30 August 2004

Sutton Hoo

Sutton Hoo…a name that conjures up Anglo-Saxon pagan kings, ship burials and a warrior’s treasure.  The minute I heard about this place I just had to see it for myself.  The site actually sits high on a hill overlooking the town of Woodbridge and the River Deben. 

 http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/places/suttonhoo/, or http://www.wuffings.co.uk

When we arrived the wind was blowing hard, the sun was bright and we were eager to see all of it.  The thought of this place conjured up memories of the first time I went to a museum when I was around six.  My school class traveled to downtown Columbus to an old stale smelling building to see loads of rocks and old flags.  At one point we gathered around a glass case that was much taller then me so that when I stood on my tiptoes I found myself staring right into the face of a mummy.  After that I was hooked on archeology and all the great stuff that goes with it.

Sutton Hoo by the Wuffings, a powerful Anglo-Saxon tribe during the early seventh centuries (about 200 years after the Romans left Britain) created a great burial ground to honor their warriors, and their king.  Two of the mounds they built held the sailing ships of the warriors (they drug them about a mile up a steep hill that rested on the banks of the Deben River).  As was the Anglo-Saxon custom, they also buried their personal items that tell a story of their culture, and international contacts.  All of this remained a secret for 1300 years until just before the start of England’s fight with the Nazis in 1939.

Mrs. Edith May Pretty, who was a widow, and a great believer is spiritualism owned the property that held a cluster of ancient burial mounds. One night a friend of Mrs. Pretty’s woke up to see some sort of warrior riding a horse around the main mound, which she could see across the field from her sleeping room.   Mrs. Pretty had heard similar stories in the past so in 1937 she convinced a local museum group to bring Basil Brown, an amateur archaeologist to the site to excavate one of the mounds.

Within a short time they discovered the main burial chamber (earlier parts of the mounds had been looted) and the impression in the ground of a ship hull with hundreds of rivets marking the plank runs. The wood was rotted away.  The ship was 27 meters long, and would have carried 40 oarsmen.  It was probably a royal barge, not a typical long ship of the period.  Eventually they came to believe this was the ship of the East Anglian king of the seventh century, King Raedwald, who died in 624/5 A.D.

They found feasting equipment, which included silver plates, bowls, spoons, drinking horns, cups, yew-wood vat (estimated to have held about 178 pints of beer), and the king's harp.  There were several mystery objects, such as what appears to be a ceremonial whetstone, sometimes referred to as a scepter.  Most of the treasures from the Sutton Hoo ship-burial can be seen in the British Museum (see http://www.britishmuseum.co.uk).  

By the time they discovered the burial chamber England was on the edge of war, and the excavation had to be abandoned.  They covered up the ship’s impression as best they could.  Then the military tanks came for training and much of the site was severely damaged.

Today visitors can see the mounds, visit a new museum with a replica of the ship, and a reconstructed mask that was worn by the king.  There is also a restaurant and playground.

My favorite photo in the exhibit tells the true story of this amazing place.  It’s 1939 and there are men in suits with their matching hats down in the bottom of the ship’s indentation.  They are busy dusting off pieces of artifacts.  On the edge of the digging site sits Mrs. Pretty with two friends.  They are dressed in lovely clothes, small brimmed straw hats and each is holding a set of binoculars to see what artifact is dusted off next.

That photo reminds me that believing in something that is more powerful then little ‘ol me, and doing something about it, even when everybody else thinks I’m nuts, can change the world.  Thank you Mrs. Pretty for believing in your dream…and for having enough money and clout to do something about it.