Gold Cape

Seen in the British Museum this Gold Cape from Clwyd, Wales dates from about 1,900 - 1,600 BC (Bronze Age).

Information given in the Wales Directory says that in 1833 workmen quarrying for stone in an ancient burial mound in a field named Bryn yr Ellyllon (Hill of the Fairies or Goblins) found this unique ceremonial gold cape. At the centre of the mound was a stone-lined grave with the crushed gold cape around the fragmentary remains of a skeleton. The cape was made from a single ingot of gold.  It was beaten out, then embellished with decoration of ribs and bosses to mimic multiple strings of beads amid folds of cloth.

It must have been made for very special people in very special rituals.  It would be heavy and would restrict movement, but oh, what design ideas there are here.