Mold Cape
The Mold Cape , accidentally found by laypeople in 1833, is a Bronze Age gold object from around 1900–1600 BC. It was found in pieces in a stone box , along with a man's bones, at Bryn yr Ellyllon (Hill of Fairies, or Goblins) in Mold , Flintshire , Wales . The cape is probably part of a ceremonial dress with a religious background. The location is near the Great Orme copper mine near the coastal town of Conwy .
The sheet metal cloak is made from a single piece of gold, about the size of a table tennis ball. The fine gold sheet (0.11 mm) was decorated from the inside with punched decorations made of ribs and projections, which imitate pearl necklaces under the folds of the cloth. After the restoration, it is again around 45 cm wide and 30 cm deep. Numerous, evenly placed perforations along the top and bottom edges suggest that it was once attached to clothing, perhaps made of leather, that has crumbled.
The 23-carat gold cape weighs around one kilogram. The most famous find from the Bronze Age in Great Britain is considered to be one of the most beautiful pieces of European craftsmanship of the time. This also included amber beads and bronze plates. Its meaning is equated with the continental gold hats and the Nebra sky disc . Nothing is known about the origin of the gold required, the blacksmith's workshop and the person who wore it. It is exhibited in the British Museum in London.
literature
- Rev. CB Clough, the local chaplain, wrote the first report of the find with a list of the ingredients
- Neil MacGregor : A History of the World in 100 Objects . Penguin, 2012; German: A history of the world in 100 objects . Beck, Munich 2013, ISBN 978-3-406-62147-5 , pp. 157–164 (with ill.)
- Thomas George Eyre Powell : The gold ornament from Mold, Flintshire, North Wales. In: Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society. Volume 19, 1953, pp. 161-179
Web links
- Description (English, at the British Museum, with exact dimensions, literature)
See also
- Early bronze age
- the early Bronze Age so-called Wessex culture
Coordinates: 53 ° 10 ′ 1.7 ″ N , 3 ° 7 ′ 59.3 ″ W.