Editing Sutton Hoo (section)

=== Mound 1 ===
[[File:Sutton Hoo map.svg|thumb|Mound 1 (in red) within the burial ground (burial mounds are coloured grey)]]

The ship-burial discovered under Mound 1 in 1939 contained one of the most magnificent archaeological finds in England for its size and completeness, far-reaching connections, the quality and beauty of its contents, and for the profound interest it generated.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/golden-hoard-sheds-light-on-dark-ages-1792915.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220525/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/golden-hoard-sheds-light-on-dark-ages-1792915.html |archive-date=25 May 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |title=Golden hoard sheds light on Dark Ages |newspaper=www.independent.co.uk |access-date=3 October 2010 |first=Arifa |last=Akbar |date=25 September 2009 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.archaeology.co.uk/the-timeline-of-britain/sutton-hoo.htm |title=AD 700 – Sutton Hoo: Current Archaeology |date=24 May 2007 |publisher=www.archaeology.co.uk |access-date=3 October 2010 |archive-date=24 September 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100924021621/http://www.archaeology.co.uk/the-timeline-of-britain/sutton-hoo.htm |url-status=live }}</ref>

==== The burial ====

Although practically none of the original timber survived, the form of the ship was perfectly preserved.<ref>A.C. Evans and R. Bruce-Mitford in Bruce-Mitford 1975, 345–435; Evans 1986, 23–29. For its context in symbolism, see Crumlin-Pederson 1995.</ref> Stains in the sand had replaced the wood but had preserved many construction details. Nearly all of the iron planking rivets were in their original places. It was possible to survey the original ship, which was found to be {{convert|27|m}} long, pointed at either end with tall rising [[sternpost|stem and stern posts]] and widening to {{convert|4.4|m}} in the beam amidships with an inboard depth of {{convert|1.5|m}} over the [[keel]] line.

From the keel board, the [[Hull (watercraft)|hull]] was constructed [[Clinker (boat building)|clinker-fashion]] with nine planks on either side, fastened with rivets. Twenty-six wooden [[Rib (nautical)|ribs]] strengthened the form. Repairs were visible: this had been a seagoing vessel of excellent craftsmanship, but there was no descending keel. The decking, benches and mast were removed. In the fore and [[aft]] sections along the [[gunwales]], there were oar-rests shaped like the Old English [[Thorn (letter)|letter "thorn"]], indicating that there may have been positions for forty oarsmen. The [[central chamber]] had timber walls at either end and a roof, which was probably pitched.

The heavy [[oak]] vessel had been hauled from the river up the hill and lowered into a prepared trench, so only the tops of the stem and stern posts rose above the land surface.{{sfnm|Bruce-Mitford|1975|1pp=176–180|Evans|1986|2pp=32–40}} After the addition of the body and the artefacts, an oval mound was constructed, which covered the ship and rose above the horizon at the riverward side of the cemetery.{{sfn|Bruce-Mitford|1975|pp=144–156}} The view to the river is now obscured by Top Hat Wood, but the mound would have been a visible symbol of power to those using the waterway. This appears to have been the final occasion upon which the Sutton Hoo cemetery was used for its original purpose.<ref>Carver, ''Sutton Hoo'', pp. 132–135. Several mounds remain unexcavated, see p. 179.</ref>

Long afterwards, the roof collapsed violently under the weight of the mound, compressing the ship's contents into a seam of earth.{{sfn|Bruce-Mitford|1975|pp=488–577}}

Using the imprint of the longship in the sand around its location, archaeologist Angela Care Evans made plans to create a full size replica. Work began in 2021, using oak planks and iron rivets, with help from a charity, the Sutton Hoo Ship's Company. The estimated date of completion was 2024 and the ship was expected to be functional. Shipwright, Tim Kirk, made this comment to [[ITV News]]: "it is really just a big experimental archaeology programme, [but] we're hoping to learn how the ship actually sailed". The plans called for training a crew of at least 80 rowers.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.itv.com/news/anglia/2021-11-10/first-finished-pieces-of-replica-ship-pieced-together-at-sutton-hoo |title=Piecing a piece of history together: replica of Sutton Hoo ship takes shape |date=10 November 2021 |work=ITV plc |access-date=2 March 2023 |quote="We can do computer simulations of this, but to actually find out there's only one way to do it and that's to build it and put it in the water and row it and then perhaps sail it." |archive-date=2 March 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230302143101/https://www.itv.com/news/anglia/2021-11-10/first-finished-pieces-of-replica-ship-pieced-together-at-sutton-hoo |url-status=live }}</ref>

==== The body in the ship-burial ====

The presence of a platform (or a large coffin) that was about {{convert|9|ft}} indicated that there was a body present.<ref>Carver 1998, 188, Ch. 3 n.13.</ref> An iron-bound wooden bucket, an iron lamp containing [[beeswax]], and a bottle of north continental manufacture were close by. The objects around the body indicate that it lay with the head at the west end of the wooden structure.

The man who was buried under Mound 1 cannot be identified,.{{sfn|Bruce-Mitford|1975|pp=683–717}} Artefacts near the body have been identified as [[regalia]], pointing to its being that of a king. Most of the suggestions for the occupant are [[List of monarchs of East Anglia|East Anglian kings]] because of the proximity of the [[royal vill]] of Rendlesham. Since 1940, when [[H.M. Chadwick]] first ventured that the ship-burial was probably the grave of [[Rædwald of East Anglia|Rædwald]],<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Chadwick |first1=H. Munro |title=The Sutton Hoo Ship-Burial. VIII. Who Was He? |journal=Antiquity |date=1940 |volume=14 |issue=53 |pages=76–87 |doi=10.1017/S0003598X00014812 |s2cid=163574359 }}</ref> the identification with Rædwald has gained widespread scholarly acceptance

From time to time, other identifications are suggested, including his sons [[Eorpwald]], [[Sigeberht of East Anglia|Sigeberht]]<ref name=BM/> or [[Ecgric]].{{sfn|Bruce-Mitford|1975|pp=63, 99}} Rædwald is the most likely of the candidates because of the high quality of the imported and commissioned materials and the resources needed to assemble them, the authority that the gold was intended to convey, the community involvement required to conduct the ritual at a cemetery reserved for an elite, the close proximity of Sutton Hoo to Rendlesham and the probable date horizons.{{efn|See, e.g., {{harvnb|Campbell|1992}}. Carver, ''Sutton Hoo'', pp. 22–23, says Chadwick's identification was "repeatedly endorsed by other scholars for fifty years", and that Rædwald "is still the favourite candidate"; see also pp. 172–173 and notes.|name=|group=}}

As of 2019, the refurbished museum on the site states that the body is Rædwald while the British Museum just says a "King of East Anglia". Analysis of the [[Merovingian coins]] by Gareth Williams, Curator of Early Medieval Coinage at the British Museum, has narrowed the date of the burial to 610 to 635. This makes Sigeberht, who died in 637, less likely. Rædwald is still the favourite, although Eorpwald also fits the timescale as he died 627–28.{{sfn|Hilts|2019|p=48}}

Although this is a likely explanation it is still controversial, as reflected in the comments in the article on Rædwald in the ''[[Oxford Dictionary of National Biography]]'' ("It has been argued, more strongly than convincingly, that Rædwald must be the man buried in Mound 1 at Sutton Hoo")<ref>Campbell, Rædwald</ref> and by McClure and Collins, who note that the evidence for Rædwald is "almost non-existent".<ref>Bede, edited by McClure and Collins, ''The Ecclesiastical History of the English People'', n. 98, p. 381</ref> Alternative suggestions as candidates include other East Anglian kings or a prestigious foreign visitor,<ref>Bruce-Mitford, ''Aspects of Anglo-Saxon Archaeology: Sutton Hoo and other discoveries'', p. 3</ref> or a wealthy status-seeker, rather than a king,<ref name=Kirby_66>Kirby, ''The Earliest English Kings'', p. 66</ref> though Rendlesham, a known residence of the East Anglian kings, is only {{convert|4|miles|km}} away.<ref>Stenton, ''Anglo-Saxon England'', p. 51</ref> In 2025 Helen Gittos from [[Oxford University]] argued that the body was an elite local soldier who had fought for the [[Byzantine Empire]], probably as a member of the cavalry troops known as the ''Foederati''.{{sfn|Gittos|2024}}{{sfn|UofOxford|2025}}

Closer inspection of the sword hilt suggests that the occupant was [[Handedness|left-handed]], as the hilt's [[Ductility|malleable]] gold pieces are worn down on the opposite side than would be expected with a right-handed owner.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Hands on with the Sutton Hoo sword I Curator's Corner Season 5 Episode 1 |via=YouTube |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nb9vTu73xmE |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211107/nb9vTu73xmE |archive-date=7 November 2021 |url-status=live |access-date=17 January 2021 |website=www.youtube.com |date=5 August 2019}}{{cbignore }}</ref> The unorthodox sword placement on the right side of the body supports this theory, as other Anglo Saxon burials placed the sword on the left side of the body.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Härke |first=Heinrich |date=1990 |title="Warrior Graves"? The Background of the Anglo-Saxon Weapon Burial Rite |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/650808 |journal=Past & Present |issue=126 |pages=22–43 |doi=10.1093/past/126.1.22 |jstor=650808 |issn=0031-2746 |access-date=17 January 2021 |archive-date=24 January 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210124154510/https://www.jstor.org/stable/650808 |url-status=live }}</ref>

As a body was not found, there was early speculation that the ship-burial was a [[cenotaph]] rather than a grave.<ref>{{Cite web|title=The Anglo-Saxon ship burial at Sutton Hoo|url=https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/death-and-memory/anglo-saxon-ship-burial-sutton-hoo|access-date=12 November 2020|website=The British Museum|language=en}}</ref>  The only sign of body being a chemical stain which could have had other origins; indeed, the site includes burials of both meat and companion animals.  Further, there is a lack of shroud ties, and no clear evidence of items which might have adorned a body being left in the expected places in relation to the stain. However, more recent analysis detected phosphate in the soil – an indicator that a human body once lay at rest there.<ref>{{Cite web|title=The Anglo-Saxon ship burial at Sutton Hoo, The Missing Body |url=https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/death-and-memory/anglo-saxon-ship-burial-sutton-hoo#a-kings-grave|access-date=9 February 2021|website=The British Museum|language=en}}</ref> The cenotaph theory may be consistent with the transition from pagan burial to Christian burial; certainly as far as Rædwald is concerned, he could have received a Christian burial, and the mound, whether completed before or after his conversion, being used as a memorial and as symbol of the status of the Kingship of East Anglia. Soil analyses conducted in 1967 found [[phosphate]] traces, supporting the view that a body had disappeared in the acidic soil.<ref name=BM>{{cite web |url=https://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/highlights/article_index/w/who_was_buried_at_sutton_hoo.aspx |title=British Museum – Who was buried at Sutton Hoo? |publisher=www.britishmuseum.org |access-date=19 October 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101216030235/http://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/highlights/article_index/w/who_was_buried_at_sutton_hoo.aspx |archive-date=16 December 2010 }}</ref>