Introduction

Since the beginning of human existence, all biologically living things have

faced a certain fate, that which our sciences even today in the 21st century have

not yet been able to overcome, and that is death. It is the human species out of

all living creatures that has become cognitively aware of this fate, and throughout

time has searched for meaning in life beyond the short period spent living on

earth. The human species has known for ages that individual persons cannot

biologically live forever in this life, and that has created the need to believe in an

afterlife. Having a belief in the afterlife has given rise to pagan rites and rituals in

every cultural around the world. Evidence of this can be found archaeologically,

historically, and iconographically. The origin of each cultural belief in an afterlife,

in every time period since human existence, is too broad a spectrum for this

essay.

The focal points of this essay are ship and boat burials of Anglo-

Saxon and Scandinavian origins: the ritual and pagan symbolism contained

within the burial sites, and how maritime archaeologists can use the material

culture found at archaeological burial sites to interpret and understand the

ideological representation of the ship or boat in its burial context. One of the main

examples, that evidence will be drawn from is that of Sutton Hoo: a seventh

century inhumation ship burial believed to be of a royal king form the middle

Anglo-Saxon period (AD 600-800) in East Anglia, England (Geake 83). It was

through the archaeological remains that scientists were able to date the ship

1
burial, document and record the findings, and then begin to develop a cultural

interpretation and meaning from the finds (McGrail, “Boats of The World” 210).

According to Bruce-Mitford, there had been a great debate amongst

archaeologists and scholars as to the true origins of the person buried at the site

in Mound 1 where Mr. Brown found the vast treasures in 1939; of what has now

become commonly known as the royal burial mound. In his work Aspects of

Anglo-Saxon Archaeology, Bruce-Mitford discusses the fact that until the identity

of the person in the ship burial can be determined, the actual interpretive aspect

of the find cannot fully be hypothesized. The reasons for this he purports, is that

if the Sutton Hoo ship burial is of Swedish origin rather than of English origin, that

this will inevitable change the cultural interpretation of the find (1). Since

publishing that work in 1974, the general consensus amongst archaeologists and

the general public today is that the burial is in fact the royal burial mound of an

English king known as King Rædwald of Northumbria, a descendent of the

Wuffha family, and not a Swedish king as Professor Birger Newman espoused in

1948 (2).

Maritime archaeologists however, need to take care not to imbue too

many personal conclusions onto the archaeological finds, but rather, use the site

and the artifacts as tools to support other forms of evidence for cultural

interpretations of ship and boat burials; their rites and rituals, and their historical

context.

2
Maritime Archaeology Defined

At Sutton Hoo, like many of the ship or boat burials found before and after

it in Northern Europe, the ship itself tells a story to maritime archaeologists.

Though the field of study, as it is now termed today did not exist at the time of

excavation at Sutton Hoo (1938-39), Snape (1862), Østfold (1751), Gokstad

(1880), and Oseberg (1903) to name a few, that does not mean that the

information retrieved from these excavations cannot be reinterpreted within the

context and understanding of the field as it is defined today (Brøgger 78-88). In

fact several of these sights have undergone re-excavation such as Sutton Hoo,

which was re-excavated in 1983, 1986-92 and in 2000 (“Sutton Hoo Society”) In

The Encyclopedia of Underwater and Maritime Archaeology, the editors defined

maritime archaeology as:

The study of human interaction with the sea, lakes, and rivers through the
archaeological study of material manifestations of maritime culture, including
vessels, shoreside facilities, cargoes, and even Human remains. Maritime
archaeology should not be confused with underwater archaeology, which
describes the study of the past through any submerged remains….Similarly,
maritime archaeology should not be confused with nautical archaeology, which
examines the specifics of vessel construction and use. Nautical archaeology is a
specialty within maritime archaeology (259).

By defining maritime archaeology, one can begin to develop the types of

questions that need to be answered by the archaeological data. “Why was this

ship buried?” “Did it symbolize power?” Was it believed by those in that culture at

that time to transport the soul to the afterlife? “Were only people of importance

buried in this way, and if so, Why?” “Can we conclude that ships and boats were

not just used as a practical means for inhumations– that no religious or symbolic

significance was intended?”(Owen 49). These are just a few of the questions one

can ask in regards to ship and boat burials of all types, but definitively answered

3
far less in the pre-Christian northern Europe, Anglo-Saxon and Scandinavian

maritime cultures because the polytheism of these ancient cultures is far less

documented and thus far less understood in comparison to the Egyptian culture

(Dalland and Owen 49). That is why, continuous research and reinterpretation of

these types of ship and boat burials, and their contents is vital to the

understanding of Anglo-Saxon and Scandinavian maritime culture, and is also

the focus of analysis within this essay.

Maritime Culture Defined

Westerdahl’s article in The International Journal of Nautical Archaeology

explores many of aspects of maritime archaeology (the study of the past) in

relation to maritime ethnography, which is considered a study of “contemporary

maritime cultures and their materials” (McGrail 12). He points out that “Maritime

culture, if it exists, can be defined by a recurrent set of significant, maritime

traits…The list of possible maritime indications in culture is long; the symbolic

occurrence of sea and ship in votive offerings [offered to a god as a sign of

gratitude; initiation rites, and mortuary rituals] and the elaboration of myths

concerning the sea” are all traits to search for in other forms of supportive

evidence used in maritime archaeology (265). He concludes his article by

expressing the view that several branches of academia need to work in relation

to one another and that the fields of “history, ethnology and anthropology are

important tools for maritime archaeologists” to look beyond the technological

aspects and look into the cultural context of the archaeological remains (269).

4
Muckelroy also viewed maritime archaeology as a discipline involving layered

dimensions and that, each dimension can be looked at individually, but should

also be looked at as a whole for a greater understanding of the big picture.

Below is a three-dimensional diagram Muckelroy published in Maritime

Archaeology.

Diagram I: Muckelroy (1978)

Religious or pagan beliefs are a vital dimension to the understanding of maritime

culture. It is espoused throughout this essay that the religious meaning is even

more vital in the context of a ship or boat burial, when in fact, in can be inferred

that the vessel is more that a container and is an actual symbol within the pagan

ritual. The vessel may even contain more meaning even beyond the basic

symbols we try to derive from the evidence available to study. For that we can

never be sure.

5
 Vessel Construction

The excavations of 1939 and the re-excavations of 1965-7 at Sutton Hoo

of Burial Mound 1 provided archaeologists with numerous clues to begin

culturally piecing together the lives of those who once lived in Suffolk over 1400

years ago. Even though the wood rotted away, the weight of the mound created

an impression into the ground, much like a footprint in wet sand. Archaeologists

were able to retrieve the detailing of the planking, including portions of the ship

that had been repaired on various sections of the ship from this impression. Also

discovered were the original individual iron fastenings– or rivets that held the

planking together when she was once functional (Delgado, 412). The

archaeologists were able to date construction of the ship approximately at the

end of the 6th century AD from the fact that the repairs implied years of use and,

along with one of the Merovingian coins found inside the burial ship dating no

later than 625AD the ship had to be built circa 600 AD (1972).

The shear size of the ship found at Sutton Hoo, Mound 1, reveals a great

deal to maritime archaeologists. From the impression left in the ground the

overall length of the ship has been estimated at approximately 89ft (27m) (Bruce-

Midford). According to Bruce-Midford, the Sutton Hoo ship is the “longest vessel

yet found from the migration period or later Viking age”; even in comparison to

the Gokstad, Norway (79ft), the Oseberg, Norway (69ft), Ladby, Denmark (68ft),

Snape, East Anglia (40ft), Valsgärde[1] & Vendel[2], Sweden (47).

th
[1] At Valsgärde Sweden, there have been many ship burials found and excavated since the 1920’s. The first burial dates to the 6 century
th
A.D. and the last of the burial graves dates form the 11 century A.D. The Valsgärde Farm, on the river Fyris is located only three
kilometers north of Gamla Uppala; believed to be the hub of ancient Swedish Kings and the center for the Swedish pagan faith; it’s finds
are the closed resembling the burial site found at Sutton Hoo, Mound One (“Valsgärde”, Wikipedia).

[2] At Vendel, a Swedish province of Uppland, where excavations began in 1917, and archaeological remains have dated these ship
th th th
burials from the 5 , 6 , and 7 centuries A.D. Vendel was also given as the name for that Iron Age period in Scandinavia (i.e. the Vendel
period c.553-793.). The large mound at Vendel has been named Ottarshögen (local tradition) or Othere’s mound, meaning the mound of
Othere from the classical epic poem Beowulf. One of the few documents from early history that enlightens archaeologists,6 historians,
anthropologists, and others to the pagan rituals of the Vendel period and the early Anglo-Saxon period of England (“Vendel” Wikipedia”)
The size of the ship at Sutton Hoo, Mound 1 alone signifies the very importance

of the person buried inside.

Overall, from the measurements taken of the impression the following

dimensions were also calculated: beam of 14ft (at its greatest), the depth

amidships was 4ft. 6in. The prow had to have raised at least 12ft. 6in. in height

above the level of the keel-plank amidships and was clinker-built (48).

Archaeologists found no evidence of holes in the amidships region for rowing

oars, but it is believed that the ship would have had forty oarsmen, twenty on

Plate I.
General view
of the
excavated ship
at Sutton Hoo:
Mound One
7 Hoo:
(“Sutton
Handbook”)
 each side if the tholes had been found in the remains (McGrail 211).

There is a great technological advancement between the Sutton Hoo ship

and that of earlier finds from the Same Nordic and Anglo-Saxon ship and boat-

building tradition, such as the Nydam 2 boat date 4th century AD according to the
[3]
dendrochronological research that was conduct on the wood . McGrail points

out that the Nydam 2 boat was constructed of longer planks of lengths from 27-

36ft.; (formerly reported by Bruce-Mitford to be up to 73ft. strakes in 1974)

(Bruce-Mitford 1974). The former, in comparison to the 7th century Sutton Hoo

ship that had an average length in strakes of 16.35ft., shows the primitive

construction of earlier clinker-built vessels in comparison to the later and more

sea worthy ships such as the Sutton Hoo or The Gokstad ship dated 890 AD

(211). What archaeologists have inferred from this evidence is a confidence in

the ship design and structural integrity amongst the vessel builders as the

chronological time line of the clinker-built vessel progresses form the 4th century

to the 7th century AD and beyond (McGrail 210, 211; Bruce-Mitford 49).

Plate II: The Nydam boat, 4th Century AD. Strakes of up to 36ft (Brøgger p.54)

[3] “Dendrochronological research has shown the oaks used to build this boat were felled AD 310-20, and that 8
she was deposited in Nydam lake in AD 340-50.”(McGrail, “Boats of the World” 209).
Plate III. The Gokstad ship (890AD) during excavation: The mast step clearly visible (Brøgger p.83)

9
The archaeological evidence than, has provided the historical record with a form

of metamorphoses of the clinker built vessel, a technique in which the planks

edging is fully overlapping rather than having a smooth skin. Although this

technique of boat building is not isolated to Northern Europe, “it was in Northern

Europe that it achieved its greatest development in the various kinds of Saxon

and Viking Ships” (Greenhill 174).

What archaeologists were not able to find at the burial site of Sutton Hoo,

due to the acidic soil that rotted away the actual wood of the ship, was evidence

of several important ship building techniques for propulsion such as a mast step

(for a mast and sail), a keelson, and a steering oar (Delgado 412). Unlike the

Gokstad clinker-built ship from the Nordic tradition that dates from 890AD

(pictured on the previous page), which has clear evidence of the advancement to

sailing propulsion, seen in the design of a crone (similar to a mast step, but not

mounted to the floor or keelson). The Sutton Hoo ship, on the other hand, has

only been hypothesized to have some form of mast support, a mast and a square

sail rig, even though it is also lacking in a “proper keel” (Bruce-Mitford “Sutton

Hoo: Handbook”, 48). The hull design and strength, according to computer

generated projections would have been capable of operating under sail, so most

archaeologists have inferred that the heavier sailing rigging was removed for the

transport to the “royal barge” to the burial site (412). This raises the question as

to why the ancient Anglo-Saxons took care to provide for every little detail in the

burial ritual, such as providing King Rædwald with his royal regalia, the 37 coins

10
for passage, the ship to sail in (if that is in fact the meaning of the ship burial), but

yet no sail? If the afterlife resembles “this life” so much, and all the other tools

and objects are needed for the afterlife, why not the sail as well? There are

intriguing questions to be answered in the symbolic belief system of the ancient

ship burials from Scandinavia to East Anglia, and though we may infer a

conclusion for many, we may never know a complete answer.

Also missing are the details of the wood itself; where there any intricate cravings

at all on the Sutton Hoo ship? Evidence for the later Nordic clinker-built vessels

within the tradition reveals woodworking craftsmanship of the highest caliber, as

seen on the wooden remains of the stern from the Oseberg ship dated 820AD

(Brøgger 161).

Most of the replicas created of the Sutton Hoo ship to date, do not entail a fine

woodworking as seen in the Oseberg ship. But were the archaeological evidence

is lacking in symbols craved into the wood of the Sutton Hoo ship, it is abundant

on the medal work found as the great treasure within the burial.

Plate IV. Photographed in 1904: the stern of the Oseberg ship: starboard side (Brøgger p. 112)

11
The Pagan Gods Of Anglo-Saxons

Anglo-Saxon polytheism was practiced in England form the 5th to the 7th

century AD. According to The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, the tribes that made up

Anglo-Saxons were the Angles, the Saxons, and the Jutes that arrived in Britain

from Scandinavia, the Netherlands, and Germany (“Anglo-Saxon Chronicle:

449AD“, Britannia.com). They brought with them, their ships, their skills of

building and metal work and, their gods.

The chief god in Scandinavian polytheism is Wóden, or Ódin in Old

German Norse. He represented the wild hunt and also carried off the dead. His

ancestry according to the mythology is linked to two great figures in English

history, Hengist and Horsa. The Anglo-Saxon kings claimed to be descendents of

Wóden and used this claim as a rite of power. The symbolism associated with

this pagan god, is represented by the eagle, as Davidson (1967) espoused that

the eagle, a bird of prey which would feast on the slain after battle would be a

fitting symbol for the pagan god for whom sacrifices were made for in battle.

Two more gods that need to be mentioned are Fréy and Freya; brother

and sister. Fréy is associated with both war and peace; the role of peacemaker is

derived from the myth that he is known as the fertility god, and a good harvest

cannot be had, nor a productive community exist if there is war and instability.

Freya, his sister is known as the goddess of erotic love, and has the role of

leading Wóden’s valkyries into the battlefield where they “carry out the will of

Odin [Wóden] in determining the victors of the battle, and the course of the war.

Their primary duty is to choose the bravest of those who have been slain,

12
gathering the souls of dying heroes or warriors found deserving of afterlife in

Valhalla. They scout the battle ground in search of mortals worthy of the grand

hall. If you are deemed by the Valkyries as unworthy of the hall of Valhalla you

will be received after death by the goddess Hel in a cheerless underground

world” (The Original Valkyries 2002).

Both Fréy and Freya were believed to poses golden boars, and thus

throughout Scandinavian and Anglo-Saxon symbolism, the boar is found on most

of the regalia found at ship-burials in Sweden and Norway, but was not found in

Suffolk on the Sutton Hoo helmet. There have been finds of helmets in England

(not in a ship or boat burial) that have had this Scandinavian “trade mark;” the

first at Benty Grange, Derbyshire in 1861 that pre-dates the Sutton Hoo and

Snape ship-burial findings and excavation; the second helmet was found in 1982

at Coppergate, York, and the third was found in 1997 in Wallaston,

Northamptonshire (Saraceni1997) Details on these helmets will be discussed

later in the essay under The Royal Regalia.

It was mentioned earlier, in a quote from Bruce-Mitford that the boar was not

found on the Sutton Hoo helmet. This absence of the boar may mark the

transition from the original Scandinavians that left there lands in search of more

suitable conditions for their agrarian life-style to second generation or later of the

Anglo-Saxons that seemed to have inherited their forefathers pagan gods. This

hypothesis would result in the burial not being a Scandinavian King or Prince, but

perhaps that of a “native” Anglo-Saxon, such as been purported at the beginning

of this essay: King Rædwald.

13
 In the context of interpreting the symbolism of the ship-burial at Sutton

Hoo, and the royal regalia found in the ship burial itself, the roles these

polytheists gods played in the lives of this past culture has a central, if not

pinnacle part to modern interpretation. It is the same as trying to interpreted

Ancient Egyptian religion and ritual, where there is also the act of burying the

dead in a boat. Many ideological representations of the afterlife have been found

to transcend time and cultural, and though the exact meaning of the boat burial

may not have been identical, the ritual symbolism of it may exist in C.J. Jung’s

theory of the collective unconsciousness; a place where all of humanities

thoughts and mythologies of the past dead exists and transcends time. If this

hypothesis were possible, the archaeological evidence found around the world by

different cultures of different times would be the logical supporting evidence. But

in the realms of ideology, symbolism and belief, a person from a distant time

cannot claim that any hypothesis is the correct one, it can only be pondered as

one possible meaning to a ritual driven belief.

There should be no doubt though, that because the Anglo-Saxons were,

to a great extent an illiterate society and culture, that the mythology of their

polytheism, which was brought over by the Angles, the Saxons, and the Jutes,

was orally transmitted, leaving behind no written historical record to study. The

only written form of language was in fact the iconographic images found on the

weapons and helmets, or in later times the carvings on ships and the

figureheads. These pictures were the symbols that spoke an entire tale about the

gods and the warriors.

14
The Helmet’s Role

There were many material cultural artifacts found at the Sutton Hoo burial

site, but indisputability the most valuable in terms of importance is the helmet.

Reconstruction of the fragmented pieces of cast bronze that were oxidized before

the wooden burial chamber collapsed reveal that it was made of the finest of

metalsmith’s skill; forged form a single piece of iron and covered with thin

decorative plates of bronze that that were stamped with four different motifs

(Evans 46).

Dr. Bruce Mitford gives the exact description in full detail in his work

Aspects of Anglo-Saxon Archaeology:

These bronze sheets had carried decorative and symbolic subjects stamped into
them by dies. There were two distinct dies of interlacing animal patterns, one
larger in scale and of rectangular shape measuring 5 x 5.3 cms, the other smaller
in scale and long and narrow I form. There were also two dies with figural
scenes. The four designs are identified by numbers as follows:
1. Figural scene: dancing warriors
2. Figural scene: rider and fallen warrior
3. Large interlace
4. Small interlace
A panel, carrying a single small leg, firmly placed by Maryon at the bottom of the
cap of the helmet against the crest at the back, apparently represented a third
figural scene. The rest of this scene was lost, the bronze sheet carrying the
design having been torn off the surface of the iron by the point of a spear which
was said to have been thrust through the helmet from the inside. This has been
cited as an example of ritual ‘killing’ of the object before burial– a pagan practice
supposed to release its spirit, a function also of fire in the cremation rite,
described in the Old English epic, Beowulf (199,200).

On the following page are two schematic drawings of the helmet, with the layout

designs listed by Dr. Bruce-Mitford in the above quote. A detailed drawing of the

listed decorative stamps will also been shown and elaborated on since, the

theory has been that these were symbols of Scandinavian Pagan belief and

symbols as powerful as the boat or ship burials.

15
Plate V. Front view of the Sutton Hoo Helmet (Bruce-Mitford “Aspects”
202)

Plate VI. Side view of the Sutton Hoo Helmet (203)

16
 Figural scene 2 of the fighting warrior, as listed above, also seems to appear on

the helmet plates of Valsgärde 8 Sweden, which depicts a young warrior

mounted on his horse with a warrior below stabbing the horse (Davidson 1967)

This similar pictorial scene, which depicts a battle scene very similar to the one

found on the Sutton Hoo helmet, which is also of a rider on his horse that is being

stabbed by a warrior lying on the ground (Davidson 1967). There is such a

striking resemblance between the helmet plates of Sweden and those of Sutton

Hoo that in the early fazes of interpretation several Swedish archaeologists

claimed that the burial mound must have been Scandinavian royalty, not Anglo-

Saxon, but further investigation of the archaeological remains and historical data

have truncated this hypothesis.

The following diagrams show the helmet plate from grave 8 at Valsgärde,

Sweden and the figural plate from the Sutton Hoo helmet.

Plate IX: Drawing of the helmet plate from grave 8 at

Valsgärde, Sweden (Davidson 1967)
Plate VIII: Photographed by Harrison : the warrior
on horseback from the Sutton Hoo helmet taken
from a painting at The National Archives, Britain.
Artist: A.T. Chester (1965)

17
The pagan symbolism in the above scenes has been described by Davidson

(1967) as the youth being and “emissary” of the Scandinavian god of death:

Ódin, or Wóden in Anglo-Saxon. Having the remains of the Sutton Hoo helmet

plates, archaeologists have been able to infer that the burial ritual and the

contents of it were not exclusively Anglo-Saxon, Christian (which has been

suggested, since two Christening spoons were found in the burial with the names

Saulos inscribed on one, and Paulos inscribed on the other) or Scandinavian, but

rather, that it was evidence for assimilation of Scandinavian and Anglo-Saxon of

cultures, and the spread of Christianity in England at that period, which gradually

stamped out Scandinavian paganism (Bruce-Mitford 68).

Figural scene 1, the dancing warriors, also seems to appear on the helmet

plates of Valsgärde 7, and a mound at Old Uppsala (as mentioned earlier), which

depicts a youth dancing, only wearing a belt and a horned helmet, holding a

spear in each hand and having a sword over his shoulder (Davidson 1967).

These pictorial plates from Torslunda, Valsgárde 7 and the mount at Old Uppsala

show either the one young warrior dancing (as on the Torslunda plate) or two

dancing warriors as on the Valsgárde 7 helmet and the Sutton Hoo helmet

(Davidson 1967). There is such a striking resemblance between the helmet

plates of Sweden and that of Sutton Hoo that in the early fazes of interpretation

several Swedish archaeologists claimed that the burial mound must have been

Scandinavian royalty, not Anglo-Saxon, but further investigation of the

archaeological remains and historical data have truncated this hypothesis.

18
Plate X: Photographed by Harrison: the dancing Plate XI: Torslunda plate depicting a young dancing
warriors from the Sutton Hoo helmet taken from warrior wearing the same horned helmet and
a painting at The National Archives, Britain. holding a spear as seen on the Sutton Hoo helmet
Artist: A.T. Chester (1965) (Bruce-Mitford 1974)

The plates are not exactly the same, but the central motif of the dance, and the

warrior, or warriors with horned helmets is apparent.

A.T. Chester (1965) recreated the helmet from the second reconstruction

of the fragments of the Sutton Hoo helmet. Below is a full view of the picture,

taken at The National Archives in Britain.

Plate XII: Photo taken by J. Harrison at The National

archives, Britain (8 Nov. 2006).

19
 Not only are there striking resemblances of the dies, which created the

similar plates, but also in the overall design of the helmets themselves. Bruce-

Mitford points over the structural differences between Roman helmets and the

Sutton Hoo helmet to dispel any allusion to the helmet being of Roman origin. It

is noted that the cut-away shape at the front of the cheek-pieces serves only to

expose more of the face. This is in strake contrast to the late Roman helmets

where examples have provided evidence that the cutting away of the cheek

pieces occurred more to the rear of the helmet (Bruce-Mitford 1974)

The crest and eyebrows from the Sutton Hoo helmet, which seems to

depict a flying dragon holds a striking similarity to the crest and eyebrows from

the helmet found at grave 1, Vendel, Uppland, Sweden (Bruce-Mitford 1974).

Plate XIII: Replica of a helmet from Plate XV: The reconstructed Sutton Hoo
Valsgárde, Sweden 7th Cent. AD Plate XIV: A replica of the helmet found at helmet with fragmented pieces of plate,
(www.regia.org) Coppergate, York, England, dated from Dated 7th Cent AD)
The Anglian period (www.regia.org)

20
 The crest and eyebrows on all three helmets have similar construction as well as

symbolic carvings, which tie them together as originating from a Scandinavian

pagan tradition, even though two of the three helmets shown on the previous

page were found in England.

Since earlier publications on the Sutton Hoo burial, two helmets have

been discovered; Coppergate, York in 1882 (pictured previously) and the most

recently found was the 7th Century boar helmet found in Northamptonshire,

England in 1997. What is fascinating about this particular helmet in comparison

to the Sutton Hoo, which is of the relatively same time period, is that the former

does have a boar figurine on the top of the helmet like those found in Sweden

(Saraceni 1997). The Northamptonshire helmet resembles the Benty Grange,

Derbyshire helmet found in 1861.

Plate XVI: Hybrid satellite map of East Mid-Lands, England marking the Sutton Hoo helmet location in Suffolk, the Benty Grange in
Derby and the Northampton helmet found in 1997. (Google Maps UK 2006)

21
Both the Benty and The Northampton (called the Pioneer helmet after the

Pioneer Aggregates who paid for the excavation) are located inland from the sea,

unlike the Sutton Hoo helmet found in the ship-burial mound, whilst the former

two were not located within a ship or boat burial. Two hypotheses that can be

drawn from these facts and applied to the examination of the symbolic meaning

of the ship burial are: 1) the two inland burials containing helmets with a boar

figure such as is found in Scandinavian mythology representing Fréy and/or

Freya are not buried in a ship because the person was not of great enough

importance, and 2): the helmets along with the warrior were not buried in a ship

of boat because both locations are located father inland.

In the case of the Pioneer helmet discovered in 1997, the human remains

were tests and the age of the man was placed around 25 years old. This young

warrior more than likely was a second generation Northamptonshire resident that

may have been living in a group of Anglo-Saxons that held to the more traditional

forms of metallurgy based homeland traditions and therefore continued to base

helmet design on Scandinavian mythology. Even today it is prevalent to see

smaller homely towns and cities lagging behind in things such as fashion or

technology. Perhaps Derby and Northampton, even though both were located

near a river, were isolated from the people that brought design change to the

helmet. Or perhaps, and even more fascinating hypothesis might be that these

warrior chose to retain the more traditional symbols on their regalia and

especially on their helmets because it distinguished them for those they had to

22
fight in war in England; like the settlement in Suffolk where the Great Sutton Hoo

ship-burial was found?

Conclusion

Over the last century there has been mounting evidence found in

archaeological remains of ship and boat burials in Scandinavia and in Britain to

support the hypothesis that these ships or boats represented more to the people

of these long ago cultures than just a means of transportation. The ship was a

symbol of power just as the warrior’s sword was, and in the case of a powerful

leader, the pagan ritual of ship-burial propagated this ideology. The ship burial

lasted well into the Viking Age (Davidson 1967) and was one of the only pagan

rituals that spread all over the territories the Vikings invaded.

The ship-burial at Sutton Hoo was considered a treasure trove by Basil

Brown, one of the first archaeologists to dig at mound 1 in 1939. It contained

much more than just the helmet that was examined briefly in this essay. The

burial deposit contained an iron stand, a sceptre, a shield, buckets, a bronze

bowl, a hanging-bowl, a lyre, spears and angons, silver bowls and spoons and 37

coins along with a multitude of other artifacts that were placed in the mound for

the person to use in the afterlife. All of these items could be examined in detail

and could bring to light to entire ritual of this ship-burial.

The lack of documented historical evidence was also mentioned briefly in

the essay. Although the epic poem of Beowulf was mentioned in a quote by

Bruce-Mitford, the other similarities between this poem which originated in

England, and the ship-burial at Sutton Hoo as well as ship burials and in Sweden

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were not discussed, mainly because a poem can not be used as a historical

document and does not support any hypotheses maritime archaeologists might

have regarding the symbolism of the ship-burial. The relations between them

though are striking and as a side reference useful at fleshing out what a ritual

ship-burial might have been like. The historical documentation by Ibn Fadlan was

also not compared and contrasted to the Sutton Hoo evidence because his tale,

whilst very important to the understanding of the ritual, has been labeled “bias”

by Taylor in his publication The Buried Soul: How humans invented death (2002).

Again, the focus of this essay was to try to relate the archaeological finds

found at Sutton Hoo and a few other well known ship-burials from Scandinavia,

to the broader meaning of maritime archaeology, which is not just about the

construction of the boat, or how it sailed, but why it was constructed and

designed that way. What other purposes did it serve besides transporting people

who brought with them to new lands their culture, their beliefs, and their skills?

Form the short discussion in this paper; these questions were given some light,

whilst more questions arose. Sutton Hoo is unique in many ways form the many

ship-burials found– not just because it is dated to a period where England is

lacking in evidence as to how Anglo-Saxons lived and thought in the 7th century

AD, but also because of it’s relation to the Nordic tradition of boat building and it’s

close similarities to the royal or princely ship and boat burials, such as the

Oseberg, who was a queen. The symbol of power lies within the ship, and the

polytheism of the Anglo -Saxon and Scandinavian cultures alludes to the

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transport to another world, the afterworld, just as they once traveled to distance

lands for a better future.

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