Sutton Hoo

The shield-fittings reassembled.

The West Wall

The shield-fittings reassembled.Along the inner west wall (i.e. the head end) at the north-west corner stood a tall iron stand with a grid near the top.[64] Beside this rested a very large circular shield.[65] The central boss was mounted with garnets and with die-pressed[66] plaques of interlaced animal ornament. The shield front displayed two large emblems with garnet settings, one a composite metal predatory bird and the other a long gilt casting of a flying dragon. It also bore animal-ornamented sheet strips directly die-linked to examples from the early cemetery at Vendel[67] near Old Uppsala in Sweden.[68] A small bell, possibly for an animal (?hound), lay nearby.

At the centre of the wall was a long square-sectioned whetstone tapered at either end and carved with human faces on each side. A ring mount topped by a bronze stag figurine was fixed to the upper end, so that it resembled a late Roman consular sceptre.[69] South of this was an iron-bound wooden bucket, one of several in the grave.[70]

In the south-west corner was a complex containing objects which may have hung upon the chamber wall, but were found compressed together. Lowest was a Coptic or eastern Mediterranean bronze bowl with drop handles and chased with figures of animals.[71] Above this (badly deformed) was a six-stringed Anglo-Saxon lyre in a beaver-skin bag, of a Germanic type found in wealthy Anglo-Saxon and north European graves of this date.[72] Uppermost was a large and exceptionally elaborate three-hooked hanging bowl of Insular production, with champleve enamel and millefiori mounts showing fine-line spiral ornament and red cross motifs, and with an enamelled metal fish mounted to swivel on a pin within the bowl.[73]