EBK Activity Sheets

 

 

Wearing Gold & Garnets
  • There were many items of jewellery placed on the dead person's sarcophagus (big coffin) in the ship burial at Sutton Hoo.
  • The purse lid in the picture is made of gold inlaid with ivory. It is covered in garnets (red jewels) and blue glass.
  • Can you see the birds-of-prey attacking the ducks? And the wolves licking the men's faces? The East Anglian Royal family were called the Wuffingas. It means the 'wolf-men'.
  • The cloth purse had rotted away. The archaeologists found the coins it contained. There were 40, dating from AD 625. There were also two small gold bars.
  • There were golden shoulder clasps (click for picture) completely covered in garnets and blue glass, using a technique called 'cloisonné work'. They were also decorated with boars (wild pigs). The clasps were used to keep clothing in place.
  • We know there were clothes and wall hangings in the burial chamber. Impressions of some of this were found in pieces of rusted iron. Very tiny fragments of cloth had also survived. They were brightly coloured: red, blue and yellow.
  • The dead person's belt had a big buckle made of solid gold (click for picture). It weighs nearly half a kilogram. It is covered in an entwined thread pattern which is actually part of two birds-of-prey. It is similar to other buckles found by archaeologists, only much better quality.
  • The sword-belt hung the dead person's scabbard from his belt. It had 6 cloisonné work mounts. There were also cloisonné work strap ends.
  • The 'Beowulf' poem tells of the great treasures placed in a ship funeral or burial.
  • Activity Sheet available.

 

    © Nash Ford Publishing 2003. All Rights Reserved. Suitable for National Curriculum History Key Stage 2.