Sutton Hoo
Anglo-Saxon
Ship-Burial Site
Anglo-Saxon cemeteries of the 6th and early 7th
centuries
•
•
•
•
•
Sutton Hoo is near Woodbridge in
Suffolk
Sutton Hoo is the name of an area
spread along the bluffs on the
eastern bank of the River Deben
opposite the harbour of
Woodbridge
The word "hoo" means "spur of a
hill."
It consists of a group of around 20
earthen burial mounds
The rivers of the area formed paths
of entry to East Anglia during the
continental migrations to Britain of
the 5th and 6th centuries, following
the end of Roman imperial rule,
and their control was important
both in Roman and Anglo-Saxon
times.
•
•
•
It was excavated in 1939, the finding,
so evocative and illuminating of the
origins of the English nation, was
made on the very eve of the Second
World War
It is of a primary importance to early
medieval historians because it sheds
light on a period of English history
which is on the margin between myth,
legend and historical documentation
It is central to understanding of the
Anglo-Saxon Kingdom of East Anglia
and of the period in a wider
•
•
•
•
perspective.
•
This burial site had escaped from
being totally plundered, a fact that was
another of the wonderful coincidences
of the Sutton Hoo legend.
•
The treasure was buried on the
property of Mrs Edit May Pretty
She decided to bequeath the treasure
as a gift to the whole nation, so that
the meaning and excitement of her
discovery could be shared by
everyone.
The Sutton Hoo area has been a rich
source of Roman archeological
findings
Within thirty years after the use of the
Sutton Hoo cemetery culminated in the
ship-burial, an important early
monastery was founded by royal grant
By the early tenth century the entire
region was part of an early
administrative region or regio known
as the "Wicklaw'.
•
•
•
•
•
This was no general buryingground, but was reserved for a
select group of individuals buried
with objects denoting unusual
wealth or prestige.
Most had been cremated, and
each barrow was raised to
commemorate one particular
person.
It was used in this way for about
50–60 years during the last
quarter of the sixth and the first
quarter of the 7th centuries.
Most of the barrows include ashes
of a man and a horse
Some of the buried died in battle
(warriors), others were executed
(servants, sacrifices)
The mounds furthermore contained
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
objects imported from the eastern
Mediterranean area
Bronze ewer (vizeskanna)
Bowls
Iron cups
Ivory boxes
Gaming-pieces
Drinking vessels
Belt-buckels (övcsat)
Leather bags
Chatelaine (övlánc)
Pattern welded swords
Shields
Cauldrons(üst)
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Animal ribs , remains of food
offerings
Bronze brooches
Dress fasteners
Fragments of embroidered cloth
English bue glass cups
Shoulder-clasps (válpánt)
Shields and shield-fittings
Drinking horns and mounts
Helmets
Silver spoonsleather shoes
Cushion/pillos stuffed with feathers
Maplewood cups
Illustrations of some of the findings
•
•
•
Inhumation graves containing a
man and horse together, signifying
an equestrian role, are known
from England and Germanic
Europe
Mound 7 was the remains of a
grand cremation, in which horse,
cattle, red deer, sheep and pig
had been burnt with the deceased
Although the material evidences
reveal that rituals were not
identical in all of the sites, the
association of these objects and
the ship in the grave shows an
immediate connection between
them
The Ship-burial site
•
•
•
•
Although practically none of the
original timber survived, the
excavated form of the ship in
Mound 1 presented a very perfect
image
A stain in the sand had replaced
the wood but had preserved many
details of the construction, and
nearly all of the iron planking
rivets remained in their original
places.
The ship was about 27 m long,
widening to about 4.4 m in the
beam with an inboard depth of
about 1.5 m.
It had been a seagoing craft of
excellent craftsmanship
Who was in the ship?
• This question is unanswerable
• But given…
– the exceptionally high quality of the materials (imported and
commissioned) and the resources needed to assemble them
– the imperial authority which the gold body equipment was
intended to convey
– the community involvement required in this unusual ritual at a
cemetery reserved for an elite
– the nearness of Sutton Hoo to a near-contemporary centre of
royal power at Rendlesham
– and the probable date-horizons
the identification with Raedwald (Riler of East Anglia
from c 600 AD until his death in c 624 AD. ) still has
widespread popular acceptance.
Origins of the precious burial ornature
• The findings are very similar to Swedish examples, but are of
superior quality
• The gold and garnet objects found in the upper body space are
among the true wonders of Sutton Hoo.
• Precious metal objects are the works of a master-goldsmith of his
age who had access to an East Anglian armoury containing the
objects used as pattern sources.
• In some graves there were coins places in a purse. Possibly like the
Roman obolus they were to pay the forty ghostly oarsmen in the
afterworld, or were a funeral tribute, or an expression of allegiance.
• In one of the graves a silver dish probably of Italian origin was
found, with the relief image of a female head in late Roman style
worked into the bowl
• There were also exotic coloured hangings or spreads, including
some (possibly imported) woven in patterns using a Syrian
technique
• From the gathering together of such
possessions, and the combination or
transformation of their themes and
techniques in new productions, the
synthesis of Insular art emerges. Drawing
on Irish, Pictish, Anglo-Saxon, native
British and Mediterranean artistic sources,
Insular art is a fusion more complex than
the purely Anglo-Irish expressed by the
term "Hiberno-Saxon" art.
Sandinavian connections
• It is debated whether the custom of furnished burial was explicitly
pagan, or whether it was reaching a natural culmination when
Christianity began to make its mark
• Beowulf, the great surviving example of heroic Old English poetry,
describes funerals that are similar to the Sutton hoo one
• Beowulf is a work of heroic lore, not a scholarly history. However,
the real eastern Swedish connections of the Sutton Hoo material
reinforce this link
• The selection and arrangement of goods in these graves come to
suggest that the Scandinavian connections of the Sutton Hoo shipburial is more direct than the general overlap between English and
north continental art of the period
• A possible explanation for these Swedish connections lies in the
well-attested northern custom by which the children of leading men
were often brought up not at home, but by some distinguished friend
or relative
And a proof
• Above you see a
helmet of a warrior
found in Sutton Hoo
• Below is a Vendel era
helmet from Sweden
And another one
• Shield from Sutton Hoo
with shield fitting
reassembled
• Vendel era shiled from
Sweden directly
comparable to the British
finding
The treasure from the Sutton Hoo
ship-burial site is exhibited in…
• The British Museum in London
• The Ipswich Museum, Suffolk, in an AngloSaxon Gallery
• The Sutton Hoo House (now Tranmer
House)
• The National Trust visitor centre near the
Sutton Hoo cemetery