ContentsThe field contains about 20 barrows. Professor Carver's excavation established that this was no general burying-ground, but was reserved for a select group of individuals buried with objects denoting unusual wealth or prestige. (This was unlike the Snape cemetery, where a ship-burial and other furnished graves were added to an older existing graveyard of human ashes buried in pots). Most had been cremated, and each barrow was raised to commemorate one particular person. It was used in this way for about 50–60 years during the last quarter of the sixth and the first quarter of the 7th centuries. Almost all of these graves had been plundered.[39]
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Cremation Graves and Minor Inhumations Of the two cremations excavated in 1938 Mound 3 contained the ashes of a man and a horse placed on a wooden trough or dugout bier, together with an iron-headed throwing-axe (a Frankish weapon). The grave also contained objects imported from the eastern Mediterranean area, including a bronze ewer (lid only), part of a miniature carved plaque depicting a winged Victory, and fragments of decorated bone from a casket of similar origin.[40] The other, Mound 4, was the cremation of a man and a woman with a horse and perhaps also a dog. This included a few fragments of bone gaming-pieces.[41]
In Mounds 5, 6 and 7 Professor Carver found three cremations deposited in bronze bowls with a variety of goods. The man in Mound 5 had died from weapon blows to the skull. With him some gaming-pieces, small iron shears, a cup and an ivory box with sliding lid had escaped the looters' attention. Mound 7 was the remains of a grand cremation, in which horse, cattle, red deer, sheep and pig had been burnt with the deceased on the pyre. His goods had included gaming-pieces, an iron-bound bucket, a sword-belt fitting and a drinking vessel. Mound 6, similarly, was accompanied by cremated animals, gaming-pieces, a sword-belt fitting and a comb. The Mound 18 grave was very damaged, but of similar kind.[42]
One urned and one unurned cremation were found during the 1960s exploration to define the extent of Mound 5, together with two inhumations and a pit with a skull and fragment of decorative foil.[43] In level areas between the mounds Professor Carver found three furnished inhumations (not of execution victims). One under a small mound held a child's body with a buckle and a miniature spear. The grave of a man included two belt-buckles and a knife, and that of a woman contained a leather bag, a ring-headed pin and a chatelaine.[44]
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Mound 17: The Equestrian Grave Most impressive of the burials not contained in a chamber is the Mound 17 grave of a young man and his horse.[45] They were in fact two separate grave-hollows side by side under a single mound, and were undisturbed (looters had dug over the intervening baulk). The man was buried in an oak coffin with his pattern welded sword at his right side. The sword-belt was wrapped around the blade, with a bronze buckle with garnet cellwork, two pyramidal strapmounts and a scabbard-buckle. By his head were a strike-a-light and a leather pouch containing rough garnets and a piece of millefiori glass. Around the coffin were two spears, a shield, a small cauldron and bronze bowl, a pot and an iron-bound bucket. Some animal ribs were probably a food offering. In the north-west corner of the man's grave was the bridle for the horse, mounted with circular gilt bronze plaques bearing deftly-controlled interlace ornament.[46] These are displayed in the Exhibition Hall at Sutton Hoo.
Inhumation graves containing a man and horse together, signifying an equestrian role, are known from England and Germanic Europe.[47] Most are of the sixth or early seventh century. Two Suffolk examples have been excavated at Lakenheath in western Suffolk,[48] and another found in c 1820 is recorded from Witnesham near Ipswich.[49] There is an example in the Snape cemetery.[50] Others are inferred from records of the discovery of horse furniture in cemetery contexts at Eye and Mildenhall.[51] Presumably the horse was sacrificed for the funeral. The ritual is sufficiently standardised to indicate that it reflects formal status rather than sentimental attachment.
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Mound 14: A Woman's Chamber-Grave Although this grave had been destroyed almost completely by robbing (apparently during a heavy rainstorm), it had contained exceptionally high quality goods belonging to a woman. These included a chatelaine, a kidney-shaped purse lid, a bowl, several buckles, a dress-fastener and the hinges of a casket, all made of silver, and also a fragment of embroidered cloth.[52]
One of the Sutton Hoo burial mounds. This picture, taken during the Summer Solstice sunset on 21 June 2006, shows Mound 2 which is the only one of the Sutton Hoo mounds to have been reconstructed to its supposed original height. Alternate view.
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Mound 2: A Man's Chamber-Grave covered with a Ship This extremely important grave, very damaged by looters, was excavated in 1938 by Basil Brown. It was probably the source of the many iron ship-rivets found in 1860. Brown, having found similar rivets dispersed in the mound, interpreted the burial as a small boat with square stern containing the grave deposit (by comparison with the Snape find).[53] Professor Carver's very thorough re-investigation revealed that this was essentially a rectangular plank-lined chamber, 5 m long by 2 m wide, sunk below the land surface with the body and grave-goods laid out in it. A ship (probably a smaller version of the Snape or Sutton Hoo Mound 1 type) was then placed over it, aligned east and west, before a large earth mound was raised above the whole.[54]
Chemical analysis of the chamber floor suggested the presence of a body in the south-western corner. The goods, although very fragmentary, included an English blue glass cup with trailed decoration (like those from various English chamber-graves)[55] (including the new find at Prittlewell, Essex), two gilt-bronze discs with animal interlace ornament, a bronze brooch, a silver buckle, a gold-coated stud from a buckle and other items. Four objects (apart from the boat) have a special kinship to those from the Mound 1 ship-burial. The tip of a swordblade showed elaborate pattern-welding similar to the Mound 1 sword: silver-gilt drinking horn mounts were struck from the same dies as the Mound 1 horn-mounts: and two fragments of dragonlike mounts or plaques probably derived from a large shield of Vendel type, similar to the Mound 1 shield.[56] Although the rituals were not identical, the association of these objects and the ship in this grave shows an immediate connection between the two burials.
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Mound 1: The Sutton Hoo Ship-Burial (see below) •
The Execution Burials (or 'Sandmen') In contrast to the high status evident from these finds, the cemetery also contained a number of inhumations of a very different character. These were of people who had died by violent means, in some cases clearly by hanging or beheading. Often the bones had not survived, but this important part of the site's history was recovered by a special technique during the 1980s excavations. The fleshy parts of the bodies had left a stain in the sandy soil: this was laminated as work progressed, so that finally the emaciated figures of the dead were revealed. Casts were taken of several of these tableaux.
The identification and discussion of these burials has been led by Professor Carver.[57] Two main groups were excavated, one arranged around Mound 5, and the other beyond the barrow cemetery limits in the field to the east. It is thought that a gallows stood on Mound 5, a prominently visible position near a significant river-crossing point, and that these were victims of judicial execution. The executions are evidently later than Mound 5, and possibly date mostly from the 8th and 9th centuries.
