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New excavations reveal missing pieces of intriguing artifact at Sutton Hoo

By CNN Newsource

Published August 10, 2024 5:00 AM

By Ashley Strickland, CNN

(CNN) — Excavations and metal-detecting work at the site of a famous ship burial in Suffolk, England, have revealed missing pieces that could help archaeologists better understand an intriguing but incomplete sixth century artifact.

A team of archaeologists, volunteers and conservators unearthed additional fragments of a Byzantine bucket at Sutton Hoo, where the discovery of the ship burial in the late 1930s changed the way historians understand Anglo-Saxon life.

Made from a thin sheet of copper alloy, the bucket depicts a North African hunting scene that features warriors with a range of weaponry as well as lions and a hunting dog. A Greek inscription that runs around the top reads, “Good health Master Count, for many happy years.” The lettering helped researchers date the vessel to the sixth century.

Experts have meticulously cleaned, reshaped and mounted pieces of the Bromeswell bucket previously found in 1986 and 2012, and they are on display in the High Hall exhibition at the site to show visitors what the bucket once looked like.

Now, new research at Sutton Hoo has not only uncovered more fragments that belong to the bucket but also offered fresh insight into the history of the vessel that once traveled from a part of the Byzantine Empire called Antioch, located in modern-day Turkey, to the eastern coast of Britain.

“It’s kind of like a jigsaw puzzle that’s been added to over the years,” said Laura Howarth, archaeology and engagement manager for the National Trust’s Sutton Hoo site.

Assembling an ancient puzzle

A tractor harrow first unearthed pieces of the artifact by accident in 1986 when the Tranmer family owned the Sutton Hoo estate before it was part of the National Trust.
Metal-detecting surveys in 2012 uncovered more pieces of the bucket.

Researchers are trying to determine whether modern agricultural practices disturbed and dispersed pieces of the bucket, or if it was purposefully left in pieces. Other graves have yielded parts of other buckets that appear to have been purposefully snipped into small fragments before being placed in the ground, Howarth said.

The research team also wants to know the purpose of the bucket. Was it buried as a luxury item within a grave, or did it store food, drink or cremated remains?

“It was kind of a luxury import coming in to (what is now) modern-day England, but just thinking about some of the Anglo-Saxons that would have held it or used it and may never have even seen a lion before or may not be able to read Greek and been like, ‘Wow, what is this?’” Howarth said.

Analysis remains underway for the new pieces found in June in freshly dug pits in Garden Field. Careful excavation revealed the pieces, which appeared to show a hand belonging to one of the figures on the bucket. The team made the decision to lift the pieces and surrounding soil “in block.”

Researchers dug out the large block around the bucket pieces, carefully wrapped it and placed it on a tray in order to conduct an analysis of the soil surrounding the fragments, Howarth said.

The soil analysis could help determine when the bucket was buried and how it was used.
Two other such Byzantine buckets have been found in England, including the Breamore bucket at the Rockbourne Roman Villa archaeological site and museum in Hampshire. The Breamore bucket, also featuring an ancient Greek inscription and armed warriors, was likely made in a workshop in Antioch in the sixth century.

The team used an X-ray fluorescence tool, which resembles a ray gun, to conduct a chemical and elemental analysis on the newfound fragments. The analysis confirmed that the pieces were part of the Bromeswell bucket.

The team was also able to confirm that some unidentifiable metal pieces collected during the metal-detecting survey in 2012 also belonged to the bucket.

Based on the forms of Greek letters at the top of the artifact, researchers think the vessel was already 100 years old when it arrived at Sutton Hoo, Howarth said. The new analysis adds to that theory.

“Thanks to closer inspection, we now believe that the bucket had been previously damaged and then repaired,” said Angus Wainwright, regional archaeologist for the National Trust, in a statement. “In-depth analysis of the metals suggest it might even have been soldered back together.”

An archaeological treasure trove

The new research at Sutton Hoo is part of a two-year project carried out by the National Trust, Field Archaeology Specialists, or FAS, Heritage, and the British television turned online show “Time Team.”

The project’s goal is to glean more insight into the prehistoric and early medieval history of Sutton Hoo. With more than 80 volunteers, the team conducted metal detecting throughout Garden Field, and the recovered items were recorded in 3D. Some volunteers included members of the 1980s excavations at Sutton Hoo as well as an organization that enables people with mental health challenges to use archaeology and heritage as part of their well-being.

“It was lots of people coming together as strangers but leaving as friends,” Howarth said.

More discoveries from the June excavations and metal-detecting work will be shared in a “Time Team” documentary early next year, and the finds will be returned to Sutton Hoo after being processed and cataloged. Eventually, the pieces of the bucket will be reunited with those on display. Currently, the bucket is missing some of its sides as well as its base.

The project also complements an ongoing documentary by “Time Team” that’s capturing the reconstruction of the Anglo-Saxon ship that made Sutton Hoo famous.

The ‘ghost’ ship

The ship burial, one of only three known Anglo-Saxon ship burials, was found between 1938 and 1939 as World War II loomed.

The Pretty family moved into the Sutton Hoo estate in 1926, and Edith Pretty arranged for the excavation of burial mounds found 500 yards (457 meters) from her house.

The 90-foot-long (27.4-meter) wooden ship was dragged half a mile (0.8 kilometer) from the River Deben when an Anglo-Saxon warrior king died 1,400 years ago. The burial was likely that of Raedwald of East Anglia, who died around 624, and he was placed inside the ship, surrounded by treasures and buried within a mound.

The ship’s wood rotted away in the acidic soil, but the precise positions of the planks left an impression in the sand as well as rows of iron rivets.

Excavations unearthed Byzantine silverware, jewelry made from precious metals and gems, garnets from what’s now Sri Lanka, an iron warrior’s helmet, and a feasting set. Pretty donated the treasures to the British Museum, and a curator at the museum declared it “one of the most important archaeological discoveries of all time.”

Since then, excavations have continued at Sutton Hoo, uncovering both a royal and a folk burial ground dating to the sixth and seventh centuries. Evidence also exists of earlier inhabitants at the site, such as Roman conquerors.

Future research at Sutton Hoo could reveal the broader history of the site and what kept drawing people to inhabit it over time, Howarth said.

“I think it’s also quite nice that it does retain some of its mystery at the same time,” Howarth said.

“Sometimes with these famous archaeological sites, I think people expect everyone to have all the answers. But there’s so many questions and answers that we still don’t know. The aim of this project is to look at the landscape and think about who was inhabiting it and how that fits into the wider Sutton Hoo story.”