Apart from visiting friends in the area I had also planned a visit to Sutton Hoo (a 7th Century Anglo Saxon burial site) where in addition to some mounds to look at there is also an exhibition of (mainly) replicas of the original finds (now “safe” in the British Museum).
Arrived around 10:00 and as it was a fine bright morning I headed off to have a look at the burial mounds. The first photo is of the mound where they found the remains of a 27 metre long ship back in the 1930s - within the remains of the ship they discovered the grave of a high ranking Anglo Saxon.
It will never be possible to identify him, but the quality and quantity of the finds give the impression of a high ranking military leader (finely worked helmet, shield, patterned sword etc). The other interesting point is that some of the finds came from as far away as Byzantine.
Not a very interesting photo, just a small lump in the ground with no sheep in shot (luckily). Very pleasant walk to get there and I was fortunate to have the whole space to myself for 30 minutes which gave me time to reflect on what would have been going on there 1300 years ago and on how different life was back then.
The next shot is of Mound 2 where they found the remains of another buried ship, this one looks more impressive because it has been rebuilt to it’s original height.
Imagine seeing a hilltop from the river below with 17 of these mounds sitting on it, I believe that your average 7th Century person would have been pretty impressed.
Decided that my time was up when I noticed a group of people approaching in the distance - still I did get to myself for half an hour.
I took the long way back to the exhibition and met no other people just a lone crazy grey squirrel which insisted in walking ahead of me for 50 metres or so before departing up a tree. Will post some more pics from the exhibition tomorrow.
5 comments:
I just taught Beowulf. :)
When you think of what people did before technology evolved us into lazy people, it is quite impressive.
So you probably know a lot more than I do about Anglo Saxon times!
What I find most impressive is that while daily life was still such a struggle, they found the time and energy to make things of beauty to enhance the world around them.
They believed life was extremely hard and ultimately quite brief. There word for it, Wyrd, was like a belief in fate.
I was looking at the second post and it struck me that we probably don't see them as taking time do something ornate. Then it dawned on me, if we look at how we make some of our possessions ornate, how are they any different from us, really. Sure, different times and levels of technological sophistication, but human all the same. :) (I know some, but not enough. I wish I'd retained the Old and Middle English that I learned.)
Yup.
There should be their. It is getting late for me. ;P
Yeah, I can imagine those mounds were a great point of local pride. Looks like it was a pretty day.
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