Saxon

Published by
The
Sutton
Hoo
Society

No. 56 January 2013

Digging the long-house, looking west (all photos © SCCAS)

Is this the first Anglo-Saxon long-

house to be discovered in England?
Between May and October 2007, Suffolk County Council Archaeological The site lies less than 1km west of the
Service uncovered a previously unknown Early Anglo-Saxon settlement lying medieval fortified town of Eye on a
across 12 acres (4.72ha) earmarked for new playing fields at Hartismere south-facing slope between 38.5 and
School in Eye. It had a continental long-house of a type hitherto unknown 31m Ordnance Datum (OD) alongside
in England. Here JO CARUTH of the SCCAS reflects upon the results of the a tributary
N of the River Dove. The Dove
post-excavation assessment, while absolute dates and interpretations are still transects the clay plateau of north Suffolk,
to be confirmed by detailed analysis. linking Eye with another important
medieval settlement at Hoxne: its valley is a
focus for settlement of all periods. Evidence
N from antiquarian excavations and recent
metal detecting has identified wealthy early
Anglo-Saxon cremation and inhumation
cemeteries from the 5th century onwards,
which suggest a densely occupied landscape
in that period.
Excavations of early Anglo-Saxon
settlements are still rare across the country.
In terms of area, Hartismere School is one
of the largest investigations within the East
Anglian Kingdom. It is still one of only
0 2.5m
a handful of such sites to be intensively
Plan Scale 1:50 excavated in the county, and the first in
Plan of the long-house north-central Suffolk.
 N

Damaged By Railway N

Damaged By Railway

Damaged By Railway

Damaged By Railway
44
44 44
44

Colluvium 0025 Drip slag

Colluvium 0025 Drip slag
Burnt flint features
River
Colluvium 0025 Drip slag
Burnt flint
SFBsfeatures
River
Burnt
SFBs flint features
Posthole buildings
River
0 50m
SFBs Cobbled
Posthole buildings
track with wheel ruts
Posthole track
Cobbled buildings
with wheel ruts
0 50m Colluvium 0025 Drip slag
Site plan, showing main 50m
features Cobbled track with wheel ruts
0 Figure 16. Summary plan showing feature types Burnt flint features
River
There was evidence of dispersed Figureanalysis
detailed 16. Summary plan the
confirms showing feature typesother postholes
preliminary SFBs
varied: four had internal
early Anglo-Saxon settlement across Figure 16. Summary plan showing feature
dating, this discovery is of international typesstructural slots around
Posthole at least one part of
buildings
most 0of the excavation,
50m
consisting of importance for studies of Anglo-Saxon the sunken feature.
Cobbled track with wheel ruts
two earth-fast posthole buildings and at archaeology and history. The SFBs were scattered across the site,
least eighteen Sunken Featured Buildings often arranged in pairs, which could mean
Figure 16. Summary plan showing feature types
(SFBs or Grubenhäuser). There were Sunken Featured Buildings they were contemporary but, equally,
also industrial features, a gully utilised that one was a replacement for the other.
by the inhabitants, and large quantities Sunken Featured Buildings (SFBs) are a These buildings seem to be distributed
of occupation debris. The main dating definitive type of small Saxon building, in two broad groups, but the dispersed
evidence comes from the Anglo-Saxon built over a pit, invariably back-filled with arrangement of them across the site makes
small finds and pottery, which suggest rubbish: their form and function has been it difficult, at this stage, to identify any
occupation from the 5th to 7th centuries, the subject of much debate over many sequence or pattern of replacement. An
with the most intense activity in the 5th decades. At Eye the fills of the pits were almost universal pattern seen on other
and 6th centuries. largely dark homogeneous silts, containing large area excavations of Early Saxon
varying quantities of finds of all categories, settlements is clusters of SFBs associated
A continental-style long-house representing deliberate dumps that post- with a single earth-fast posthole building
dated the abandonment of the building. or halls, but that is not found here. The
At the centre of the settlement is what There is little obvious evidence of deposits evidence does not seem to suggest intense
appears to be a continental-style long- that may have accumulated, either during occupation during the 150-200 year life of
house, a type of building so far absent the use of the building, or immediately the site: at West Stow, sixty-nine SFBs and
from the archaeological record in England post-abandonment. seven halls were found within an area of
at this date. It measures approx. 19.40m Preliminary analysis of the finds just 1.8ha during occupation of c.250-300
long x 5.4m wide and has a central aisle distribution within the pit-fills shows years (West, 1985).
approx. 2.6m wide x 8.2m long, formed some differences across the site. For
of eight paired posts, which does not example, high quantities of animal bone Industry, craft and commerce
reach the ends of the building. The posts was recovered from the buildings in
are irregularly positioned in relation to the centre of the site, while there was a The results include evidence for industrial,
each other, suggesting tie beams across complete absence of ceramic building craft and commercial activities. Sixteen
the building rather than timbers along the material in the two easternmost sunken shallow rectangular pits, with charcoal in
aisle. The outer long walls are made up of features. This may indicate the zoning the base below burnt flints, were scattered
small postholes, fourteen on the south side of specific activities. The environmental across the entire site, often in pairs. The
and another twenty on the north. The end evidence identified a range of materials carbonised wood recovered from three
walls were less well defined, with some within the fills, derived from domestic of the pits suggests that the flints were
features being difficult to distinguish from debris and scattered refuse, as well sedges supported on a lattice of wattles, with the
the natural silt hollows found across the and wetland grasses. These may provide fire lit underneath them. They appear to be
site. A small number of postholes within evidence for the roof material of the single-use features, as there is no evidence
the building may indicate structural buildings, but given the river/stream edge of flints being removed or replaced. One,
elements. At the moment this is dated by location of the site, such an interpretation which had an oval arrangement of small
its spatial relationship in the centre of needs great care. postholes around it, has been tentatively
the settlement and from the presence of The SFBs were of varying construction, interpreted as a possible smoke house, but
single sherds of Early Anglo-Saxon pottery in width from 1.9m to 4.7m, and length otherwise their function is unclear.
in three of the posthole fills, but we from 2.8m to 5.7m. All were based on There is evidence for iron-smelting in
await radiocarbon dating. Assuming the central ridge posts, but the number of the form of a large in situ deposit of drip

2 Saxon 56
 Drip slag, looking west

The gully under excavation, looking south, wheel ruts Piece of copper alloy with runic inscription Anglo-Saxon balance of copper alloy
and surface in foreground

slag (weighing approx. 6.8kg) within a from a settlement context in this country features were found, including Neolithic
furnace pit, in the south-east corner of and strongly suggest trading from this and Bronze Age cremations, and Late
the site. The presence of a copper-alloy site. Fifty-eight Roman coins recovered Bronze Age/Early Iron Age settlement.
ingot, fragments of copper-alloy waste, showed an unusual concentration of Evidence of Roman occupation on this
as well as a lead-alloy model for a florid late 4th century dates. This is contrary site was restricted to stray finds and a
cruciform brooch, indicate non-ferrous to the usual pattern seen in Britain and single possible Roman feature. In contrast,
metal-working. The presence of fragments particularly in Suffolk, which shows a excavations in 2011, also undertaken
of earlier copper-alloy objects, such as significant drop in coin usage at this by SCCAS Field Team, on the plateau
prehistoric axe fragments found across time. The pattern at Eye may reflect immediately north of the current site,
the site, may represent their collection re-use of these late coins as part of the identified evidence of late Roman field
for re-cycling. commercial activity. systems but no Anglo-Saxon evidence.
A narrow gully bisected the centre of There was evidence of antler and Evidence post-dating the early Anglo-
the site, running down towards the river bone-working and among the seven Saxon occupation is sparse. A later field
(north to south). In the base of it was a wood-working tools from the site was system, which is largely undated, cuts
cobbled surface: surface deposits rarely an adze head which is a relatively across the site.
survive on sites of this period. Wheel ruts uncommon find in England. However,
could be seen, and their spacing shows there was an unusually small number
an axle width of approx. 6’6’’ for quite a of clay loom-weights, which are normally
substantial cart, similar to evidence from ubiquitous on settlements of this period,
the Middle Saxon settlement at Brandon although the presence of needles, pin-
(Tester et al., forthcoming). Excavation beaters and spindle-whorls indicate,
to the north of the current site in 2011 if not weaving, other textile production
identified primarily late Roman deposits, on the site.
the latest of which were a gravel and Overall the site produced a vast
cobbled surface and two ditches, which quantity of animal bone (approx. 475kg)
aligned with the trackway. Therefore which offers a great opportunity to
the possibility that this trackway is late examine the evidence for farming on and
Roman cannot be excluded at this stage. around the site and the provisioning of the
Left: Silver pendant in the shape of a hand.
The upper deposits filling the hollow settlement. In general the species ratios
Right: Folded sheet of decorated gold.
contained mixed debris, including pottery, and mortality profiles of the animals are
fired clay and large quantities of animal more like those from Carlton Colville
bone with partial articulated remains of (Lucy et al 2009) on clay soils to the With information from Lorrain Higbee, Faye
Minter, Jess Tipper and Ian Riddler
young animals. north-east of Eye, than West Stow (West
The finds from the site include a 1985) on sandy soils, to the south-west.
Funded by Suffolk County Council Education
large assemblage of early Anglo-Saxon Environmental samples suggest that cereal Playing Fields Service
pottery (2.9kg), a small part of which was processing was not taking place on site,
decorated. Over 200 Saxon small finds as only cleaned grains were identified, References
were recovered during the excavations. suggesting that the cereal was being
These included nineteen brooches, bought in ready to use rather than grown Lucy, S., Tipper, J. and Dickens, A., 2009
which is an unusually high number for a and processed on site. The Anglo-Saxon settlement and cemetery
settlement, thirteen wrist clasps, as well as The evidence from the site has yet at Bloodmoor Hill, Carlton Colville, Suffolk,
fragments of two rare gold objects and a to be the subject of detailed analysis, East Anglian Archaeology, 131
silver pendant in the shape of a hand. Also but the potential for further study to Tester, A. Anderson, S.and Riddler, I.,
significant was a rare Runic inscription contribute to our understanding of forthcoming A High Status Middle Saxon
on a strip of copper-alloy, including three Anglo-Saxon settlement, craft, industry, Settlement on the Fen Edge: Staunch
settlement provisioning and Meadow, Brandon, Suffolk, East Anglian
characters which can be transliterated as
Archaeology
guth, or possibly as gub. the environment is significant.
West, S.E., 1985 West Stow: the Anglo-Saxon
Part of a balance and a scale pan In addition to the early Anglo-Saxon Village, East Anglian Archaeology, 24
are the first of their kind to be recovered occupation, a small number of prehistoric

www.suttonhoo.org 3
 South-western approaches
to the kingdom of the Angles

Listening to Sam Newton on top of Devil’s Dyke (all photos © Nigel Maslin)

On one of the few summer days when it was safe to leave the umbrella at home, almost sixty members spent a glorious
September Saturday among the stubble-fields edging Suffolk, Cambridgeshire and Essex. PAULINE MOORE describes
the Society’s annual excursion, which was led by Dr SAM NEWTON.
Strings of horses stepping across our route effective against the use of horses. ground with our picnics, before moving
marked our approach to Newmarket, on The first phase of building was back, down the Icknield Way to Hadstock.
our way to a coffee stop at the National developed in the 5th century, and Carbon This pretty little place boasts a royal
Stud. A few minutes further on, our expert 14 dating shows some reinforcement in church. Originally a minster dedicated to
coach driver manoeuvred us into the car the late 6th or early 7th century. One St Botolph, it was built by King Cnut as a
park beside Devil’s Dyke. We clambered of five such dykes (including the Black memorial both to his Danish dead and to
up the chalky path, through scabious, Ditches further up the Icknield Way, and the Saxons he had defeated at the battle
harebells and sainfoil, to listen to Sam Cavenham), the Devil’s Dyke is the longest of Assadun, thought to be nearby. Danish
Newton describing the construction, at seven miles, and up to thirty feet high; and English flags stand together in the
purpose and success of this Anglo-Saxon the others are the Fleam, Brent and Bran north transept.
dyke. Such defences were known to these dykes/ditches, covering the ground further Perhaps the most well-known feature
people in their native homelands, and the to the south-west. With fens or dense is the large North Door, with its wood
necessary skills were retained. The clay- woodland at each end it was impossible dating from 1024. It stands within an
covered chalk vallum or ‘wall’ is given to bypass these defences, which also mark Anglo-Saxon limestone arch, carved
exactly the right slope to drain rainwater tribal boundaries. ornately, and is the earliest church door
without erosion. The slope is also steep Only limited archaeology has been still in use in England. Tradition had it
enough to make climbing difficult – as our done, and it is not possible to affirm that a thieving and sacrilegious Dane was
photographer unwittingly demonstrated. the likely use of wooden watchtowers flayed and his skin pegged on the door on
The deep ditch must also have been or accommodation for any hereward St. Brice’s Day, 1002, but DNA testing has
guarding this hinterland behind the shown the skin to be from cow-hide, not
Granta crossing from Mercian marauders. tanned leather, but parchmented, so a sort
However, these dykes served their purpose of vellum. Such skins would protect church
even into the Viking period. Sam Newton doors, and maybe shield draughts.
translated an extract from the Anglo- Our enthusiastic local guide, Patricia
Saxon Chronicle for 904-5: ‘Then fared Croxton-Smith, pointed out fascinating
Edward king after the East Anglian details about the church and archaeology
Danes...and harried over all their land in the nearby fields, which were full
between Dykes and Ouse, all until [up to] of Roman finds from a thriving farm.
the Fens to the north...’ Military camps existed nearby, and would
We had the use of a nearby village need supplies. We were equally glad to be
Approaching Hadstock Church hall, and sat in the shade by a quiet cricket given cups of tea.

4 Saxon 56
Dr Sam Newton talking about the pre-Conquest foundation of Patricia ‘Crocky’ Croxton-Smith points out features in Hadstock Church
Hadstock Church

Narrow lanes led us next to Bartlow the Cambridgeshire County Council. We rain and rabbits have had an effect. At least,
– the name signifying hills covered climbed the tallest, up helpful wooden our treasure still exists. Alas for Bartlow,
with birch (and we found some). Here steps, to stand at least 40 feet high on a theirs was lost in a fire at the Hall, where it
was a Romano-British settlement of conical mound with a deep central hollow. was housed after the Victorian excavations.
the 1st and 2nd centuries. It seems as if Apparently a tree surrounded by a palisade We are left to muse on bronze, glass and
the communities here had successfully was planted on top of each mound. pottery vessels, a folding chair and large
integrated, probably with inter-marriage. The close grouping of these barrows was wooden chests (plus some sexual objects,
19th century excavations revealed some somewhat reminiscent of Sutton Hoo, but enjoyed by Romans) recorded with some
interesting finds showing a degree of their steepness and the surrounding shadowy drawings by the Victorian archaeologists:
wealth and trade, yet in an Iron Age woods felt (to me, at least) somewhat all that is left from the secretive mounds of
barrow - not a Roman necropolis. sinister. Dr. Samexplained how these were the unknown dead.
At least four of these mounds are still constructed of layers of chalk and turf, and, We drove back through the golden
visible, and it would be interesting to as with the dykes, the rain washes down fields, in the month the Anglo-Saxons
find out how the others were lost. Our them without causing damage. called ‘harfest’ or ‘halig monath’ – holy
approach to them showed how they were If the soil of Sutton Hoo were not month. It certainly was a time to be
left, overgrown by unkempt woodland, vulnerable sand, we might have a better grateful for what enriches our lives. Thank
ignored and lost to view, until rediscovered idea of the height of the mounds built by you to all those who made this day’s
in about 1815. Now they are cared for by the Wuffingas centuries later, but wind, journey so worthwhile.

The thousand year-old door of Hadstock Church Dwarfed by Bartlow Hills at the end of the Society’s excursion

www.suttonhoo.org 5
 From the bogs of Schleswig-Holstein
The Angles were on the move again this summer, in their homeland of Angeln, in Schleswig-Holstein. MARC OLIVER
OHM emailed from Schleswig to tell us about a re-enactment being held in Süderbrarup during the last weekend of August,
commemorating the legendary expedition to Kent of a band of Angles under the brothers Hengist and Horsa in 449.

The pageant in the round on Thorsberg Moor

The two-day Thorsberger Festspiele of course, it also yielded up the Nydam teacher at Flensburg High School, where
included three performances of a pageant boat, built from timber felled around he housed the Nydam ship in the attic
by Wolfgang Warwel called The Migration 320. Whereas Nydam bog preserved iron of the courthouse. Come the 1864 war
of the Angles. It told the story of Hengist work, the Thorsberg bog destroyed it; but between Prussia, Austria and Denmark
and Horsa and their king, Offa, played by it substantially preserved unique items of over the disputed duchies of Schleswig
‘Big Harry’ Schmidt, who reappeared in clothing, such as the ‘Thorsberg trousers’ and Holstein, the Danish Engelhardt
the evening to perform as ‘Big Harry und in a diamond wool twill, widely copied by escaped to Seeland with the Flensburg
Band’, having first picked up a guitar at re-enactors. There were also cloaks and collection from Thorsberg and Nydam,
the age of sixteen. An Anglian Iron Age a finely woven tunic, and parts of leather unsurprisingly leaving the Nydam boat
Market, craft demonstrations and a lot of shoes, belts and horse harness. behind. Schleswig was ceded to Prussia,
dressing up completed the programme. Whereas the Nydam artefacts have which not only held the Nydam boat, but
The site of the re-enactment was the been dated mainly to the 3rd and 4th under the terms of the Treaty of Vienna
town’s Bürgerpark, just across the road centuries, Thorsberg also produced of 1864, was entitled to the Flensburg
from Thorsberger Moor, nowadays a tree- individual finds from the end of the 1st collection, by then in Copenhagen. A
lined lake, but in the first half of the 5th millennium BC and the beginning of number of items which, thanks to the
century a centrally important sacred site the next. The majority of the thousands patronage of the Danish king Frederik
for the Angles. Conrad Engelhardt began of finds have been interpreted as a VII, had found their way into the royal
to dig the Thorsberg bog in 1858, before representative sample of war booty, collection, are today in the National
turning his attention about thirty miles dedicated to Odin as god of war, in thanks Museum in Copenhagen. Most of the
north and slightly east to Nydam Bog, for victory, but there are differences. The Flensburg collection, and the boat, were
where in 1853 he recovered the Nydam Thorsberg material from about 220-240 in Kiel by 1877 – but the First World
boat, featured in our last issue. indicates a southern enemy in eastern War left its Nydam findspot in Denmark.
Archaeologically, these two bogs are Lower Saxony, while the Nydam finds of Negotiations to return the boat failed,
complementary, as Dr Michael Gebühr about 300 might be traced to the northeast and during the second world war it was
points out in the very useful booklet cited in present day Denmark or Norway or moved around by low-loader and lighter
below; for what soil conditions destroyed Sweden. to escape the bombing of Kiel. Finally in
at one site, they preserved at the other. Engelhardt’s collection of over four 1947 the Nydam boat arrived at Schloss
Nydam produced about 344 spears and thousand finds has its own history, Gottorf in Schleswig, where it is still on
at least 378 lances, as well as three dozen resulting from 19th and 20th century display in the state archaeological museum
or more axes and bows. Sensationally, wars. Professionally, Engelhardt was a (Archäologisches Landesmuseum).

Left to right: ‘Big Harry’ Schmidt as King Offa with Elvira Hein as Queen Thryd on the edge of Thorsberg Moor (all photos Thorsberg Festspiele);
Performing the pageant; One of the craft demonstration tents.

6 Saxon 56
Members of the Nydam Boat Guild read about themselves in the last issue of Saxon (all photos, Nydam Boat Guild)

Meanwhile, our friends in the Nydam step forwards, richly deserving a round making a lyre, since fragments were found
Society in Denmark are busy building of beers. The next task was to weigh the in the Nydam bog and more in Jyllan, and
their full-size replica of the Nydam boat, which they did on 3 October with to make period costumes for the crew, a
boat, as well as planning a permanent the help of the local traffic police, using tailors’ guild has been started to parallel
exhibition in southern Jutland de- their surprisingly small jacks for weighing the boat guild, as launch day on 17 August
voted to the continuing finds from the lorries. Allowing for incomplete floors, 2013 comes ever closer.
Nydam bog. OLE BRIXEN SØN- the total dry weight was 3.84 tonnes. The
DERGAARD has sent us an update on humidity reading for the ship averaged
Nydam and Thorsberg – Iron Age Places
recent progress. 15%, but once it is in the water its total
of Sacrifice, Michael Güber (Verein
weight will swell to 4.4 tonnes. Lifting zur Förderung des Archäologischen
The last rib was fitted into the hull on 4 each end of the boat in turn, simulating Landesmuseums e.V., Shloss Gottorf,
July, after which everyone concentrated on the action of the waves, they also used a Schleswig, 2001)
making all the parts for the decking, the laser to measure how far the ship would
thwarts, rowlocks and oars. By removing bend: it was just 20mm, which shows a www.facebook.com/Museumsverein.
supporting framework, they revealed the gratifying degree of strength and rigidity, Suederbrarup
boat for the first time in its full glory on due to the strong thwarts and V-shaped www.schloss-gottorf.de
7 September, which they felt was a great cross-section. Ole has turned his hand to www.nydam.nu

Weighing the Nydam boat

Coming along nicely: the Nydam replica with half the floor fitted Ole’s workbench for making the lyre

www.suttonhoo.org 7
 Anglo-Saxon Portraits: King Raedwald
This is the text of a talk by Professor MARTIN CARVER, first heard on Friday 19 October on Radio 3. It is the fifth of
thirty Anglo-Saxon Portraits in the late night slot, The Essay. It was made available for a year on the i-Player at http://
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01nb0t0 and is published here by kind permission of the BBC.
In the spring of 1939, a few months before shovelled on. After four weeks they could speed limit of 20 mph. When he eventually
the outbreak of World War 2, Mrs Edith stand and look down at the lines of a ship arrived, he saw the lines of the ship, the
Pretty, Suffolk landowner and Justice of 27m long. Amidships was a dark rectangle dark depression of the chamber, the piles
the Peace, decided to open the largest of of peaty woody earth - “the chamber”, of silver bowls and the gold buckles and
the earth mounds she could see from her remarked Basil laconically to his diary, connectors packed in moss in tobacco tins.
bow window. She gave instructions to “where I expect the chief lies”. “It’s RADWARLD”, he said as he took his
her archaeologist, Basil Brown, digger Word got out, as it always does leave, “it’s RADWARLD, I’m sure of that.”
extraordinary. “How about this one?” and soon arrived at that nodal point of
she’d said to him and he’d agreed. John archaeological gossip - the Department of Historical interpretation
Jacobs, gardener and William Spooner, Archaeology coffee room at Cambridge.
gamekeeper would make up the team. On 8th July, Charles Phillips, a senior So who was RADWARLD, and what made
Basil’s method was essentially of the prehistorian arrived at Sutton Hoo, had him say it? According to the experts on
19th century. “Stand on the ground at his first sighting of the giant ship and Anglo-Saxon art, the beautiful decorated
one side of the mound, dig down till you exclaimed,“My godfathers”. It was a objects, such as the sword handle and
see the sand - that’s the natural subsoil formidable challenge to any excavator shoulder clasps, made in gold and inlaid
hereabouts, then drive your trench straight and for the rest of the day he was heard with garnets, could be dated to the early
through the mound at that level; half way to murmur, “Oh dear, oh dear”. Other 7th century. Whoever was being celebrated
across you should see the dark splodge of senior figures mustered - Stuart Piggott, here had been possessed of great wealth,
the burial pit. Then empty it”. This had Peggy Guido, W. F. Grimes - and began to and had died soon after 600 AD. We have
always worked before. But this time there define the chamber: wood matting, then only a few named players from that time,
was a problem. On day two Jacobs held the glint of metal; green bronze, silver in but we do have some. RADWARLD was
up a brown lump - “here’s a bit of iron,” a purple haze, then gold looking as good a king of East Anglia who died in the
he says. Basil looked at the rusty bar with as new, and bright red garnets. In less 620s, so was a major contender. He gets
a lump at each end and realised he’d seen than ten days the team unearthed Britain’s some coverage from the Venerable Bede
this sort of thing before - only last year in richest ever grave - 263 objects of gold, writing at Jarrow in the early 8th century,
fact - it was an iron rivet of the kind that silver, bronze, iron, gems, leather, wood, a hundred years later. Bede didn’t care for
the Saxons used to hold together a clinker- textiles, feathers and fur, laid out in a him much. RADWARLD had gone to Kent
built timber ship. wooden chamber at the centre of a buried after the arrival of St Augustine to look
Burials of ships were known in ship. It was a sensation that attracted over this Christianity thing and could see
Scandinavia - where they were often well a police guard and an article in the its advantage - not least in foreign affairs
preserved - but in England they were, Illustrated London News. and trade agreements. But when he got
and are, incredibly rare. And they tend to Among the visitors that made their back to East Anglia his wife and some of
disappear in the acid sand. But Basil was way to see the discovery, was the greatest his counsellors were not best pleased and
undeterred. Just because no timbers had Anglo-Saxon scholar of them all, Hector made him un-convert. As a compromise
survived, doesn’t mean there wasn’t a ship Munro Chadwick, professor emeritus at he added an altar to Christ in his pagan
somewhere: the rivets will show you where. Cambridge, author of The Heroic Age temple at Rendelsham - a little way up
This was a stroke of genius. Every rusty and the Origins of the English Nation. the River Deben from Sutton Hoo. Bede
rivet was dusted off and left in place. The Nobody knew the literature better than was scornful of this rather broadminded
trench went down and down as it neared he did. He came chugging over from his behaviour and remarked a little huffily
the centre of the ship. Unsurprisingly, the summer hideout in Wales in his Austin that it was being led astray by his wife
trench fell in, but the valiant threesome 7, driven by his wife at his self-imposed that had blighted the king’s later years. Photos of Paul Mortimer as Raedwald © Nigel Maslin

8 Saxon 56
Bede’s other RADWARLD anecdote also Why then? The Sutton Hoo story was was placed a big heap of private things: a
features his wife. Edwin of Northumbria, put together using survey and large scale leather garment, two pairs of shoes and a
on the run from the ferocious Athelfrith excavation. A cemetery serving local pillow; clothes, a fluted bowl containing
took refuge in RADWARLD’s court. In a families had been established on the ridge burr wood bottles, four knives with horn
mean move, typical of 7th century politics, overlooking the River Deben in the 6th handles and combs- an upmarket toilet
Aethelfrith offered several handsome bribes century. Towards the end of that century set. Once the lid was on the coffin, it was
to RADWARLD to murder his guest. these families began to put on aristocratic secured with curved iron cleats. Now we
RADWARLD, always up for what seemed airs. Particular persons were cremated, move into a more public domain. A yellow
like a good idea, accepted. His queen was their remains placed in bronze bowls and cloak was thrown over the coffin at the
irate and told him that it was not the way buried with animals and playing pieces. head-end and on this was placed the regalia
of a king to betray his friend or sacrifice his Then around 600 in quick succession came and parade gear: an iron helmet, a sword
honour for gold. RADWARLD cheerfully a warrior with his horse, a warrior in a with gold and garnet ornament; a baldrick
changed his mind, raised a large army, chamber with a ship placed on top and a – a kind of military harness with gold and
went north and slew Aethelfrith at a great warrior in a chamber placed inside a ship garnet shoulder clasps and connectors
battle on the banks of the River Idle. - the famous Mound 1 burial discovered and a solid gold belt buckle. Further along
History and archaeology give us a little by Basil Brown. Thereafter, the wealthy towards the foot end, the lid was laid like
bit of a steer on these early English leaders. burials petered out: a few children and a table for a feast with maple wood bottles
At first they ruled a people rather than a adolescents and a wealthy lady with silver and drinking horns and a great silver dish.
territory, but kingdoms were coming into trappings. Sutton Hoo’s royal status lasted Then more stuff for feasting: a lyre for the
being in the 7th century: Wessex, Essex, less than seventy years. In stark contrast, minstrels, 3 cauldrons, one with a long
Mercia, East Anglia. Their kings held court from the end of the 7th century the site iron chain, buckets, bronze bowls, silver
in large timber halls, where they bonded was commandeered for public executions. bowls, silver spoons.
their guests with feasts and gifts and praise A gallows was erected on Mound 5, the At the west end, outside the coffin and
for great deeds, intoned to the lyre. In earliest mound, presumably that of the against the chamber wall, was placed an
return, these companions, party members original founder of the dynasty. Another iron pole with a square cage on top with
in every sense, were expected to turn out for gallows was erected at the east edge on the an iron bull’s head at each corner. This
battle, and protect the borders of the new old land route northwards. The strangled is thought to be a standard, for carrying
kingdoms they were building together. victims lay dumped in pits around the trophies on parade. Beside it a whetstone,
Such a leader was RADWARLD, as rotted gallows posts. The date, the 8th- as long as your arm - and as thick - was
Chadwick knew: an early 7th century 10th centuries, suggests that this was the carved each end with faces, some with
pagan king of East Anglia, with a work of the new Christian kings, who beards and some without. On top of it a
reputation for flexible politics. And were now disposing of their dissidents in little bronze stag of Celtic manufacture;
here was the richest burial ever seen in the old pagan burial ground. at its foot a kind of upturned saucer that
England, found in East Anglia, dating So the Sutton Hoo cemetery was like fits on the knee: this was the celebrated
to the early 7th century and full of a theatre, staging the drama of the early sceptre, so far unique in England.
remarkable objects rich with contending East Anglian kingdom in its struggle For some, these things show that this
symbols - Roman, Saxon, Pagan and against enemies north, west and south, is ‘the typical burial of an Anglo-Saxon
Christian. RADWARLD deserved to be with the funerals as consecutive acts, king’ - and there’s an end to it. Others
the number one candidate. reporting on the mood of the times. say it’s typically pagan, others that it can
Our investigations also showed with be Christian. Others see it as the reality
The day of burial a greater clarity how the Mound 1 ship behind Beowulf, that most celebrated
burial must have taken place. A huge Anglo-Saxon poem, with its scenes of
The great ship burial in Sutton Hoo’s trench was dug E-W, and the ship, 27m feasting in the hall, its cremations, its
Mound 1 was studied expertly and long and 4.5m wide amidships, was rolled burials under barrows and in ships, its
minutely by the British Museum for 45 in to it. A burial chamber was built in kings and heroes and dragons. But these
years, and then in the last decades of the centre of the ship - a gabled hut made attempts to place everything we find into
the 20th century, my own team from of massive timbers. A wool and flax rug some sort of norm doesn’t do justice to the
the University of York returned to the was laid on the floor of the chamber and contents and performance of a burial like
site to answer the main question still placed on this, a giant tree-trunk coffin RADWARLD’s. We know that he wasn’t
outstanding: what was the ship burial about 3m long with a flat top. The body sent off with everything he possessed -
doing there? Why that? Why there? lay inside it, and in a space at the foot end the treasury was a lot bigger than that.

www.suttonhoo.org 9
 These objects were selected, like words attendance and places a gift, until it’s time Who else, if not the queen, would
are selected from a general vocabulary; to close up the roof and then, or probably compose and orchestrate this event?
each object speaks to us, each has its own much later, build up the mound. And what a composition it was: it
biography; the burial is not a reflection of There is one more person who referred to countries far and near, and to
a poem like Beowulf, it is itself a poem, needs another mention, before we too the potential benefits of each. It saluted
a palimpsest of allusions, performed by a say goodbye to RADWARLD, namely the ancient gods, it nodded to the self-
people expressing their hopes and fears at his wife. The Venerable Bede does not righteous Christians. It looked to victory
crucial moment in their lives. vouchsafe her so much as a name, but in battle, prominence in wealth; it hailed
We can imagine that such a in spite of himself, he reveals her to be origins from over the sea and put roots
performance took several days, a trail an astute and principled politician. She into the land. It sent off a ship, laden with
of salutation winding up to the edge of recognised the folly of a too easy slide into a great feast, a floating mead hall, where
the ship: the eldest son, the youngest the Christian camp, with its consequent ancestors, dead heroes and rivals could
grandchild, the oldest friend, the loss of identity, domination by France, be welcomed in and plied with drink and
companions in arms, the captain of the threats to the Scandinavian alliance, and hear themselves praised or satirised in
fleet, the deckhands of the Royal ship, unsettling of the aristocratic landowners long incantations to the lyre. And at the
the visiting dignitaries from Denmark who were building up the East Anglian centre was her man, a public figure still
and France, eager for the old or the new kingdom. Maybe she could sense too what active in the hereafter; on display was his
alliance; Edwin of Northumbria or his was coming: loss of spiritual authority royal finery, but stowed down below were
envoys; the diplomats of enemies discreetly among the senior women, and their his washing and shaving kit and a change
come to hear the rumours; a bishop from supersession by squadrons of young male of warm clothing. Here was someone
Canterbury, a priest from Rendlesham, fundamentalist firebrands. Her politics equipped to proclaim the independent
a cunning woman from the fenland, show her as a force for reason in an future of the new kingdom of East Anglia,
local farmers, huntsmen, horse traders, increasingly polarised world. to send a message to whoever was pulling
lovers without status. The whole cast of And there is another legacy that we the strings of 7th century Europe. All
characters is here to say good bye and stick could assign to this remarkable woman this seamlessly combined with personal
a stake in the future. Each registers their and that is the great ship burial itself. affection for a remembered husband.

Lyminge lights up
Lights blaze again in the Saxon hall on the village green at Lyminge in Kent,
at the end of the 2012 excavation season. Tea lights set in the wall trenches
show up the partition walls in the hall, and next to it the pit of the SFB
(sunken featured building). The hall measures about 21 by 8.5 metres,
big enough to hold sixty people or more for assemblies and feasts, with
Beowulf-style storytelling, drinking, singing and gift-giving. Gabor Thomas, Lyminge Archaeological Project

The excavator, Dr Gabor Thomas of being confusingly and damagingly You will be able to follow the progress on
of Reading University, dates it to the superimposed. their blog on their website, which also has
late 6th or early 7th century – exactly A prize find from last summer’s dig excavation reports from previous seasons
contemporaneous with Raedwald. Shortly was a gilded horse harness mount from the and news of post-excavation research.
thereafter, the pagan site was abandoned wall trench beneath the hall: conservation There is also a link to a short article by
and so was its settlement, replaced by revealed an abstract Style I animal design Gabor Thomas and Alexandra Knox in
a new village around a church, whose of c.525-575. The dig also recovered the the last issue of Antiquity: ‘A window on
excavation in 2008-2010 Dr Thomas parallel rectangular slots that took the Christianisation: transformation at Anglo-
wrote about in Saxon 53. Archaeologically pairs of vertical timber planks with which Saxon Lyminge, Kent, England’ (Antiquity
that shift is immensely helpful: both the hall was built. vol. 086, issue 334, December 2012)
phases of occupation are complete The Lyminge Archaeological Project http://blogs.reading.ac.uk/lyminge
and separate, so they can practically plans further excavation of the Great Hall www.reading.ac.uk/archaeology/research/
be compared like two sites, instead complex in the summers of 2013 and 2014. Lyminge/arch-lyminge.aspx

10 Saxon 56
The guiding principal
was himself relieved to hand over after the
recent Devil’s Dyke trip to Bryony Abbot
and Megan Milan, who will be organising
this summer’s two trips to Cambridge.
Robert’s main guiding role has been
taken over by Lindsay Lee, who has
been running Guides’ Training since she
resigned as chairman in February 2009,
and who also ran guiding for a couple
of years (succeeding Stewart Salmond)
before Robert began his stint in 2003. In
his letter, Robert ‘wanted to thank and
congratulate so able and so effective a
team’, confident that their success would
continue under Lindsay, who in turn wrote
to the guides on 23 September ‘thanking
Robert for his hard work, enthusiasm and
generosity during the past nine years’, and
also his wife Michelle for all the support
she has given to helping our activities.
Though it will not be the same
without Robert, there are exciting
new opportunities in guiding, because
Left to right: Lindsay Lee, Robert Allen and Mike Argent at the end of a long weekend festival in
after several years of experiment, a
2005 (photo Veronica Bennett) new agreement has been reached with
National Trust about the best way to use
Big changes in guiding were heralded my problems.’ Happy to relate, things the growing number of replicas of the
in September, when after nine years, went well, and Robert is currently Sutton Hoo regalia, which have been part-
ill health suddenly caused Robert attending Sam Newton’s Wednesday financed by the Society. Their fragility,
Allen to surrender the onerous task of sessions at Sutton Hoo. and the logistical difficulties of organising
organising around 700 tours a year. exhibitions in the visitors’ centre, has
On 11 September, he wrote to guides The committee is already missing his led to a permanent exhibition of regalia
saying, ‘I am very unhappy to have to respected language skills and knowledge of replicas in the treasury room, and a new,
leave, but I have to go into hospital to local history, which informed all the trips he experimental schedule of ‘Out of Case’
be fitted with a heart pacemaker to used to organise for us. That was another sessions, in which guides will be able to
correct an abnormally slow heart beat huge task, performed for the last couple of talk about one of the items of regalia,
which is the source of some at least of years by our treasurer Jonathan Abson, who while examining its replica with visitors.

Mint, anyone?
Reading the account in our last issue understanding-the-birthday-paradox . Dear Joe
of Dr Gareth Williams’s Basil Brown It requires only 23 people in the room I am aware of the birthday problem
Memorial Lecture about the coins of for the probability of at least one shared in probability theory, which is why I
Sutton Hoo, member Joe Startin was birthday to exceed 50%. For 31 people, used that example, although I am not
struck by his reported remark that, the probability exceeds 73%. When the the first to have done so with regard
“…the chances of more than one [coin] ‘oddballs’ are excluded, there were 31 to the Sutton Hoo coins. Alan Stahl
in a random collection coming from tremisses from different Frankish ‘mint and made the point in an article 20 years
the same mint would be remote, like moneyer’ mints. So for it to be an evens ago. Estimates of the total number of
two people in the same room sharing chance of them all being different purely Merovingian mints vary, since not all of
the same birthday.” They exchanged by random selection, there would have to the coins are legible, but the minimum
letters, as follows. be many more mints than the 365 days in estimate is around 700, so over the
a year, even if all the mints were obligingly threshold of 682 that you mention.
Dear Dr Williams supplying tremisses at the same rate. As I said, this is not a new
The “Birthday Problem” is well In fact, you would require at least 682 approach, but I find that there is still a
known in probability theory – for a gentle mints to reduce the probability to less tendency amongst both archaeologists
introduction see http://www.chiefscientist. than evens (I used a calculator at http:// and historians to refer back to the
gov.au/2011/05/the-birthday-problem. jeff.aaron.ca/cgi-bin/birthday to show interpretations of the 1970s when
You actually need surprisingly few people this). I don’t know if there are any credible considering the numismatic data, hence
in a room to have a good chance of a estimates of how many mints there really my use of ‘received wisdom’. So, it is
shared birthday. This is quite counter- were. The write-up said that the received fairly well-trodden ground in one
intuitive, and is why it attracts attention. wisdom was for the variety represented in sense, but not yet really taken on
There is a fuller description at http:// the purse to be significant. I have always board by the wider academic community
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birthday_problem, understood the ‘Birthday Problem’ to be in another.
and an amusing generator of examples the justification for it. Best wishes, Gareth
at http://betterexplained.com/articles/ Regards, Joe Startin

www.suttonhoo.org 11
 SUTTON HOO SOCIETY Events Diary The
Sutton
NOTIFICATION
OF ANNUAL Tuesday 22 January, 17.30 Hoo
GENERAL MEETING BM/IoA Medieval Seminar Society
Sad Sepulchral Urns: the pottery at Spong Hill
The Annual General Meeting of the
Dr Catherine Hills (Cambridge)
Sutton Hoo Society will be held on
Institute of Archaeology, 31-34 Gordon Square,
Friday 15 February 2013 at 7.30pm in
the Kings River Café at Sutton Hoo. London WC1H 0PY, Room 612 www.suttonhoo.org
AGENDA
1. Apologies President
Later March (dates and venues TBA)
2. Minutes of last AGM The Earl of Cranbrook
3. Reports and Accounts SHS Guides meeting
4. Motion to increase subscriptions Research Director
5. Election of Auditors Professor Martin Carver
6. Election of Committee NT summer exhibition:
Following the business meeting, Pamela The 2000 Sutton Hoo excavation Chairman
Cross (Bradford University) will talk The Treasury, NTSH Mike Argent
about her Horse Burial Ph.D. project.
Treasurer
Michael Argent Jonathan Abson
Chairman
Saturday 11 May, 11.00
Membership Secretary
Basil Brown Memorial Lecture
Pauline Moore
Tradition and Transformation in 69 Barton Road, Woodbridge
Anglo-Saxon Art
Subscriptions Leslie Webster (author, Anglo-Saxon Art,
Suffolk IP12 1JH
01394 382617
As announced in our last issue, a motion British Museum)
to increase subscriptions for ordinary Riverside Theatre, Woodbridge, Suffolk Guiding Co-ordinator
members from £10 to £15 will go before Lindsay Lee
the AGM on 15 February. Since, under 01728 746104
our constitution, students pay half the
ordinary rate, family members one-and- Friday 14 June, all day Event Co-ordinators
a-half, and overseas members double Bryony Abbott
SHS trip to Cambridge
the ordinary rate, the same motion will Megan Milan
The Society will visit the recently reopened
effectively change all the rates. Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology for
At last year’s AGM, it was explained Minutes Secretary
a behind-the-scenes look at the conservation Beryl Sims
that there is now a predictable shortfall
laboratory and recent archaeological finds.
between the Society’s subscription
income and its regular running expenses, Then we go to the Parker Library in Corpus Publicity
including the printing and postage of Christi College to see their originals of the Nan Waterfall
Saxon. The committee is not proposing Anglo Saxon Chronicle (A) and Bede’s Historia
to cover the entire shortfall with a single Ecclesiastica, as they feature in the Sutton Hoo Website
increase, but the motion before the AGM story. Other MSS. on display will include the Robert Anderson
will potentially improve the situation. Bury Bible, not our period, but not be missed. info@suttonhoo.org
Jonathan Abson (Treasurer) Please book tickets on the enclosed flyer.
National Trust
Regional Archaeologist
Angus Wainwright
Membership Matters
I am grateful to those members who have Saxon Editor
notified me of changes of address this Nigel Maslin
year. It is also helpful to know if your nigelmaslin@btinternet.com
name/telephone number/email address has
changed, so that we can keep in touch. Visit www.wuffingeducation.co.uk for (almost) Design & Layout
Thank you, too, to those who have sent weekly Saturday Study Days, 10.00-16.00 at Elsey Adcock Associates
kind messages about Saxon and about NTSH, to be pre-booked on the website at £38. 01473 893966
our outings, and especially to all those www.elseyadcock.co.uk
Lecturers include Dr Sam Newton, Dr Gareth
Life members who have generously sent Williams, Professor Mark Bailey and others.
donations towards Society expenses, Printing
Also www.wuffings.co.uk for Sam’s weekend
which is very much appreciated in these Henry Ling Ltd, The Dorset Press
lecture lunches at Sutton Hoo. 23 High East Street, Dorchester
times of rising costs. My contact details as
Membership Secretary are listed on the far Dorset DT1 1HB
right of this page.
Pauline Moore Registered Charity no. 293097

12 Saxon 56