Treasures from Sutton Hoo: Sword Equipment

These few fragments are all that remain of a sword found at Sutton Hoo. A glass encasing has been used to reconstruct the sword hilt with the accessory fragments that remain. 

A large stone fragment can be seen here as the main portion of the hilt, with gold and garnet embellishments, most notably the pommel that sits at the top of the hilt. The sword was the most important weapon in Anglo-Saxon times, often traditionally passed down from father to son. Warriors who died in battle were even buried with their swords.

 

Gold and garnet-inlaid mounts from a sword harness. (Sutton Hoo)

Sword Handle

Garnet Buckle from a sword belt Sutton Hoo Ship Burial

Sutton Hoo Slider

The sword belt buckle shaped slider belt fastener from Sutton Hoo, made from gold with cloisonne and cabochon garnets and millefiori glass inlay.

Scabbard Bosses Found At Sutton Hoo

A pair of scabbard bosses found in the burial chamber at Sutton Hoo. A scabbard was a sheath for holding a sword, typically worn around the waist - bosses such as these were used to attach the scabbard to the sword belt at the top. The scabbard of a man of wealth would have been adorned with rich decoration. Like many other artifacts found at Sutton Hoo, these scabbard bosses display rich craftsmanship that reflected the high status and wealth of their owner. The bosses exhibit the same intricate inlay of garnet and gold.

Sutton Hoo Sword pyramids.

A set of small (18x12mm) pyramid fittings associated with the Sutton Hoo sword. Garnet cloisonne in gold, about 600AD. The Sutton Hoo pyramids are a miracle of cryptic stone setting, and they’re still holding fast to their secrets after 1400 years in the dirt.”

The Sutton Hoo sword fittings. Photographs courtesy Lindsay Kerr.

Strap distributor of gold, set with cloisonne garnets. It was designed to link two straps--the sword belt and a narrower strap that drops to the scabbard. The distributor is hinged beneath the horizontal mount and has a further mount that pendulates upon the hinged mount.





 

Hanging bowl from the Sutton Hoo ship burial

Early medieval Celtic, late 6th–early 7th century AD
From Mound 1, Sutton Hoo, Suffolk, England


This magnificent copper alloy hanging bowl is the largest of three found in the Sutton Hoo ship burial. It is an import from British peoples living beyond the Anglo-Saxon heartlands and was perhaps acquired as tribute or through a marriage alliance. Its discovery among other exotic imports confirms that it was highly valued. The bowl was in Anglo-Saxon hands for some time before it was buried, because it was repaired using silver patches decorated in with Anglo-Saxon style animals.

Hanging bowls were designed to be hung by hooked mounts from three or four rings fixed to the rim. This bowl, made of thin copper alloy sheet, has elaborately ornamented and inlaid hook-mounts, with extra ornamental square mounts in between. There is a further disc-shaped mount under the base and inside, uniquely, a free-standing copper alloy fish that could rotate. The mounts are decorated with red, blue and pale green enamel and brightly patterned millefiori glass. The curving lines and abstract patterns are typical of early medieval Celtic art from Britain and Ireland and it has been argued that this bowl was made in Ireland.

The silvery (tinned) fish ‘swimming’ inside is a clue to the bowl’s original use. It may have held water for hand-washing after a feast, or perhaps something stronger for drinking.

This is the decoration on another bowl from Sutton Hoo

Treasures from Sutton Hoo: Sword and Raedwald Helmet

Raedwald Helmet - Detail

Purse lid from the Sutton Hoo

Wealth, and its public display, was probably used to establish status in early Anglo-Saxon society much as it is today. The purse lid from Sutton Hoo is the richest of its kind yet found.

Anglo-Saxon, early 7th century AD
From Mound 1, Sutton Hoo, Suffolk, England
British Museum

The lid was made to cover a leather pouch containing gold coins. It hung by three hinged straps from the waist belt, and was fastened by a gold buckle. The lid had totally decayed but was probably made of whalebone – a precious material in early Anglo-Saxon England. Seven gold, garnet cloisonné and millefiori glass plaques were set into it. These are made with a combination of very large garnets and small ones, deliberately used to pick out details of the imagery. This combination could link the purse-lid and the fine shoulder clasps, which were also found in the ship burial, to the workshop of a single master-craftsman. It is possible that he made the entire suite of gold and garnet fittings discovered in Mound 1 as a single commission.

Replica reconstruction of the purse-lid in the Sutton Hoo Museum, Sutton Hoo

The plaques include twinned images of a bird-of-prey swooping on a duck-like bird, and a man standing heroically between two beasts. These images must have had deep significance for the Anglo-Saxons, but it is impossible for us to interpret them. The fierce creatures are perhaps a powerful evocation of strength and courage, qualities that a successful leader of men must possess. Strikingly similar images of a man between beasts are known from Scandinavia.

Treasures of Sutton Hoo: The Great Gold Buckle

The "great" gold buckle is made in three parts. The plate is a long ovoid of a meandering but symmetrical outline with densely interwoven and interpenetrating ribbon animals rendered in chip-carving on the front. The gold surfaces are punched to receive niello detail. The plate is hollow and has a hinged back, forming a secret chamber, possibly for a relic. Both the tongue-plate and hoop are solid, ornamented, and expertly engineered.

Treasures from Sutton Hoo: Shoulder clasp

 Shoulder Clasp - to hold a cape together

The undisturbed grave goods were buried in a huge clinker-built ship some eighty feet long with provision for forty oarsmen. The ship and its contents were buried under a large mound of earth in a royal cemetery containing at least eighteen other mounds of various sizes. The astonishing treasure of 'royal regalia', weaponry, and objects of everyday use gives an important insight into Anglo-Saxon life at the beginning of the 7th Century. If it had not been for Sutton Hoo we would not be able to realise the incredible wealth, power, influence and connections of 7th Century kings in England.

Treasures of Sutton Hoo: Burial Ship

Archaeologists work at the Sutton Hoo site: Painstaking excavations of the burial ship led to the rewriting of Anglo-Saxon history as it emerged that craftsmen from the era were much more advanced than thought

The original length of the largest boat-burial mound at Sutton Hoo was significantly reduced as a result of extensive ploughing over the centuries, and reduced even further when a medieval trackway cut through the site. Archaeological evidence revealed that the 17th century robbers had actually tunneled into the mound on several occasions into what they believed was the center of the mound, though amazingly enough – they had missed the tomb altogether due to the rather (but fortunately for us and history) dramatic alteration in both the size and shape of the mound.

 
Gold Roman Solidus coin of Julius Nepus 473 - 5 AD from Sutton Hoo.

Treasures from Sutton Hoo: Raedwald Helmet

Around 624 or 625, Raedwald, the High King of the East Angles, must have died, although we have no written evidence for this. After the battle on the River Idle, Bede gives Raedwald no further space.

Raedwald was the greatest of the Wuffinga kings, and it is generally accepted that he was buried in a pagan ship burial at Sutton Hoo, in great splendour.
 

This ceremonial helmet is one of the most important finds from Sutton Hoo.

Replica of the helmet from the Sutton Hoo

During the early 1930's Edith Pretty a landowner in Suffolk reported that she had seen ghostlike figures of Saxon warriors dancing on mounds near her home. She was so taken aback by her supernatural encounter (which she believed to be an ‘omen’ or ‘sign’) she decided to sponsor a thorough archaeological investigation of the area.

In May 1939 Basil Brown the leading archaeologist from Ipswich Corporation Museum and his team were authorized to carry out the work on mound one.

What followed next as a result of these excavations was the discovery of the Sutton Hoo ship burial containing many precious items of outstanding beauty and craftsmanship. This collection of priceless Anglo-Saxon artifacts has become Britain’s favorite national treasure.

SUTTON HOO SHIELD

 The shield-fittings reassembled

Treasures from Sutton Hoo

 

Burial chamber of the Sutton Hoo ship-burial 1, England. Reconstruction

Sutton Hoo is one of England’s most significant archaeological sites. The 30-metre long ship was found buried undisturbed under one of many mysterious mounds at the site. It was found to contain a burial chamber housing a rich collection of finds.

As well as the purse lid the finds included helmets, spears, a sword, lyre and drinking horns. A set of shoulder clasps match the workmanship of the purse lid and were probably made by the same craftsman.

Although no body was found it is likely to be the burial site of King Raedwald, who ruled from around 599-624 AD and is credited as being one of the first English leaders to be converted to Christianity.

The finds changed the way historians thought about Anglo-Saxon society and showed it to be more advanced than previously thought.
 

A collection of rare 7th century gold Merovingian coin issues from the Sutton Hoo king's purse, most examples in this collection were produced at different Frankish mints.