Drape from Moldova

Golden drape was discovered in 1833 by workers ^[1] .

She was in a Bronze Age burial mound in a wasteland called Bryn yr Ellyllon , "a hill of fairy-tale creatures." A drape was worn on the body of a buried man in a rough stone sarcophagus in a mound. Separate fragments of the skeleton were preserved, and the drape itself was seriously damaged. Initially, amber beads were put on the deceased, a total of about 200-300 beads in several rows, but only the only bead preserved from the British Museum was preserved. Together with the pelerine, the remains of coarse fabric and 16 fragments of leaf bronze were found, which, apparently, represented the base of the pelerine: in some places the gold sheets were attached to the bronze with rivets. In addition, two gold stripes were discovered among the artifacts. A funeral urn with a large number of remains of burned bones and ashes was 0.6-0.9 m from the grave.

The width of the drape is 458 mm. It was intended for a person of a very slender physique, and although the sex of the buried person is not known reliably, related findings, when compared with materials in similar burials, indicate that this was most likely a woman. ^[2]

As the lining of the drape rotted, the drape fell apart in the hands of the finders. Her pieces were dispersed among several people. Although the British Museum acquired most of them in 1836, over the following years, additional small fragments were found one at a time, which joined the restored drape.

Later, thanks to a detailed study and restoration, the shape of the entire drape was restored, which at one time was incorrectly considered the breast decoration of a horse. It turned out that in the grave there was another smaller object of the same chased style. The drape is currently mounted on a piece of fabric.

In the Wessex English region, the Wessex culture existed in the Bronze Age, during which the construction of Stonehenge was completed, and which is known for its wealth of funeral gifts, especially exceptional gold items found in about 15% of the graves of this culture. Fifteen gold items were found in Wessex - for comparison, only five similar items were found in four other counties - Cornwall , Devonshire , Essex and Norfolk - with a complete absence of such items throughout the rest of England. It is assumed that most of the products of the Wessex culture come from one workshop, or even one master. ^{[3] The} Moldovan drape is the only bronze age product of Western Europe that could compete in wealth with the products of the Wessex culture ; while the decorative motifs of the pelerine are completely different from the Wessex ones. ^[four]

In the Moldovan drape, the influence of both local and continental traditions is noticeable. Similar decorative motifs can be found on other Bronze Age metal products, such as the Rongères Cup in eastern France (which apparently originates from Central Europe), as well as lenticular reliefs from the Migdale Treasure (Sutherland, Scotland) and on bronze bracelets from Argill in Scotland. This motif has been used for a long time in Scotland. ^[five]

The drape from Moldova is chronologically the last of the important jewelry from gold leaf 2 millennium BC. e. After this, there is a transition to massive gold items. ^[6]

• Golden hat
• Drive from Nebra

• Clarke, DV, Cowie TG and Foxon A., 1985 Symbols of Power at the Time of Stonehenge Edinburgh: HMSO / National Museum of Antiquities of Scotland
• Gage, J., 1836 A letter from John Gage, esq, FRS, Director, to Sir Henry Ellis, KH, FRS, Secretary, accompanying a gold British corselet exhibited to the Society, and since purchased by the Trustees of the British Museum Archaeologia 26, 422-31
• Powell, TGE, 1953 "The gold ornament from Mold, Flintshire, North Wales" Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 19, 161-79
• Taylor, JJ, 1980 Bronze Age goldwork of the British Isles Cambridge University Press

• The British Museum page about the cape
• British Museum and National Museums and Galleries of Wales information about the cape
• BBC page about the cape (inaccessible link)