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Excavations and metal detecting work at a famous ship burial site in Suffolk, England, have revealed missing pieces that could help archaeologists better understand an interesting but incomplete sixth-century artifact.
A team of archaeologists, volunteers and curators found further fragments of a Byzantine bucket at Sutton Hoo, where the discovery of the ship’s 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 featuring warriors with a range of weapons as well as lions and a hunting dog. A Greek inscription that goes around the top reads, “Good health Master, for many happy years.” The lettering helped researchers date the vessel to the sixth century.
Pieces of the Bromeswell bucket previously found in 1986 and 2012 have been carefully cleaned, reshaped and mounted by experts, and are on display in the site’s High Hall exhibition to show visitors what the bucket once looked like.
Now, new research at Sutton Hoo has not only revealed more fragments related to the bucket but also shed new light on the history of the vessel that once traveled from a part of the Byzantine Empire known as Antioch, located in modern-day Turkey. today, to the east coast of Wales.
“It’s like a jigsaw puzzle that has been added to over the years,” said Laura Howarth, archeology and engagement manager for the National Trust’s Sutton Hoo site.
Putting together an ancient puzzle
A tractor trailer accidentally revealed pieces of the artefact for the first time in 1986 when the Sutton Hoo estate was owned by the Tranmer family before it became part of the National Trust.
Metal detector surveys in 2012 revealed more pieces of the bucket.
Researchers are trying to determine whether pieces of the bucket were disturbed by modern agricultural practices and spread, or whether it was left in pieces on purpose. Other graves have yielded parts of other buckets that appear to have been broken into small fragments before being buried, Howarth said.
The research team also wants to know the purpose of the bucket. Was it placed as a luxury within a grave, or did it store food, drink or cremated remains?
“It was a kind of luxury importation coming into (as it is now) England today, but thinking of some of the Anglo-Saxons who would have owned or used it and perhaps never even seen a lion before or perhaps. not being able to read Greek and he was like, ‘Wow, what is this?’” Howarth said.
Analysis is still underway for the new pieces found in June in a newly dug pit in Garden Field. Careful digging revealed the pieces, which revealed a hand that belonged to one of the figures on the bucket. The team decided to lift the pieces and the surrounding soil “en bloc.”
The researchers dug up the large block around the bucket pieces, carefully folded it and placed it on a tray to analyze the soil around the fragments, Howarth said.
The soil analysis could help determine when the bucket was planted 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, which has an ancient Greek inscription and armed warriors, was probably made in a workshop in Antioch in the sixth century.
The team used an X-ray fluorescence instrument, similar to a ray gun, to chemically and elementally analyze the newly found fragments. Analysis confirmed that the pieces were part of Bromeswell’s bucket.
The team were also able to confirm that the bucket also contained some unidentifiable pieces of metal collected during the 2012 metal detection survey.
Based on the Greek letter forms 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 was previously damaged and then repaired,” Angus Wainwright, regional archaeologist for the National Trust, said in a statement. “In-depth analysis of the metals suggests it may even have been soldered back together.”
Archaeological treasure
The new research at Sutton Hoo is part of a two-year project by the National Trust, Field Archeology Specialists, or FAS, Heritage, and the British online TV show “Time Team.”
The aim of the project is to gain further insights into the prehistoric and early medieval history of Sutton Hoo. With more than 80 volunteers, the team conducted metal detectors throughout Garden Field, and recorded the items recovered in 3D. Some of the volunteers included members of the 1980s excavations at Sutton Hoo as well as an organization that enables people with mental health challenges to use archeology and heritage as part of their wellbeing.
“A lot of people were meeting as strangers but leaving as friends,” Howarth said.
Further finds from June’s 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 processing and cataloguing. Eventually, the pieces of the bucket will be reunited with the ones on display. Currently, the bucket is missing part of its sides as well as its base.
The project complements an ongoing documentary with “Time Team” which looks at the rebuilding of the Anglo-Saxon ship that made Sutton Hoo famous.
The ‘ghost’ ship
The ship burial, one of three known Anglo-Saxon ship burials, was discovered between 1938 and 1939 as the Second World War unfolded.
The Pretty family moved into the Sutton Hoo estate in 1926, and Edith Pretty arranged for burial mounds found 500 yards (457 meters) from her house to be excavated.
The 90ft long (27.4 metres) wooden ship was towed half a mile (0.8 kilometres) from the River Deben when an Anglo-Saxon war king died 1,400 years ago. Raedwald of East Anglia, who died around 624, was probably buried and buried within the ship, surrounded by treasures and buried within a mound.
The wood of the ship rotted in the acidic soil, but the exact positions of the planks were left in the sand along with rows of iron rivets.
Excavations have found Byzantine silverware, jewelry made of precious metals and gems, what are now Sri Lankan garnets, an iron warrior’s helmet, and a banquet set. Pretty donated the treasures to the British Museum, and a curator at the museum declared it “one of the most important archaeological finds of all time”.
Since then, excavations have continued at Sutton Hoo, revealing both a royal and country burial ground from the sixth and seventh centuries. There is also evidence of earlier inhabitants of the site, such as Roman conquerors.
Future research at Sutton Hoo could reveal the wider history of the site and what drew people to live there over time, Howarth said.
“I think it’s also very nice that it retains 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 are 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 lived there and how that fits into the wider story of Sutton Hoo.”
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