Gold cape from Mold
- Audio guide stop: 435
- Gallery: Room 51
- Culture: Early Bronze Age
- Date: 1900BC-1600BC (circa)
- Object type: cape
- Materials: gold
- Museum number: 1836,0902.1
- Museum: The British Museum
- Collection record: British Museum website
- Image © The Trustees of the British Museum, shared under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 licence.
Listen to the free audio guide
About this object
Before you is "The Mold Gold Cape," an extraordinary piece from the Early Bronze Age. This remarkable cape shows incredible ancient craftsmanship, made from a single ingot of gold and expertly shaped by hand.
As you observe, the cape is intricately embossed with rows of dots and ribs, creating a pattern that resembles flowing bead strings and elegant fabric folds. Holes along the top and bottom suggest it once had a lining—probably leather—but this has not survived. Though beautifully decorative, the cape's rigidity suggests it was never worn in daily life.
Discovered in 1833 in a burial mound, it was part of a high-status burial likely indicating religious or ceremonial significance. Today, only parts of the original remain here at the museum, with much reassembled and some fragments kept separately.
See it in person
Gold cape from Mold is on display in Room 51 at the British Museum on Great Russell Street, Bloomsbury, London — free to enter. Choose British Museum on audioguide.london and type its audio guide stop number, 435, from the gallery label, or take a photo of it, to hear this free audio guide in six languages — no app download needed.
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