1. The Mold Cape was found close to the Chester road in Mold, Flintshire, on 11th October 1833
2. The cape was found in a stonelined grave beneath a pile of stones by a group of workmen employed to fill a ditch by levelling a nearby mound.
3. The labourers found the cape wrapped around the remains of a skeleton and attached to the remains of some fabric, as well as hundreds of amber beads.
4. The cape is one of the finest examples of prehistoric sheet gold working ever discovered in Europe
5. The cape is between 3,600 to 3,900 years old, dating it to the Early Bronze Age.
6. The cape was made approximately 300–400 years after Brymbo Man was buried with his beaker on the hillside above Brymbo overlooking the Moss and Alyn valleys and the Cheshire plain.
7. The British Museum acquired the three biggest pieces of the cape in 1836. More fragments were donated between 1852 and 1972.
8. Experts originally thought the cape was a corselet – a kind of breast plate worn under the arms. Later, they thought it might have been a peytrel – a decorative piece of horse furniture.
9. Professor Powell of Liverpool University was the archaeologist who proved the gold artefact from Mold was worn over the shoulders, not under the arms.
10.The Mold Cape is one of several Bronze Age (2300 – 800 BC) finds discovered locally: the Caergwrle Bowl, the Lady of Llong necklace, the Burton and Rossett Hoards and the Ysgeifiog Torc.
11.The cape was made from a gold ingot the size of a ping pong ball.
12.The cape was not unique, but no other complete object of similar shape, size or elaborate decoration has survived from prehistoric times.
13.The objects (the amber beads and the fragment of a small knife) found with the cape suggest it was worn by a woman, rather than a man.
14.The cape was a ceremonial garment, probably worn by a woman who had high status in her community.
15.There was an established gold working tradition in Bronze Age Britain with finds such as the Ringlemere Cup, Kent; the Lockington armlets, Leicestershire, and the Mold Cape and Caergwrle Bowl, the Alyn Valley.
16.The decoration on the cape is designed to represent beads. Necklaces made from amber and jet beads were popular in the early Bronze Age. One such necklace was found in a barrow southeast of Mold near the hamlet of Llong.
17.The Alyn Valley is a hotspot for Bronze Age (2300 – 800 BC) activity. Archaeologists know of around a dozen Bronze Age sites in the vicinity of Mold.
18.Northeast Wales was at the centre of a busy trade route during the Neolithic and Bronze Age periods (4,300 – 800 BC), with stone axes and flints, later copper, gold, jet and amber all passing through this
region.
19.The practice of making ceremonial capes may have been peculiar to Bronze Age communities in northeast Wales. Perhaps it was the luxury high status version of the clothes worn in the area or may be it was the consequence of having a gold source nearby?
20.The gold in the Mold Cape contains a high amount of naturally occurring silver. In the future, it may be possible to locate the source of the gold in the cape from its chemical composition.
21.The cape has been the highlight of special exhibitions around the country and abroad: Cardiff (three times), Wrexham (twice), Edinburgh, Venice and Tournai (Belgium).
Source: Wrexham Museum
http://www.wrexham.gov.uk/assets/pdfs/news/21_facts_about_the_cape.pdf (PDF)
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