ABC WEDNESDAY - S

S IS FOR SUTTON HOO

Sutton Hoo is an estate in Suffolk that is the site of an early burial site. One of the most important archaeological finds was the remains of the ship burial of the Anglo-Saxon King Rædwald, who died in AD 624/5 along with one of the greatest treasure-hoards ever discovered which included the gold and regalia of a warrior-king and silver feasting equipment. A couple of months ago I was lucky enough to join some of the local school children when they visited the site as part of their Anglo-Saxon History lessons; I promised to post some photos on my 'S' post.

Sadly on the day of the trip the weather was pretty bleak.......................and there were many heavy downpours as we made our way to the burial ground. We passed Sutton Hoo House where Mrs Edith May Pretty J.P. who owned the estate used to live.She and her family had often wondered what the strange mounds were in the grounds.On the way we passed the grave of a warrior's horse.................it was quite common in those days for a dead warrior and his horse to be buried side by side.In 1937 Mrs Pretty sought advice from Ipswich Museum's curator, who in 1938 released Basil Brown to work for her. He opened three mounds in the first season. He found plundered cremation burials with goods in two of them. In the larger mound he found iron ship-rivets and a disturbed chamber burial with fragments of metal and glass artifacts. In 1965–1971 re-excavation took place to resolve certain problems posed by the first discovery. The ship impression was again exposed (this is a photo of a photo in the museum) A plaster cast taken, from which a fibre-glass shape was produced. The mound was afterwards restored to its pre-1939 appearance.

After a long wet walk .................we finally reached the mound in which the remains of the buried ship was found.........
Archaeologists have reconstructed how the burial at Sutton Hoo must have taken place. A long trench was dug atop a 100 ft. high cliff above the River Deben. The ship was dragged up from the river and set in the trench. In this photo you can see the river and part of the hill that the ship was dragged up.A hut was built in the centre of the ship, and there was placed a large coffin and the grave goods. The trench was then filled in and a large mound erected over the top.

On the way back and absolutely soaked...(the rain was torrential when we stood on top of the mound...no chance of taking photographs!)...we were shown the remains in one of the smaller burial areas. The actual bones had long gone but the impression they had left had been filled with plaster.

After a hasty lunch we went into the museum and saw a recreation of an Anglo-Saxon hut.

I loved the cooking utensils....just think how much jam I could make in a pan as big as this!We also saw this replica of the Sutton Hoo helm or 'battle mask'. The original (which had to be reconstructed from fragments) can be seen in the British Museum. Unfortunately with 29 children jostling to see my photos of the gold coins and the sword belt buckle came out rather blurred....My photo of the Anglo-Saxon alphabet is clearer........I guess the children weren't quite as interested in seeing this!!!!It was a really long day; the journey itself was over an hour each way and when you consider how wet and tired the children were...they were really well behaved. I think they and we adults were glad to go home rather than back to the classroom.

abc wednesday

S is also for

"Sayonara"

...not sure if that's the way to spell it but I think it means Farewell. Unfortunately I'll no longer be on the Computer for an indefinite period...apologies for all the posts I've not read yet, all the emails that will go unanswered and the Blogspals Birthdays etc I'm going to miss.....including ICARUS whose birthday is on Friday (there is a card in the post Icarus...hope it gets to you at some point). I do have some ABC posts still in draft which I'll try and post through a friends pc........admittedly they could turn up any day of the week...but I'd like to get to 'Z'.