The Sutton Hoo Helmet

Found: Burial Mound 1, Sutton Hoo, Suffolk, England

Date: AD 600 - 650

Culture: Anglo-Saxon

Material: iron with bronze plates covered in tin, bronze-gilt, garnets

This helmet could have been worn in battle, but was probably used in
ceremonies. When discovered, the helmet was shattered into over five
hundred fragments. It was found at a burial site in Suffolk with many other
objects which together are important evidence for the study of the world of the
Anglo Saxons.

TIMELINE: 350 year (?) time section (world and Britain) to show end of Roman Britain,
migrations, selection of contemporary world cultures
The Sutton Hoo helmet: information

The findspot

The helmet was found in a large burial mound in the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of East Anglia.
Many other objects were also found, including armour and weapons, silver dishes, musical
instruments, feasting equipment such as a drinking horn and bottles, coins and fastenings for
clothing. The mound, which has worn down over time, covered a ship that must have been
dragged up several hundred metres from the river Deben. The presence of other mounds
suggests this was a royal burial area.

Ship burials indicate a relationship with the seafaring communities of Scandinavia, where this
type of burial was also practised. Three have been found in the UK so far.

Social context

In the period of continuity and change following the end of Roman rule in Britain, Anglo-Saxon
rulers competed among themselves for supremacy. We know from Bede and other written
sources that the royal family of East Anglia was embroiled in these conflicts. The objects in the
burial referred to the role and status of the dead person, but also had a public message which
would have been understood by the group assembled at the ritual of burial.

The mythological scenes on the helmet could be related to the pagan god Odin, Nordic god of
war. In the Anglo-Saxon world, rulers needed to demonstrate that they could lead their people
in war. Success in war meant maintaining stability and control, and perhaps expanding the
kingdom. So objects such as the helmet were vital symbols of qualities of leadership.

The placing of valuable objects and materials in graves demonstrates the wealth and status of
the dead persons social group not merely through the objects and materials themselves, but
through its ability to dispose of and in effect destroy these goods.

This was a period when both pagan and Christian belief systems were being followed in East
Anglia. The practice of ship burials and placement of objects within the burial space was a
pagan practice. However, there are Christian symbols on several of the items.

More useful information online

History of the World in 100 objects: useful summary of the importance of this object:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/ahistoryoftheworld/objects/kpnm6FD3TOaNri1gNPGJ1w

Google Cultural Institute: recent summary overview of whole ship burial

http://www.google.com/culturalinstitute/exhibit/sutton-hoo-anglo-saxon-ship-
burial/gQOPNM9M?projectId=historic-moments

BSL video description of helmet (on BM site):

http://www.britishmuseum.org/channel/object_stories/bsl/room_41_europe_300-
1100_ad/video_sutton_hoo_helmet.aspx

The restoration of the Sutton Hoo helmet (on BM site):

http://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/highlights/articles/r/restoration_sutton_hoo_helmet.aspx

Video of story of excavation and detailed discussion of the helmet and its meaning. (BBC
Masterpeices of the British Museum):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5yXQrTzUeg (part 1 14 minutes)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oOgA4uy8qDI (part 2 14 minutes)
The Sutton Hoo helmet: teaching ideas

Invite a student or other adult to lie down in the middle of the classroom. Place a range of
modern objects around them. Ask the students to think about what an archaeologist in 500
years time might find and what might have disappeared.

Print out a selection of photos of objects from the British Museum website. Give one or two
objects to each group of students and ask them to try to work out what they are, what they are
made of and what they might suggest about the person they were found with. Encourage
students not to get too stuck on what the object is if they are not sure.

Print out a selection of about 15 photos from the website. Make a set of labels suggesting
reasons for the objects to be buried: to show the strength and skills of a warrior, to show the
ability to be a leader, to show wealth, to show the importance of feasting and entertainment.
Ask the students to group objects around each label. Discuss their choices.

What was the Sutton Hoo helmet for?

How good would the helmet be for protecting its owner? Why do you think it is so elaborately
decorated? As well as providing physical protection, what else would the helmet say about its
wearer?

Who was buried at Sutton Hoo?

Option 1) What do the objects tell us about their owner? What do they not tell us? What can
we never know?
Option 2) Use the objects and their date, maps of Anglo-Saxon England and written sources
from Bede and the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle to work out who you think the dead person might
have been.

How much does Sutton Hoo tell us about the Anglo-Saxons?

What can we tell from the Sutton Hoo burial and its objects about how the Anglo-Saxons were
ruled, what jobs they did, what men did and what women did, about rich and poor, about how
they spent their time, what they ate and drank and what they believed about death and the
gods? Look at some other sources for this period. Do these agree with or contradict what you
have learned from Sutton Hoo? Can you find something that Sutton Hoo does not tell us about?

What was important to the Anglo-Saxons?

Imagine you were an Anglo-Saxon noble present at Sutton Hoo as each object was placed in
the grave. What would each object say to you about what your society values and thinks is
important?

Where in the world was East Anglia?

What does the Sutton Hoo burial tell us about Anglo-Saxon connections with the rest of the
world? Do research to find out what else was happening in other parts of the world when the
treasures were buried at Sutton Hoo.

How important were the discoveries at Sutton Hoo?

Introduce students to the idea of a historical Dark Age, looking at objects from Roman Britain
and talking about the end of Roman rule and the arrival of north European migrants. Discuss
how the objects found at Sutton Hoo challenged this view of the period.

How do we understand Sutton Hoo?

Use the Google Cultural institute resource to work out how our understanding of Sutton Hoo
has changed over the last 80 years.
 The Sutton Hoo helmet: the wider world

The motif on one of the plaques The design of helmet and some
which shows a mounted warrior of the imagery is similar to
trampling his foe is derived from examples from Scandinavia,
similar Roman images. especially Sweden.

So was the Sutton Hoo helmet

made by a Scandinavian in
The eyes of the beasts are inlaid Suffolk or imported from
with garnets which came from Scandinavia?
India or Sri Lanka.

The helmet was buried with:

gold coins from France

hanging bowls from Celtic west of Britain

silver bowls from Byzantium

silver spoons with Christian imagery and Greek inscriptions

The Sutton Hoo helmet: for the classroom/whiteboard tab

download a whiteboard version of home tab

download a photo of the helmet suitable for whiteboard projection and A4 printing hard
copy

download a photo of the reconstructed helmet suitable for whiteboard projection and A4
printing hard copy

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Link to 360 image:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/ahistoryoftheworld/objects/kpnm6FD3TOaNri1gNPGJ1w

Link to specially prepared image bank on BM site with 12-15 relevant images in ppt format.

Link to a short silent video of the 1939 excavation:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HMKkMi_Wggg&feature=player_embedded

Link to a 5 minute video What can be found at Sutton Hoo? (BBC class clips)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/learningzone/clips/3344

Link to a quick summary for children: Museum Explorer entry in BM Young Explorers:
http://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/young_explorers/discover/museum_explorer/anglo-
saxon_england/death/sutton_hoo_helmet.aspx

Outside the classroom

How to visit Sutton Hoo with your class link to NT website:

http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/sutton-hoo/learning/

Visit the British Museum:

http://www.britishmuseum.org/learning/schools_and_teachers.aspx