page_title: Sutton Hoo
hierarchical_section_title: Sutton Hoo
caption_attribution_description: Sutton Hoo burial mound
context_page_description: Sutton Hoo, at Sutton near Woodbridge, in Suffolk, England, is the site of two early medieval cemeteries, from the 6th to 7th centuries. Archaeologists have been excavating the area since the 1930s. One cemetery had an undisturbed ship burial with a wealth of Anglo-Saxon artefacts of art-historical and archaeological significance; most of these objects are now held by the British Museum in London. The site is in the care of the National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty.
  Historians who specialise in the early middle ages regard Sutton Hoo as important because it illuminates a period that is on the margin between myth, legend, and historical documentation. Use of the site culminated when Rædwald, ruler of the Kingdom of East Anglia, held senior power among the English people and played a dynamic if ambiguous part in the establishment of Christian rulership in England. Scholars believe that Rædwald is most likely the person buried in the ship. Findings at the site have been important in understanding the Anglo-Saxon Kingdom of East Anglia and the early Anglo-Saxon period.
context_section_description: Sutton Hoo, at Sutton near Woodbridge, in Suffolk, England, is the site of two early medieval cemeteries, from the 6th to 7th centuries. Archaeologists have been excavating the area since the 1930s. One cemetery had an undisturbed ship burial with a wealth of Anglo-Saxon artefacts of art-historical and archaeological significance; most of these objects are now held by the British Museum in London. The site is in the care of the National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty.
  Historians who specialise in the early middle ages regard Sutton Hoo as important because it illuminates a period that is on the margin between myth, legend, and historical documentation. Use of the site culminated when Rædwald, ruler of the Kingdom of East Anglia, held senior power among the English people and played a dynamic if ambiguous part in the establishment of Christian rulership in England. Scholars believe that Rædwald is most likely the person buried in the ship. Findings at the site have been important in understanding the Anglo-Saxon Kingdom of East Anglia and the early Anglo-Saxon period.
  The ship burial is one of the most magnificent archaeological finds in England because of its size, completeness, far-reaching connections, the quality and beauty of its contents, and the profound interest of the burial ritual itself. The initial excavation was privately sponsored by the landowner. When the significance of the find became apparent, national experts took over. Subsequent archaeological campaigns, particularly in the late 1960s and late 1980s, have explored the wider site and many other individual burials. The most significant artefacts from the ship burial, displayed in the British Museum, are those found in the burial chamber, including a suite of metalwork dress fittings in gold and gems, a ceremonial helmet, shield and sword, a lyre, and many pieces of silver plate from the Byzantine Empire. The ship burial has, from the time of its discovery, prompted comparisons with the world described in the heroic Old English poem Beowulf, which is set in Götaland (now southern Sweden). That region, especially Vendel, has close archaeological parallels to the Sutton Hoo ship burial, both in its general form and in details of the military equipment in the burial.
  Although the ship burial commands the greatest attention from tourists, the two cemeteries also have rich historical meaning because of their position in relation to the River Deben estuary and the North Sea, and their relation to other sites in the immediate neighbourhood. Of the two grave fields at Sutton Hoo, the Sutton Hoo cemetery had long been known to exist because it consists of a group of approximately 20 earthen Anglo-Saxon burial mounds that rise slightly above the horizon of the hill-spur when viewed from the opposite bank. The other, the newer burial ground, is situated on a second hill-spur close to the present Exhibition Hall, about 500 metres upstream of the first. It was discovered and partially explored in 2000 during preliminary work for the construction of the hall. This site also had burials under mounds, but was not known because these mounds had been flattened by agricultural activity. There is a visitor centre with many original and replica artefacts and a reconstruction of the ship burial chamber. The burial field can be toured in the summer months and at weekends and school holidays year-round.
caption: Part of the burial ground at Sutton Hoo
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