

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    1. John Hooker FSA5 June 2017 at 04:40

      Thanks Jo, but I think most of that is due more to how little others do. If more people paid attention to what is discovered by metal detectorists and even had some of that stuff analyzed for its metal content as I have done, much more would be discovered. but I have been lucky in the results that I have seen.

      Best,

      John

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    2. Unknown6 June 2017 at 11:45

      I agree I detect myself,with out being biased I'd say detectorists are important as they can be boots on the ground for archaeology,the array of finds they can discover can greatly benefit historians.

      Delete
    3. John Hooker FSA7 June 2017 at 08:41

      Yes, archaeologists do not excavate random fields "on spec" but excavate for other reason such as the accidental discovery of some remains or because a building project is planned. the presence of a ploughed field is far more random and might well contain objects that are not found on other archaeological sites.

      There is also a common archaeological opinion that a stray find can tell little, but metallurgy is just one example of how it can sometimes tell us much. I have also been able to discover much about the past by looking at the art and designs of stray objects as the object can also be classified and identified to region and date and newly discovered details on such an object can reveal all sorts of things.

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  4. Unknown7 June 2017 at 10:03

    How would you gain extra information on the finds??,is it through carbon dating or examining the actual metal materials to find out the areas of manufacture ??

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  5. John Hooker FSA7 June 2017 at 16:06

    I've used XRF analysis for the metal composition which has established the origin of the metal in one case and evidence that some Dobunni were making alloys for the Iceni coinage in another, and one other analysis showed that they were using potin with a higher tin content than the early Thurrock types and thus were probably also responsible for that type. Although hoards are found buried in SE England, stray finds come from the SW and the hoards were probably intended for export to Massilia in the south of France to supply them with tin at the time the tin trade collapsed because of the discovery of new sources of the metal. The original export of tin to Massilia was ceased owing to Carthaginian piracy.

    Other sorts of analysis have been art-historical and typological.

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  6. Unknown8 June 2017 at 00:13

    That's pretty impressive,good detective work. I guess the trade with the dobunni tribe was full flowing as they had the silures to the west,atrebates east and durotriges south,all supplying further tribes with metals and probably the craftsmen to go with it,have you any knowledge of trade from the dobunni to Anglesey???

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    1. John Hooker FSA8 June 2017 at 06:45

      No, I have no knowledge about connections to Anglesey -- perhaps one day...

      The Jurrasic Way was key to them. Many famous pieces of early Celtic art have been found just north or south of it along its route (Cyril Fox provides a map of the route and the finds in "Pattern and Purpose" (the book is still easy to find on Abebooks). It gave them a route to the Iceni and the tribes north of that. It also avoided the Belgic tribes in the southeast. I would expect there to be chariot trackways along the tops of the hills. I also wonder if the Iceni coins inscribed with the name Antethirig (ANTED) = "Fit to rule" refer also to the Dobunni leader who might have later taken control of the Iceni as after his coins in Dobunni territory are a number of inscribed issues of other people which all seem to be contemporary from their metal content (various people vying for power?). After ANTED in Iceni territory, their coins then seem to have just the tribal name. Together, it suggests that something was going on.

      At that time, there were multiple kings in any territory, perhaps with an "overking". Kingship was not necessarily inherited and it seems that many names were adopted on taking or vying for power (a bit like Chinese emperor's reign names).

      Some of the connections might not have been trade but tributes or gifts to gain support or payments for local troops.

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  7. John Hooker FSA8 June 2017 at 07:27

    I should have mentioned that a lot of this stuff is included in my Iceni hypothesis series which starts here:

    https://pasttimesandpresnttensions.blogspot.ca/2015/04/the-iceni-hypothesis.html

    It includes some metal analyses of things (from Dean Crawford) from Dobunni sites.

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  8. Unknown10 June 2017 at 11:19

    I have always thought that, anted could of been either worshipped or respected enough to be either a ruler of iceni or respected as a good friend,even a coalition of the two tribes.or maybe even just the same name used,but if you have seen the trade was strong between the two tribes then its possible its the same ruler. Thanks for the threads,I will definitely read the book

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    1. John Hooker FSA10 June 2017 at 21:42

      You're welcome. I'm hoping that more evidence will gradually come to light and I think that could come from other Dobunni sites and along the Jurassic Way. Perhaps less so in Iceni territory.

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  9. Unknown11 June 2017 at 10:38

    There's got to be so much more undiscovered history in dobunic areas,I was walking around uley hillfort yesterday...I was blown away to be honest. My ancestors actually dug that out by hand. It just amazes me

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    1. John Hooker FSA11 June 2017 at 12:48

      Yes, it occupies quite a large area. Must be difficult to photograph from the ground (like Maiden Castle) without being a long way off and using a 300mm telephoto lens!

      There's quite a few really famous examples of early Celtic art that have been found in that general area and NE to Cheltenham along either side of the Jurassic Way (like the Birdlip Mirror). Always keep an eye out for springs, too, as they were sacred sites for the Celts.

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  10. Unknown11 June 2017 at 13:49

    Yep definitely hard to do the landscape any justice through photos,even a OS map does it no justice. Its much better to stand there and look with your own eyes. I'm hunting down dobunic art for a tattoo I'm having done. Mostly all I've found are the dobunni coins,I will use some deities from the G.cauldron though. I have found some art on sword scabbards found in Ireland too. The boss on the clevedon torc is a design I'm having also.

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  11. John Hooker FSA11 June 2017 at 14:58

    There's a wealth of material to choose from, and fortunately, most of it exists as b&w diagrams which can easily be turned into a pattern for the tattoo artist. There's one or two Bann scabbards that are exceptional. You could also perhaps get a "3D" image simulated with shading and use something like the Sudeley strap junction:

    http://pasttimesandpresnttensions.blogspot.ca/2014/04/horse-brooch-fragment-addendum.html

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  12. Unknown11 June 2017 at 22:57

    I'm loving the swirl work on that bombing brooch,out of ever piece of donuic art which,in your view,is the most impressive??

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  13. John Hooker FSA12 June 2017 at 07:00

    For the round disc design, alone, I would pick the terminal of the Clevedon torc. It has an illustrious ancestry. The earliest British example of that is my own collection where the design gets bent around a sword pommel:

    http://pasttimesandpresnttensions.blogspot.ca/2013/09/important-new-example-of-british-early_2.html

    That pommel is the only true example of the Plastic Style that was made in Britain and is also the earliest example of the "British trumpet motif" the workman would have moved from a continental workshop to Dobunni territory sometime around 200 BC. It is an extension of the main design seen on the armring from the River Tarn in France, but far more sophisticated.

    For the combined roundel design and the surrounding more three dimensional mount I do like the Sudeley strap junction and there is a slightly later version of those opposed "swelled rings" in another strap junction in my collection:

    http://pasttimesandpresnttensions.blogspot.ca/2013/12/british-celtic-strap-junction.html

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  14. Anonymous3 October 2017 at 00:16

    You all need!!!! to read Dr. John Davis Pilkey's Gundestrup Caldron complete interpretation commentary in the following books: ORIGIN OF NATIONS, Out of Print but on AMazon; and, KINGSHIP AT ITS SOURCE, Barnes and Nobels; Also 4 unpublished books I have not published yet - see weirdvideos dot com.

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    1. John Hooker FSA3 October 2017 at 06:17

      While similar mythological themes can be seen in many world cultures and throughout history, equating these themes so that the Gundestrup imagery actually, and deliberately, refers to alleged Middle-Eastern historic accounts in Genesis:

      "Kingship at Its Source interprets the Teutates Panel of the Gundestrup Caldron as documenting a follow-up battle after the Battle of Metelis, in which members of the Gallic tetrad and vassals of Japheth under Shem avenged the murders of Ham’s six sons and four vassals of Javan at the hands of Narmer."
      (http://tinyurl.com/ycsdc9hk)

      fails to recognize the psychological origins of the archetypal myths and confuses mythology with history without providing any really supporting evidence.

      Similar attempts have equated Gundestrup imagery with Hindu religion and have presumed a direct link.

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  15. Unknown19 February 2019 at 11:01

    Just to add another ingredient into the soup of theories in the Gundestrup Cauldron.
    I am researching the possibility that the vessel belonged to the Ancient Druids. They travelled all over Europe, Ireland to Greece, as Historical recorders,Legal
    Arbitrators, Healers, ministrating ritual guidance and advice where needed.
    I see the vessel depicted the Celtic Calendar with thirteen months. Want more?

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  16. John Hooker FSA22 February 2019 at 09:53

    Sorry for the delay in replying.

    Interesting idea about the possibility of a calendar being represented --certainly, most myths get associated with a time of the year.

    As the cauldron obviously had a complicated history, I would expect that even if its original owner was a warrior, subsequent ownership could well have changed to a group of Druids. The messages on the cauldron plates being the same as given by the Druids to the warriors.

    Best,

    John

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