Sanctuary of Toutatis

Toutatis was a tribal protector, worshipped in Gaul and Britannia. He was one of the three Celtic deities that Lucan, the Roman writer, associated with human sacrifice. Lucan claimed that those sacrificed to Toutatis were drowned in a vat of liquid that might have been ale. Inscriptions to Toutatis have been found in Rome, Austria and Britain. Some historians even argue that a figure detailed on the Gundestrup Cauldron could be a representation of Toutatis; a man is shown dipping a figure into a cauldron or vat, echoing the sacrificial offerings made to the god. However, it has also been suggested that this image could just as easily represent the cauldron of regeneration, into which dead warriors would be thrown to be reborn as mutes.