Chiemsee Cauldron

The Chiemsee Cauldron (German: Chiemsee-Kessel) is a gold cauldron found at the bottom of Lake Chiemsee in Bavaria in 2001. The cauldron is decorated with figures reminiscent of the style of the Gundestrup cauldron. It has a diameter of 50 centimetres (20 in) and a height of 30 centimetres (12 in), and is made from 10.9 kilograms (24 lb) of 75-80% gold and 20-25% silver.

Throughout the time since it surfaced from the lake, the gold Chiemsee cauldron simply has been too grand for its own good. It is like the pearl in Steinbeck’s famous novel. Multiple lawsuits have kept it locked-up in safes, almost continuously, since its discovery. Unfortunately, the similar silver Gundestrup cauldron, which also survives as a witness to the art and the iconography of the Veneti, has been given the wrong origin by many observers from Germany and the British Isles, who see its place of manufacture as within a Celto-Thracian tradition on the lower Danube.

The gold Chiemsee cauldron, which also may be a survivor from the Veneti, has fared even worse than the Gundestrup cauldron. It has been seen as a recent production of the Nazis. The proponents of Nazi origin have concocted more-and-more-embellished stories that the cauldron was constructed as the centerpiece of a Heinrich-Himmler-SS cult, thereby tainting its reputation, keeping it out of scholarly perspective. Yet this theory of Nazi production involves far more incredible scenarios (many of them straight out of Indiana Jones) than those demanded by the initial supposition that the piece is genuinely ancient in origin, which should have been followed by a thorough examination to determine if this assumption was valid.

Until the discovery of the Chiemsee cauldron, the Gundestrup cauldron was the unique witness to pre-Roman Celtic religious iconographic narration. Because of the Gundestrup cauldron’s uniqueness it is has been difficult to place it in its proper cultural perspective. Because of its uniqueness there has been a great deal of debate about its nature. With the finding of the Chiemsee cauldron, we have a doubling of the information about these pieces. Both cauldrons fit within the cultural milieu of an origin in Armorica just before Caesar’s conquest, the Gundestrup cauldron being constructed 10 to 20 years before the Chiemsee cauldron. Only with the recognition that the Chiemsee Cauldron is a genuine witness alongside the Gundestrup cauldron to the art and religion of the Veneti can we begin to incorporate the vast amount of information these two time-capsules convey to us about this hitherto lost culture.

History

The Chiemsee Cauldron was discovered in 2001 by Jens Essig and Stefan Lohmann at the bottom of Lake Chiemsee, about 200m from the shore near Arlaching, Chieming municipality. It was initially suspected to be some 2,000 years old, judging by its Celtic-style decoration and its similarity to the Gundestrup cauldron. However, when the artifact was passed along to Ludwig Wamser of the Bavarian State Archaeological Collection to be analyzed, he identified it as a 20th-century creation, possibly made during the Nazi era. However, Garrett Olmsted, who has published many articles and monographs over the past 50 years on the Gundestrup cauldron, has spent the last four years researching the Chiemsee cauldron's art style, narrative portrayals, displayed items, and its metal trace elements. He believes it was made in Armorica, just before Caesar's conquest of Gaul (see publications by Garrett Olmsted at academia.edu).

The Bavarian state and the finder agreed to sell the find on the open market and share the proceeds. The cauldron was bought by an investor for EUR 300,000, at the time about twice the market value of the gold.[1] The buyer, a Swiss entrepreneur, tried to attract investors by claiming that the cauldron was a genuine antique, and that it had a market value of between €250 and €350 million. Investors from Kazakhstan, taken in by these claims, filed suit against the Swiss businessman in 2006. The cauldron was confiscated by the Zürich authorities in 2007,[2] and a fraud trial began on 27 October 2010. As the trial opened, the defendant claimed to have found a new buyer for the cauldron who was prepared to pay 7 million Swiss francs, which would allow him to satisfy all claims against his firm.[1] The cauldron was purchased at the Swiss bankruptcy sale in 2014 by Joseph Hatzenbuehler and taken to the US.

According to the Nazi theory of production, the senior director of the Munich jeweller's company Theodor Heiden stated that the company's goldsmith, Alfred Notz, before his death in the 1960s, had told him about a "golden cauldron weighing more than 10 kg, with a figurative ornament and manufactured by means of the paddle and anvil technique," which had been manufactured in Heiden's workshop between 1925 and 1939.[2]

The maker of the cauldron was believed to have been Otto Gahr, a Nazi Party member, silversmith and favoured jeweller to the Nazi elite. Gahr crafted the silver "death's head" rings worn by SS members. Unfortunate for this theory is the fact that Otto Gahr died a year before the Nazis came to power. Neither can Gahr be seen as the artist who produced the Chiemsee cauldron for the later-theorized use in SS cult at Wewelsburg Castle. Heinrich Himmler did not take possession of the castle until two years after Gahr died in October 1932. After that, the firm only produced small cast items, such as SS commemorative rings and party badges. (Metapedia website: Otto Gahr). In an interview with National Geographic, jeweler Maximillian Heiden opined that Gahr would have been the obvious choice of the Nazi Party for such a project. According to Max Heiden, Otto Gahr, primarily a silversmith, probably sought out Alfred Notz for his expertise in working with gold.

Nazi documents dated April 1945 supposedly were found in an attic in Germany in 2011. The papers, which appear to be a movement order for 35 items ranging from gold and silver to precious stones, were discovered among items once belonging to Heinrich Himmler. The documents list a "gold cauldron/Celtic" along with the name "Otto Gahr" and "Munich".[3] Item #22 of the Treasure List includes a ‘Goldkessel’ made by Gahr.

A copy of a copy of this supposed treasure list is portrayed by Andrew Gough on his website, which lists: “Ebenholzkiste Wewelsburg Otto Gahr/ III München: Goldkessel, keltisch” with the coma and keltisch in a new fresh type ribbon compared to the faded Goldkessel preceding it. Although the s’s and the e’s are the same height, the l’s and k’s are 15% higher in “keltisch” than in “Goldkessel”. The k, however, appears to be a distinctively different character.

The Temple of Doom documentary speculates that the cauldron was commissioned by Albert Pietzsch, director of Elektrochemische Werke München. Pietzsch had been in personal contact with Hitler from 1920, and was known to have provided him with generous donations. He became a member of the Nazi party in 1927 and rose to the position of Military Economy Leader (Wehrwirtschaftsführer) and president of the Reich Chamber of Commerce (Reichswirtschaftskammer). He survived the war and died in 1957. Because of its association with the Nazi elite, the cauldron was dubbed "Hitler's bedpan" (Hitlers Nachttopf) by the media.[2] However,Helmut Birken, who made a study of the reliefs portrayed on the Chiemsee cauldron in an attempt to place it within the context of Nazi occult ideology, has stated, “Eine durchgehende Kulthandlung oder ein neuheidnisches Credo etwa der SS-Ideology oder der Rosenbergschen Rassenphilosophie kann ich (noch?) nicht erkennen” (Birkhan 2008: 760).

According to Suetonius (69-122 AD), when Caesar conquered Gaul (58-50 BC) there was also plenty of gold to be plundered. "In Gaul he [Caesar] pillaged shrines and temples of the gods filled with offerings, and oftener sacked towns for the sake of plunder than for any fault. In consequence he had more gold than he knew what to do with, and offered it for sale throughout Italy and the provinces at the rate of three thousand sesterces the pound". (In Gallia fana templaque deum donis referta expilavit, urbes diruit saepius ob praedam quam ob delictum; unde factum, ut auro abundaret ternisque milibus nummum in libras promercale per Italiam provinciasque divenderet). (C. Suetoni Tranquilli Divus Iulius: 54).

The gold and silver Caesar plundered from temples must have included items like the Gundestrup and Chiemsee cauldrons. Olmsted contends that the similarity in the Gundestrup and Chiemsee cauldrons is not the result of the Chiemsee cauldron being inspired by the Gundestrup cauldron, but it is the consequence of both being products of the same Armorican culture. Independent attributes on both cauldrons converge on northwest Gaul during the first century BC. This convergence is unlikely to have been achievable by a twentieth-century forger.

Fourteen separate portrayals alternating between the inner and outer plates in a clockwise rotation around the Gundestrup cauldron may be seen (Olmsted 2021b: 80-93) to correlate in order with the oldest and most important episodes of the ninth-century Irish Táin bó Cuailnge, including the beginning and the end of the tale. The plates of the Chiemsee cauldron also may be seen to correlate with early Irish tales. The outer plates of the Chiemsee cauldron correlate with the major events of the ninth-century Irish "Fled Bricrend", while the inner plates correlate with the earliest portions of the Irish Tóruigheacht Dhiarmada agus Ghráinne, for which pre-tenth-century references indicate an equally ancient origin (Olmsted 2022a). Contacts between Ireland and Armorica are demonstrable throughout the first millennium BC, giving ample reason for the two Celtic regions to have the same mythic repertoire.

Artistic motifs on both cauldrons (such as the dragons on Chiemsee outer plate 2 and those on Gundestrup outer plate b) relate to different portions of the same Coriosolite coins, which share a silver source with the Gundestrup cauldron, as was determined in Copenhagen in 2005. Both cauldrons show differing portrayals of clothing and weapons of the types utilized in northwest France during the first century BC. Both cauldrons share the same value for measurement unit in their dimensions (1/12 of a pes Drusianus: 2.75 cm; Olmsted 2021b: 125-8). 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 2022c: vol. 1: 61-65).

References
  1. "Wegen 'Hitlers Nachttopf' vor Gericht" (in German). Tages Anzeiger. 27 October 2010. Retrieved on 28 August 2012.
  2. Röbel, Sven (23 April 2012). "The Mystery of the 'Nazi Holy Grail'". Der Spiegel. Retrieved on 28 August 2012.
  3. "Nazi Temple of Doom". National Geographic Channel. 2012.

Sources
    • Birkhan, Helmut
  • (2009) Nachantike Keltenrezeption. Projektionen keltischer Kultur. Wien.
    • Olmsted, Garrett
  • (1974) "Silver Panels and a Celtic Tale", in Norton-Taylor (1974), pp. 77–83.
  • (1976) "The Gundestrup Version of Táin Bó Cuailnge", in Antiquity, vol. L, pp. 95–103.
  • (1979) The Gundestrup Cauldron. Brussels.
  • (1992a) "The Earliest Narrative Versions of the Táin: Seventh-Century Poetic References to Táin bó Cúailnge", in Emania, X, 1992, pp. 5–17.
  • (1992b) A Definitive Reconstructed Text of the Coligny Calendar, in JIES Monograph, 39.
  • (2001b) Celtic Art in Transition during the First Century BC, Archeolingua'',12, Budapest, and Innsbrucker Beiträge zur Kulturwissenschaft, 111, Innsbruck.
  • (2012) "Elephants, Griffens, and Dolphins in Celtic Art of the First Century BC", in Jerem Festschrift, pp. 474–485, Archaeolingua, 25, (also on academia.edu).
  • (2020) "The Gundestrup and Chiemsee Cauldrons: Witnesses to the Art and Iconography of the Celtic Veneti", in Academia Letters. Academia.edu.
  • (2021a) Celtic Gods who Control Rejuvenation, Rebirth, and the Island where the Sun Sets. Academia.edu.
  • (2021b) "The Armorican Origins of the Silver and Gold Celtic Cauldrons". Academia.edu.
  • (2021c) "A Brief Illustrated Analysis of the Gundestrup and Chiemsee Cauldrons". Academia.edu.
  • (2022a) The Myths Portrayed on the Chiemsee Cauldron. Academia.edu.
  • (2022b) An Analysis of the Metal-content Data from the 2007 Metallurgical Study of the Chiemsee Cauldron: With an Appendix Containing a Photocopy of the Report Delivered by Peter Northover to the Swiss Court in the Fraud Trial of Marcel Wunderli entitled: Composition and Construction of a Gold Cauldron from the Chiemsee, Bayern. Academia.edu.
  • (2022c) Celtic Art in Transition During the First Century BC: Revised to Include the Chiemsee Cauldron as well as the Rynkeby and Gundestrup Cauldrons. Academia.edu.
  • (2022d) Indiana Jones versus Julius Caesar: A History of the Chiemsee Cauldron. Academia.
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