It’s been a beautiful bank holiday weekend, and I’ve been out and about at Sutton Hoo today with my family.
Sutton Hoo is the site of a saxon ship burial in Suffolk on the edge of the market town of Woodbridge.
There are about twenty burial mounds dating from the 7th Century. The largest of the burial mounds on the site was excavated in 1939 by Basil Brown at the request of Edith Pretty who owned the land.
During the excavation brown found the inprint of a ship (the majority of the timbers having been destroyed by the acidic soil). The grave is thought to be the grave of King Raedwald, who ruled the East Angles. His kingdom included Norfolk and Suffolk and possibly part of the Cambridge Fens.
The hoard is one of the largest finds in England. Most of the treasures found are in the British Museum, and includes, Byzantium silver plate, gold fittings from a horse’s harness, gold coins, beautifully decorated buckles, clasps and of course the famous decorative helmet (right).
I remember seeing a video where they recreated part of the buckle (left), the sapphires and garnets inset into the gold were faceted on the reverse to emphasis the colour.
P. M. Sabin Moore has written a book based around King Raewald and his family and incorporates a tale from an Anglo-Saxon manuscript, STORM FROST, which will be going on my reading list.
Sarah Downing 