This is an illustration from the British Museum’s Sutton Hoo Collection, studying the grave (and buried treasures) of a “Very Important Person” laid to rest in the 600s.
Sue Brunning, Curator of Early Medieval European Collections, says the burial was the final resting place of someone who had died in the early seventh century, during the Anglo-Saxon period – a time before ‘England’ existed.
She highlights the effort and manpower that would have been necessary to position and bury the ship – it would have involved dragging the ship uphill from the River Deben, digging a large trench, cutting trees to craft the chamber, dressing it with finery and raising the mound.
Ship burials were rare in Anglo-Saxon England – probably reserved for the most important people in society – so it’s likely that there was a huge funeral ceremony. She continues:
‘It’s this effort, coupled with the quality and the quantity of the grave goods from all over the known world at that time, that has made people think that an Anglo-Saxon king may have been buried here.
‘We can’t name that king for certain, but a popular candidate is Raedwald, who ruled the kingdom of East Anglia around this time in the early seventh century. He may have held power over neighbouring kingdoms too, which may have earned him a good send off.’
Acidic soil did away with the body, but the hilt of a sword inside the tomb-ship reveals that the departed lord was probably left-handed. The gold items and well-made weapons reveal that whoever was laid to rest here was rich. The most famous relic of Sutton Hoo, the helmet, is an expression of wealth, fighting spirit, and, possibly, religious faith:
The helmet is covered in complicated imagery, including fighting and dancing warriors, and fierce creatures. The face mask together forms a dragon whose wings make the eyebrows and tail the moustache. Garnets line the eyebrows, but only one is backed with gold foil reflectors – perhaps a reference to the one-eyed god, Woden.