Sutton Hoo: Burial Ground of Kings?

by Martin Carver

Selected by Choice magazine as an Outstanding Academic Book for 1999

The Sutton Hoo ship-burial is one of the most significant archaeological finds ever made in Europe. It lies in a site that contains all the elements of archaeological mystery and romance: burial mounds, buried treasure, great works of art, sacrificed horses, and evidence of human execution. In the first accessible account of the whole story to date, Martin Carver explains what we know of the Sutton Hoo burial ground, in which the leaders of the medieval kingdom of East Anglia signaled their belief in a pagan and maritime kingdom independent of the Christian Europe of the day.

Since the rediscovery of the first ship-burial in 1939, the site has been the subject of three major campaigns of excavation and research, the last of which ended in 1993. In Sutton Hoo, Martin Carver, director of the most recent excavation, tells the story not only of one of the most dramatic historic places in early England but of the fifty years of its exploration--a history of British archaeology.

A selection of the Book-of-the-Month Club.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Archaeology, Science, British Literature

195 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1998

About the author

Martin Oswald Hugh Carver, FSA, Hon FSA Scot is Emeritus Professor of Archaeology at the University of York, England, director of the Sutton Hoo Research Project and a leading exponent of new methods in excavation and survey. He specialises in the archaeology of early Medieval Europe. He has an international reputation for his excavations at Sutton Hoo, on behalf of the British Museum and the Society of Antiquaries and at the Pictish monastery at Portmahomack Tarbat, Easter Ross, Scotland. He has undertaken archaeological research in England, Scotland, France, Italy and Algeria.

Reviews

[Peter Fox · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think I bought this book when I went to visit Sutton Hoo 15 years or so ago. It's roughly split into two parts. The first concerns the story of the find, the subsequent excavations and the evidence discovered and the second part is about interpreting this evidence. The former is extremely readable and if Carver ever gets fed up with archaeology, then he would be well advised to try his hand as a writer of thrillers. This is a section where the pages fly by and the story is fascinating. The latter part is a bit less lively, but no less interesting. Here the background to the find is examined, establishing what is now thought of as agreed facts, ie, Sutton Hoo is in the East Anglian kingdom, the finds do represent the top tier of society and so would be royal and that the most likely candidate is Redwald. The discovery of the bodies that had been executed at the site over a few hundred years was also pretty fascinating. I thought that this book gave a useful context to the finds and the people who reconstructed the helmet were definitely world champions at jigsaws. Ironically, I was meant to be reading Migration and Mythmaking in Anglo-Saxon England (Nicholas Howe), but that felt rather speculative, so I went with the solidity of Sutton Hoo instead.

Three things you'll take away from this book:
1, the huge role that chance plays in archaeological survivals and actually being found by the right people
2, the argument that kingdoms were formed in the latter half of the 6th Century
3, the effort both physical and financial, invested in the burials and the consequent importance of them to the organisers

[Jimgosailing · Rating 5 out of 5]

So this continues my Beowulf journey.* A detail oriented academic read (the second half; the first half reads like a whodunnit) but for me fascinating for its ties to Beowulf. And this connection is addressed by Carver in the Open Forum epilogue of is book where he answers questions posed by lecture attendees and viewers of the BBC2 program that focused on Sutton Hoo. (A wonderful and informative way to wrap things up)

Here he states “A burial is composed of selected objects and it is likely that the objects, taken individually and together, were also full of allusions to rank, power, ancestry, ideology and allegiance to kin at home and overseas. I therefore regard a ship burial as just as much a poem as Beowulf is, just as difficult to interpret but just as capable of giving us insights into the Anglo-Saxon mind. Burials are poems written with material culture; so that the choice of burial rite and choice of what is put into the grave are choices to what was known or feared or loved by the mourners.”

“Neither Sutton Hoo or Beowulf represents a straight account of reality. Both contain allusions to the real world, but we do not know for certain which the were.”

*so the Beowulf course i was in has taken me from Tacitus writing in the 2nd A.D. to Sutton Hoo with Basil’s 1939 dig** and various interpretations of Beowulf (Heaney, Hedley, Tolkien) including modern novels and movies (Crichton’s Eaters of the Dead and The 13th Warrior and The Mere Wife). Now onto Gardner’s Grendel and Ibn Fadlan’s travels.

**Serendipitously, last year before the Beowulf course, I’d watched the movie The Dig with Ralph Fiennes and Carey Mulligan as Basil Brown and Edith Pretty which, based on this reading, fairly accurately captures the events surrounding that dig (well, except the whole love triangle (?) tangent involving Lily James)

[Libby Beyreis · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you are interested in the history and archaeology of Sutton Hoo, this is a fantastic book. There are details about how the site was used, how the site was excavated, and how the theories about the former were informed and updated by the latter. There's also an interesting theme that evolves within the book about how archaeology has changed and is continuing to change. I wish I had read this book before I saw the Sutton Hoo artifacts in the British Museum, and I really want to visit the site someday.

[Kevin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great introduction to the Sutton Hop site for the layman such as myself. Excellent use of historical photographs from the early excavation.

[Tom · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good overview of the Archaeology of Sutton Hoo to go with the movie “The Dig.” Sometimes uses a bit too technical jargon.

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great presentation of the Sutton Hoo burial mounds - both an insightful interpretation of the area itself and the history of its uncovering in modern times.

It's good both if you know archaeology and want an introduction to this place, or if you are just interested in the subject. Bonus points for giving a good insight in how archaeology actually works - both earlier on and nowadays.

[Kellie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed the part that talked specifically about Sutton Hoo - that is what I was hoping for in the whole book. I did not realize that it covered the history of finding Sutton Hoo and all of the research included. I would like to find one that is specifically about what was found in the ship burial - that part was completely fascinating. I skipped over a lot to get to it :)

[J.A. · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a good survey of this very important archaeological site, with the history of the site and the process of the dig very well laid out. It reminded me a lot of archaeology theses, but was more interesting to read, with fewer charts. ;)