SAXON KING'S TOMB

Opotiki News, Volume II, Issue 249, 20 October 1939, Page 3

SAXON KING'S TOMB

A BURIED SHIP If EM AR K A BLE TR EA S l RES LONDON. Sept. I.—More than 1300 years ago a Saxon i uler died at Sutton Hco. near Ipswich. • -V 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 pla cedi 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 lie was surrounded »v valuable' ornaments for his .support in the next world. Crum 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 !he ship and the jewels remained. This week, a jury of 14 .men drawn from the neighbourhood of Sutton Hero, including the village blacksmith, the grocer, two farmers, a haulage contractor, and a golf club secretary, decided at an inquest that the articles found in the tumulus, or burial place, were not treasure trove, and that Mrs. E. 41. Pretty, a widow found them. It was agreed that ‘The owner cannot be found.” Constantinople Silver Dish Hr. 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 Conner’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 ol the Merovingian kings, contemporary rulers of North France and Belgium, and a silver dish three feet in diameter, made in Constantinople in A.L). 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 ,i niint*’ condition. The coroner told the jury of the legal aspect of treasure trove, quoting Chit ty and Blackstone and other authorities, and laid emphasis on the fact that concealment in secrecy, with intention on the part ot the owner to return and recover, was an essential point. * After the ovidnee had been heard the jury retired and 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* bad expected, says the M.list’ll ill correspondent of The 'I imes. Particularly fine was the silver, including six extremely shapely shallow' bowls, in almost perfect preservation. about Biu. 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 qiiatreloil 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, large plater of -Bin. across, standing on a circular loot, was rund>e at Constantinople, and bears marks of the reign ot the Emperor Auantasius I. The gold work, much of it inlaid with garnets and glass, is Saxon, and in many cases extremely massive. It includes notably a gold buckle Gin. long, and a pair of hinged golf clasps, which were found together about the waistline of tin? 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 purse, and could almost come from a lady’s handbag of to-day. Associated with this were found 40 Merovingian coins. Doutbtless the Saxon gold all formed part of the personal accoutrements of the buried chief—though that is perhaps hardly an adequate word for a man who was possibly not merely a Icing, but High King of England itself. Opinion scorns to be growing among archaeologists that he may have been Redwald, who was the first of the East Anglian Royal Family to become High King.