Sutton Hoo
Sutton Hoo is a burial ground dating from the early 7th century AD, and was probably the main burial ground of the pagan Kings of East Anglia. There was also a prehistoric settlement there of the Beaker period (c. 2000BC).
Sutton Hoo has been excavated on a number of occasions; the most recent being excavation in advance of the building of the National Trusts Visitor Centre and Exhibition Building. In the 1980s-90s there was a long-term research project by the Sutton Hoo Research Trust and University of York. The information from these excavations provides much of the evidence for what we know about the origins of East Anglia, or any of the early English Kingdoms.
Effects of Anglo-Saxon settlement: the arrival and settlement of the Anglo-Saxons; the conversion to Christianity, religious beliefs and customs, including the Sutton Hoo and other ship burials, and myths and legends. (visit "http://www.nc.uk.net for more details).
Sutton Hoo provides a context for the use of archaeological evidence (material remains) and literature in the study of history; an aspect of in-depth study of Anglo-Saxon England; changes in archaeological methodology; and in terms of broader understanding, the development of, for example, concepts such as kingship and power structures in the pre-Conquest period..
Cemetery site: The Cemetary at Sutton Hoo comprises a group of burial mounds, of which the most famous is the one that once contained the ship and treasure. Altogether about 21 mounds have been identified. One of the mounds (Mound 2) has been rebuilt to give an idea of their original size and form. The National Trust Exhibition contains replicas of many of the finds, detailed explanation and interpretation, and a full-scale reconstruction of the burial chamber from Mound 1.
The Anglo-Saxons and Sutton Hoo Areas of Knowledge: The study of Sutton Hoo would cover a number of aspects of study of the Anglo-Saxons. In particular, aspects of the Christian conversion, everyday life, religion, kingdoms, myths and legends, and the study of the remains of the Anglo-Saxons - their artefacts and buildings. In some areas, such as the impact of the Anglo-Saxons on Britain, Sutton Hoo provides virtually the only evidence for the development of kingship during this period and is the key source for the moment when the Anglo-Saxons ceased to be tribal and began to form kingdoms. In addition Sutton Hoo could be usefully incorporated into a local history study, or the study of an historical site. Much of the knowledge of Sutton Hoo and much of the materials produced for schools focuses on the Mound 1 ship burial excavated in 1939. However, more recent excavations (since 1984) have shown that this is a much more complex place, with a wide variety of burial types and material
Skills and Understanding: Sutton Hoo is a unique site in that it can be equated closely with a particular group of people who wielded power over an area which had a defined political sphere. As a result, the material from Sutton Hoo tells us far more than finds from other less-well-defined archaeological sites. Thus the material from the site can tell us a great deal about the everyday belongings of Anglo-Saxon people, but they also document more intangible belongings such as wealth, power, stratification of society, social and cultural identity, religious beliefs, geography, levels of technology and fields of knowledge. In this way, the archaeological evidence from the site provides the launch pad for extending skills and understanding, and for using associated historical and literary sources such as Bede's Ecclesiastical History of England and Anglo-Saxon poetry such as Beowulf. At a simple level Sutton Hoo provides an archaeological source which can be investigated and interpreted to give a wealth of concrete information about the past. At a more complex level, the questioning of the evidence will allow deeper study of the past and open up wider more abstract perspectives and ideas
Anglo-Saxons as Invaders and Settlers: There is considerable evidence from the Sutton Hoo material that the people buried in the cemetery had strong connections with Scandinavia. In particular the shield and helmet are very similar to examples found in the Vendel region of Southern Sweden. Decorative designs found on the helmet and other objects are also paralleled by Swedish examples. This suggests that these people had strong contacts with Scandinavia, either through employing Scandinavian craftsmen to produce these items, or through trading overseas for them; and that they admired Scandinavian design. It has been suggested that these items were probably specially commissioned.
If the identification of Mound 1 as the burial of King Raedwald is correct (as most scholars believe it to be), then the family group represented at Sutton Hoo were the Wuffings, who had strong Scandinavian links and claimed descent from Scandinavian royalty, with a lineage stretching back as far as the god Woden. The use of ships in the burial practice has strong Scandinavian parallels. There are ship burials older than that at Sutton Hoo (for example from Nydam in Denmark), and a larger number are later than Sutton Hoo, particularly in the Viking period. The distribution of ship burials is focused around the North Sea coastlands of Scandinavia and South East England and it has been suggested that the use of ship burials is another way in which this group of people laid claim to their Scandinavian ancestry. Ship burial also figures in the Anglo-Saxon poem Beowulf, for the body of the Danish king, Scyld is sent off across the sea in the boat to sail to the next world. The burial of Beowulf himself displays similarities with Sutton Hoo in that he was cremated, and the remains buried under a large mound deliberately placed so that it was visible to sea-farers. These literary references provide important parallels for the archaeological finds made at Sutton Hoo. (The second Sutton Hoo cemetery, 500 metres north of the main mound cemetery and discovered in 2000, is dated to the late 6th and early 7th century, and may represent people only a short distance in time from the migration period.) Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms
The burial in Mound 1 at Sutton Hoo is one of a small number of ancient burials which can be linked to an individual person. The evidence of location, date and contents suggest that the burial was that of Raedwald who was King of the East Angles, and died about 625AD. East Anglia was one of a number of kingdoms (called the Heptarchy or group of seven kingdoms) which included Mercia, Kent, Essex, Sussex, Wessex and Northumbria, and which vied from time to time with one another, fighting battles for supremacy. It was in one such battle that Raedwald's son Sigeberht and kinsman Ecric were killed, fighting against King Penda of Mercia. Raedwald himself must have been a powerful king, as he is described as being the Imperium or Bretwalda, which meant that he held a position of overlordship over the other kings of the Heptarchy. The evidence for this comes from historical sources (Bede), and is implied from the burial in that two objects found in the burial (the iron stand and the whetstone or 'sceptre') may be symbols of this rank. In addition the items identified as 'regalia' - the shoulder clasps, the sword belt, and the gold buckle, and the large quantity of silver items, all point to some-one who commanded immense wealth and power, and had imperial pretensions (the shoulder clasps have strong parallels with Roman imperial garb). These kingdoms, taking shape in the late 6th century, were novel creations, and the trappings of kingship that come from the Mound 1 burial were probably equally novel inventions of the dynasty. There are opportunities here for the discussion of concepts of 'kingship' and 'kingdoms', and the ideas and purpose behind displaying power and rank in such ways.
Weapons: The burials provide evidence for weaponry and war-gear, although it is likely that some of the items from Mound 1, such as the helmet, sword and shield may have been ceremonial. There were the remains of a coat of chain mail which was probably about thigh-length, an unusual axe-hammer made of iron, six spears and three throwing spears (or angons). Other burials have produced evidence of swords, shields and a throwing axe. Anglo-Saxon buildings, everyday life and feasting. There were no Anglo-Saxon buildings found on the site, but the burials do provide evidence for buildings and domestic life. For example the Mound 1 burial contained a long iron chain that would have been used to suspend a cauldron over a fire. The chain, when reconstructed was found to have been 3.45m long. It would have hung from a cross-beam in the roof, and would have needed about 5m of height in all for chain plus cauldron. Add to this the pitch of the roof, and it suggests that the building in which it was used may have been 8m or more in height - a very substantial and doubtless imposing building. The burials at Sutton Hoo are most likely those of a wealthy élite family group. Therefore the grave goods may not be representative of the 'everyday' objects of Anglo-Saxon households. However they give us an idea of the type of possessions which people of their rank had and the importance of feasting - as well as hinting at the more mundane. The items from the Mound 1 burial which have been classed as 'domestic' objects include bronze cauldrons or cooking pots, iron-bound buckets and a large wooden tub – all ornate and high quality items. There were also elaborately decorated drinking horns, wooden bottles and cups, a pottery bottle and a small iron tripod lamp. Mound 2 had contained similar items and also a blue-glass drinking cup. Mound 3 included the bronze lid from a ewer. Evidence of clothing and fabrics come from what must have originally been a pile of textile material as well as pieces of cloth that had been used to wrap or protect other objects. Decay in the burial has meant that only tiny scraps have survived, but careful analysis has indicated that there were at least twenty-seven different textiles in the Mound 1 burial itself, ranging from floor or wall hangings, through clothing and blankets to rolls of tape. In addition there was evidence of a leather jacket, leather shoes and a cap trimmed with otter-skin and feather pillows.
Entertainment is represented in the form of gaming pieces from a number of the burials, and the remains of a musical instrument, a form of lyre, originally encased in a beaver-skin bag from Mound 1. In addition to the Mound 1 find, evidence form other graves include bone combs, iron shears, tweezers, a tiny spear from the grave of a child, silver shoe buckles, a chatelaine, and from the grave of the young man in Mound 17 a bag containing food, and a highly decorated bridle for his pony. Other burials have also produced evidence of horses and other animals, such as red deer, cattle, sheep and pigs, which had been cremated along with the human occupants of the graves.
Anglo-Saxon gods and Christianity: The form of burial at Sutton Hoo is pagan. The dead were given grave-goods to accompany them into the afterlife. However, the period at which the Sutton Hoo cemetery was being used lay at the point in history when Christianity still survived in the north and west of England and when conversion to Christianity was taking place in the south and east encouraged by the church in mainland Europe. Raedwald himself was baptised, but reverted to paganism. Some items in the burial in Mound 1 have been identified as having Christian connotations, notably the pair of silver spoons engraved 'Saulos' and 'Paulos', and possibly the silver bowls with their design in the form of a cross. Some of the decorative motifs used on objects in the burials may relate to pagan Scandinavian deities and mythological stories. Most intriguing are the rather bizarre groups of burials which suggest that the site may have been used later as a place of execution – ‘judicial killing’. These all offer valuable opportunities for discussion and interpretation.
Anglo-Saxon ships: The ships found at Sutton Hoo provide important evidence for the construction and performance of ships at this time. Those found in Mounds 1 and 2 were large clinker-built vessels - that is made from overlapping planks fixed with iron rivets. The Mound 1 ship, the largest known from NW Europe before 1000AD, was rowed, but would also have been sailed. The shallow draft suited the shallow estuaries of the East Anglian coast. They make it clear that the Anglo-Saxons were experienced sailors, who used the sea and the estuaries as major route-ways for trade both coastwise and overseas. A half-scale replica of the Mound 1 ship has been sailed successfully on the R. Deben, adding important practical knowledge to the archaeological evidence.
Sutton Hoo Society Information for Schools- suttonhoo.org/