The Late La Tène Decorated Scabbard from the Upper Dniester Area: A Far Relative of the Gundestrup Cauldron?

The article touches upon the late La Tène scabbard with open work decoration from the Przeworsk burial n. 3 of the Gryniv cemetery (Upper Dniester area). It is pointed out that the Gryniv scabbard belongs to the same art style as the Gundestrup cauldron. The scabbard was made using the La Tène metalworking tradition, while its decoration demonstrates mainly a mixture of the Celtic and Thracian art practices and religious beliefs. It’s emergence in the Upper Dniester area may be explained as a result of the Bastarnae raid in Thracia in 29 BC. The artifact reflects complicated cultural interactions in late La Tene Central Europe in which Celtic, Germanic, Thracian and possibly Proto-Slavic groups were involved. Also it marks one of the possible ways from the Balkans to the Jutland which had been passed by the Gundestrup cauldron itself.