ARCHAEOLOGY IS COMING HOME?

The Mold Cape

The Mold Gold Cape, a unique ceremonial Bronze Age gold cape (first discovered in Flintshire some 180 years ago) will go on display in Cardiff and Wrecsam this summer. The Cape, which may have been a woman's was made around 3,700 years ago, will be loaned to the National Museum in Cardiff in July, and then will move to the Wrecsam County Borough museum. The cape which normally resides amidst the vast collections of the British Museum in London, shows the degree of sophistication present in early British societies, which were part of a larger European trade and exchange network which stretched from north Wales to Scandinavia. The Mold cape, which was last displayed in the national museum in Cardiff in 1996 and 2001, when the Cape was last on display in Wrecsam (in 2005) 11,500 visitors saw in just 12 weeks. The cape will be on show at National Museum Cardiff from July 2nd to August 4th and at Wrecsam museum from August 7th to September 14th 2013. The cape, which is of international significance to our understanding of cultural expression and power relations in Early Bronze Age Europe should along with other significant archaeological artifacts go on permanent display here in Wales, where despite the best efforts of Labour in Wales elected representatives (locally, regionally and nationally) to close them, we actually still have museums where we could permanently display our country’s archaeological heritage.