The summer of 1939 saw one of the most exciting archaeological finds ever dug from British soil an undisturbed Anglo-Saxon ship burial at Sutton Hoo near Woodbridge in Suffolk. The ship nearly 30m long had been dragged uphill from the estuary of the River Deben to a royal gravefield & buried beneath a large circular mound. Amidships in a textile-hung chamber a sumptous burial was laid out unique in its glittering wealth of jewellery & unrivalled in the variety of objects that had been selected to represent every facet of the dead mans life. Gold & garnet jewellery silver from the eastern Mediterranean drinking vessels with silver gilt fittings a magnificent helmet & parade shield a lyre & sceptre were amongst the spectacular finds excavated in two hectic weeks just before the outbreak of World War II. Although no remains of a body survived & no personal possessions were found the gold & garnet regalia alone implied that the burial was that of a king. But his identity remained elusive until research resulted in a date of 625/30 for the latest of a collection of small gold coins found in the ship suggest that it may have been the grave of Raedwald king of East Anglia who died in 624/5. In this new edition of the survey first published in 1986 the excavation of the ship & its contents are described & illustrated & the results of many years research at the British Museum are summarised. It also brings the story right up-to-date &
Includes:: illustrations of the most recent excavations.