The Archaeological Discoveries Of Sutton Hoo - amazonia.fiocruz.br

The Archaeological Discoveries Of Sutton Hoo Video

The Sutton Hoo helmet is a decorated and ornate Anglo-Saxon helmet found during a excavation of the Sutton Hoo ship-burial.

The helmet was both a functional piece of armour that would have offered considerable protection if ever used in warfare, and a decorative, prestigious piece of extravagant metalwork. It is described as "the most iconic object" from "one of the most spectacular archaeological discoveries ever made," and perhaps the most important known Anglo-Saxon artefact. The visage contains eyebrows, a nose, and moustache, creating the image of a man joined by a dragon's head to become a soaring dragon with outstretched wings.

It has become a symbol of the Early Middle Ages and "of Archaeology in general.

The helmet and the other artefacts from the site were determined to be the property of Edith Prettyowner of the land on which they were found. She donated them to the British Museum[4] [5] where the helmet is on permanent display in Room The helmet was buried among other regalia and instruments of power as part of a furnished ship-burial, probably dating from the early seventh century. The ship had been hauled from the nearby river up the hill and lowered into a prepared trench.

Inside this, the helmet was wrapped in cloths and placed to the left of the head of the body. It is thought that the helmet was shattered either by the collapse of the burial chamber or by the force of another object falling on it. The fact that the helmet had shattered meant that it was possible to reconstruct it. Attempts to identify the person buried in the ship-burial have persisted since virtually the moment the grave was unearthed.

A precise date for the Sutton Hoo burial is needed for any credible attempt to identify its honoree. The proposed range of years, and accordingly the regal attributions, was modified by later studies that took the specific gravity of some Merovingian gold coins, [73] which with some predictability were minted with decreasing purity over time, to estimate the date of a coin based on the fineness of its gold.

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The presence of items identified as regalia has been used to support the idea that the burial commemorates a king. Many other Anglo-Saxon barrows have been plowed over or looted, [] and so just as little is known about contemporary kingliness, little is known about contemporary kingly graves; [] [] [] if there was any special significance to the items termed regalia, it could have been religious instead of kingly significance, and if anything of kingly graves is known, it is that the graves The Archaeological Discoveries Of Sutton Hoo even the mere wealthy contained riches that any king would be happy to own. After all it may or even might be Sigeberht who died in the early s, or it might be his illegitimate brother if he had one and most people didor any other great man of East Anglia from to The Sutton Hoo helmet, weighing an estimated 2.

The core of the helmet was constructed of iron and consisted of a cap from which hung a face mask and cheek and neck guards. Atop the foundational layer of iron were placed decorative sheets of tinned bronze. A final layer of adornments added to the helmet a crest, eyebrows, nose and mouth piece, and three dragon heads.]