On a wind-swept ridge to the west of Århus lay a series of burial mounds. Borum Eshøj was the largest, 9m (29’) high and 38m (123’) in diameter.   It contained 3 oak coffin burials containing two men and a woman, and was excavated at the end of the 19th century.   The old, sturdily built woman was about 155cm (5’2”) tall.   Her hair had been long and fair, originally held in place with a hairnet.   She had been clothed in a woollen bodice with elbow length sleeves, with her lower body covered by a long, roughly sewn woollen skirt.   Around her waist she had a belt on which there was a large ornamental plate and a dagger with a horn hilt.   Ornaments which had been sewn onto the garments or placed around her neck, wrists and fingers were also found in the grave.   During the excavation the grave was badly damaged and the coffin has not been preserved although the body is now displayed in the National Museum in a coffin found in Guldhøj in south Jutland.   Dendrochronology (tree-ring dating) has shown the burial took place about 1345BC.

Drawing of the clothes excavated from the Borum Eshøj Woman's burial.