SAXON KING’S TOMB

Evening Star, Issue 23373, 16 September 1939, Page 16

SAXON KING’S TOMB

A BURIED SHIP REMARKABLE TREASURE More than 1,300 years ago a Saxon ruler died at Sutton Hoo, near Ipswich. A ship was hauled up to a hilltop from the River Deben, 100 ft below, a great trench was scooped out of the ground, and the ship was placed in it. Then the Saxon was placed in the centre of the ship, gold bracelets were clipped on his wrists, gold buckles clasped his clothing, purses were stuffed with gold coins, and ho was surrounded by valuable ornaments for his support in the next world. From the surrounding heath a thousand tons of turf were carted to the ship, and a great mound was erected over it and its' last solitary passenger. As the years passed the burial place and its treasures were forgotten, and inside the ship the acid nature of the soil destroyed every bone and tooth of the Saxon ruler. Only the ship and the jewels remained. Recently a jury of 14 men drawn from the neighbourhood of Sutton Hoo, including the village blacksmith, the grocer, two formers, a haulage contractor, and a golf club secretary, decided at an inquest that the articles found in the tumulus, or burial place, were not a treasure trove, and that Mrs E. M. Pretty, a widow, found them. It was agreed that “ the owner cannot be found.” CONSTANTINOPLE SILVER DISH. Mr Lionel Vulliamy, district coroner for North Suffolk, conducted the inquiry. Many archaeologists travelled long distances to attend. Inside the hall several wooden boxes, the lids tightly screwed down and heavily sealed with wax, stood on the coroner s table. They contained jewellery and other articles among the treasure, which was to be examined by the coroner and jurors. In addition were found the remains of a purse containing 40 gold coins ot the Merovingian kings, contemporary rulers of North France and Belgium, and a silver dish three feet in diameter, made in Constantinople in A.n. 520. Before the coroner arrived the boxes were opened by experts under police supervision. The great silver dish had turned purple through oxidisation, but nearly all the other treasures were virtually in “ mint ” condition. / The coroner told the jury of the legal aspect of treasure trove, quoting Chitty and Blackstone and other authorities, and laid emphasis on the fact that concealment in secrecy, with intention on the part of the owner to return and recover, was an essential The first witness was Mrs Pretty, who described how last year three mounds on her estate were opened and objects of interest were found. Early this year Mr Guy Maynard, the curator of the Ipswich Museum, suggested that the work should be continued. Mr C. W. Phillips, Fellow of Selwjm College, Cambridge, who has been in charge of the opening of the tumulus since July, confirmed a list of articles found, including a spoon inscribed “ Paul.” There were numbers of small coins, all copies of older coins of the Byzantine Empire. There was no date on any of them. NO TRACE OF SKELETON. Mr Stuart Piggott, of Rockbourne, Hants, local secretary for Wessex of the Prehistoric Society, described a visit to the site, where there were laid bare the personal trappings and belongings of the buried individual, who had evidently, from the position of the objects, been laid at full length on tho bottom planks of the vessel, his head to the west. Owing to the nature of the sand no visible trace of the skeleton remained. It was clear that personal ornaments, and so on, had been placed, if not actually upon tho corpse, as the man would have worn them when alive, in their relatively correct positions when the corpse was already tying in the bottom of the vessel. * Summing up, the coroner told the jury that even if they found that the gold and silver was not a treasure trove, if the Crown was of the opinion that they were wrong, the Crown could still take steps to have the articles declared treasure trove and take proceedings in the High Court, where a judge would decide as between tho Crown and the finder. It was clear that the articles were not hidden or concealed in secrecy, and it was necessary if they were to find a verdict of “ treasure trove ” that the articles should have been hidden and concealed. The jury retired, and after returning to be enlightened further on the question of secrecy, found that the articles were not treasure trove. They signed the long and quaintly-worded inquisition accordingly. MAGNIFICENCE OF THE TREASURE. The magnificence of the gold and silver treasure was even greater than one had expected (says the Museum correspondent of ‘The Times’). Particularly fine was the silver, including six extremely shapely shallow bowls, in almost perfect preservation, about Sin or 9in across, and all provincial Byzantine, or possibly late Roman make. Each of them is decorated. with a broad cross over its entire width, the cross being made usually of a quatrefoil pattern. A silver dish decorated with a classical head of a woman is also provincial Byzantine work of the sixth century. A very striking, though somewhat bent, largo platter of 28in across, standing on a circular foot, was made at Constantinople, and bears marks of the reign of the Emperor Anastasius I. The gold work, much of it inlaid with garnets and glass, is Saxon, and in many oases extremely massive. It includes notably a gold buckle 6in long and a pair of hinged gold clasps, which were found together about tho waistline of the body, but of which the exact use is not clear. The small animals and human figures are also most attractive. Very remarkable is the gold fastening of a purse which has a clasp just like the modern sliding nurse, and could almost come from a lady’s handbag of to-day. Associated with this were found 40 Merovingian coins. Doubtless the Saxon gold all formed parij of the personal accountrements of the buried chief—though that is perhaps hardly an adequate word for a man who was possibly not merely a king, but High King of England itself.

Opinion seems to be growing among arehroologists that be may have been Rochvald, wbo was the first of tbc East Anglian Royal Family to become High King. . , The treasure is, however, ns yet scarcely examined—it is returning immediately to the British Museum for further study—and the archaeological background of this highly important discovery is still to be established. The

nature of the objects found reminds cnc, nevertheless, very strongly of the passage in “ Beowulf ” in which jewels and treasures from different lands are piled round the dead king’s body in the centre of a ship.