The Gerum Cloak is a nearly intact brown

wool Wool is the textile fiber obtained from sheep and other mammals, especially goats, rabbits, and camelids. The term may also refer to inorganic materials, such as mineral wool and glass wool, that have some properties similar to animal w ...

cloak dating from 360100 BC that was found in a

peat bog A bog or bogland is a wetland that accumulates peat as a deposit of dead plant materials often mosses, typically sphagnum moss. It is one of the four main types of wetlands. Other names for bogs include mire, mosses, quagmire, and muske ...

on Gerumsberget plateau, Vastra Gotaland,

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

in 1920. The cloak is notable not only for its age and how well it was preserved, but for the

Houndstooth Houndstooth is a pattern of alternating light and dark check (fabric), checks used on fabric. It is also known as hounds tooth check, hound's tooth (and similar spellings), dogstooth, dogtooth or dog's tooth. The duotone pattern is characterized ...

pattern in which it was woven.

Description

The cloak is oval shaped and has a few small holes in it, mainly around the bottom edge. The biggest of these holes was made by Johan Fredrik Klasson with his shovel when he was digging in the bog and found the cloak. The cloak was originally made of white and brown wool, but it all became brown after having been in the bog for so long. A replica is on display in Falbygden's Museum in Falköping, while the original is stored in the Historical Museum in

Stockholm Stockholm (; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, most populous city of Sweden, as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in the Nordic countries. Approximately ...

. The cloak has a breadth of and a height of

Interpretations

When the cloak was found in the bog, it was folded with three stones lying on top of it. Given the holes in the cloak, it is believed that the wearer was stabbed, possibly to death. However, this gives rise to some uncertainty as the cloak was found folded and no human remains were found with it or nearby. Through measuring the strontium isotope system of the wool and dye, it is believed that the wool came from sheep who grazed and lived in the area south west of Torpa stenhus. The wool was not from the local area around where the cloak was found on Gerumsberget, but at least {{convert, 45, mi southwest.

References

Archaeological artifacts Archaeological discoveries in Sweden Individual garments Prehistory of Sweden 3rd-century BC artifacts 1920 archaeological discoveries Collection of the Swedish History Museum