Cauldrons, the large iron and copper pots with curved bottoms and handles for hanging over a fire, have been used for rituals and food preparation since the Bronze Age in Europe. These vessels are multi-purpose, used for cooking, laundering clothes, boiling, bathing, brewing medicines, and in rituals. During the Middle Ages and Renaissance, women would brew beer in cauldrons over open fires in the marketplaces. In Eastern Europe, they were often used for large-scale communal cooking and feasts to feed large groups of people in villages, castles, and monasteries. The symbol of the cauldron, both as the representation of rebirth and as a source of continuous abundance, and in Irish mythology, the chief god, Daghdha, was said to own a magic cauldron that represented hospitality and perpetually overflowed with food and drink.
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