Sutton Hoo A Seventh Century princely burial ground and its context

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The definitive report on the Sutton Hoo Burial Ground

This book contains a detailed account of the five campaigns so far carried out at the Anglo-Saxon Royal Burial Ground at Sutton Hoo: 17th century, 19th century, 1938/9, 1965/71 and 1983-2001.
The story begins with a Late Neolithic, Bronze Age, Iron Age and Roman agricultural exploitation which left a series of square field marked by earth banks. In the late 6th century a wealthy Anglo-Saxon family placed a barrow with a cremation burial on one of the banks (Mound 5): this was the founder of the dynasty. Five cremation barrows followed (Mounds 6, 7, 3, 4, 18). Then a young man with his horse (Mound 17). Then a burial in a chamber with a 20m long clinker built ship placed above it (Mound 2). Then a burial ina ship in a trench (Mound 1). These were all ceremonially enacted between about 590 and 630 AD. Between 630 and 650, a child and two adolescents were buried in realtive poverty and rich women, originally decked in silver (Mound 14). By the early 8th century this princely burial ground had become a place of execution, with two gallows, one on Mound 5 and one on the eastern periphery. Hangings and beheadings continued until the 11th century, so this was the work of the Christian kings.

All the activity known so far including the fabulously rich Mound 1 are gathered in this comprehensive 536 page account.

CONTENTS
Written by Martin Carver except as indicated

Chapter 1: Five Campaigns: The exploration of Sutton Hoo
Chapter 2: Project Design (1983-6): Evaluation and the resulting research and management programmes
Chapter 3: Fieldwork and analysis (1986-2001): Conditions, techniques and results of excavation
Chapter 4: Cremation Burials: Mounds 3,4,5,6,7 and 18 and Burials 13 and 14
Chapter 5: Furnished Inhumations: Mounds 14 and 17; Burials 12,15,16 and 56
Chapter 6: Ship Burials: Mound 2, with a reconsideration of Mound 1
Chapter 7: Seventh Century Assemblages (by Angela Evans)
Chapter 8: The seventh-century burial rites and their sequence (with Chris Fern)
Chapter 9: Execution burials of the eighth to eleventh centuries
Chapter 10: Environment and site formation (with Charles French and Rob Scaife )
Chapter 11: Before Sutton Hoo: The Prehistoric Settlement (c3000BC to AD550) (by Madeleine Hummler)
Chapter 12: After Sutton Hoo: Farming and excavation campaigns from the twelfth to the twentieth century
Chapter 13: Survey in the Deben Valley, including the excavation of the Tranmer House cemetery ( by John Newman)
Chapter 14: Sutton Hoo in Context

Published by The British Museum Press, 38 Russell Square, London WC1B 3QQ in 2005
ISBN-13 978-0-7141-2322-6
ISBN-10 0-7141-2322-6