Sutton Hoo

Rare card · No. 43565

Sutton Hoo is the site of two Anglo-Saxon cemeteries dating from the 6th to 7th centuries near Woodbridge, Suffolk, England. Archaeologists have excavated the site since the discovery of a previously undisturbed ship burial containing a wealth of artifacts in 1938. Sutton Hoo illuminates the culture of the Anglo-Saxons during a period that lacks historical documentation. The site was first excavated by Basil Brown, a self-taught archaeologist, under the auspices of the landowner Edith Pretty. When its importance became apparent, national scholars took over. The artefacts found in the ship's burial chamber included a suite of dress fittings in gold and gems, a ceremonial helmet, a shield, a sword, a lyre, and silver plate from the Eastern Roman Empire. The ship burial has prompted comparisons with the world of the Old English poem Beowulf, which is in part set in Götaland in southern Sweden, a place that has archaeological parallels with some of the Sutton Hoo artefacts. Scholars believe...

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