The Sutton Hoo Treasure

Mrs Edith Pretty of the village of Sutton Hoo, overlooking the River Deben and the town of Woodbridge in Suffolk, had long believed that there were important ancient burial mounds on her property. In 1938 she asked an archaeologist to excavate several of the barrows. Three of the mounds had been robbed in ancient times but one still contained a spectacular Anglo Saxon burial chamber built inside a 30 metre long wooden ship.

The treasure included armour, weapons, gold coins, gold jewellery with garnet settings, silver cups and silver-supported drinking horns, a leather purse with a jewelled cover containing thirty-seven golden Merovingian coins, three coin-sized blanks and two ingots. The Sutton Hoo Treasure is considered one of the most important finds in British history.

The burial chamber was probably constructed for an East Anglian monarch (bretwalda) - most likely King Rædwald.

The site has been vital to historians for understanding of the Anglo-Saxon Kingdom of East Anglia and the early Anglo-Saxon period in the 6th and early 7th-century centuries.