Art Resource - ART201934

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The Mold gold cape, Bronze Age, c1900-c1600 BC. The cape is one of the finest examples of prehistoric sheet-gold working and is quite unique in form and design. It was labouriously beaten out of a single ingot of gold, then embellished with intense decoration of ribs and bosses to mimic multiple strings of beads amid folds of cloth. Perforations along the upper and lower edges indicate that it was once attached to a lining, perhaps of leather, which has decayed. The bronze strips may have served to strengthen the adornment further. It was found by workmen quarrying for stone, in Flintshire, North Wales, in an ancient burial mound in 1833. The mound lay in a field named Bryn yr Ellyllon (the Fairies' or Goblins' Hill). At the centre was a stone-lined grave with the crushed gold cape around the fragmentary remains of a skeleton. The cape would have been unsuitable for everyday wear because it would have severely restricted upper arm movement. Instead it would have served ceremonial roles, and may have denoted religious authority.
P AND EE, 1836 9-2 1;P AND EE, 1856 10-14 10;P AND EE, 1857 12

Location British Museum/London/Great Britain

Unique Identifier ART201934

Type Image

Purpose Public

Size 1600px × 1241px

Photo Credit Erich Lessing / Art Resource, NY

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