Why was Ancient Middle Eastern Bitumen Discovered in an Anglo-Saxon Boat Burial at Sutton Hoo, England?

Ancient Origins

Sutton Hoo in East Anglia is one of the most important archaeological sites in England. The weapons, clothing and other objects buried in the Anglo-Saxon cemeteries show that trade networks in the 6th and 7th century reached as far away as Europe and Asia. Now new research conducted at the British Museum and University of Aberdeen reveals that trading even resulted in a solid form of oil known as bitumen making its way all the way to England from what is now Syria. The graves at Sutton Hoo vary in size but one of them contains the “phantom” of a boat – the outline remains of a vessel probably used to ceremonially bury a warrior and many of his worldly goods, including his famous helmet. Alongside the body were found several small, centimetre-sized lumps of tar.

1939 excavation of Sutton Hoo burial ship. (public domain)

After spending a nation’s lifetime in British soil, these lumps have spent a human lifetime in the British Museum, where they have been safely curated for 70 years. Our research team, led by the museum’s Rebecca Stacey along with Pauline Burger, retrieved the lumps of tar from the archives and began analysing them.

Sutton Hoo helmet. Image Less Ordinary/Flickr, CC BY-NC-ND 

The museum had catalogued the lumps as pine tar, made by heating wood that contained resin. Pine tar is sticky, water-repellent and easy to make and was probably used in the 6th and 7th centuries to waterproof things. Dr Stacey is an expert in this kind of pine tar but her analyses showed the Sutton Hoo tar was actually oil, the kind that comes from rocks. 

The question was “which rocks?”. To answer that question, we had to assess the lumps’ chemical fossil content. My colleague John Parnell has a comprehensive knowledge of places in Britain where oil can be found at the surface due to natural seepage and exposure. But surprisingly, he was unable to match the Sutton Hoo tar to any seeps or deposits in Britain. This suggested it originated from outside of the UK. Bitumen from the Middle East was used in the ancient world for many things including embalming, medicine and of course water-proofing. This usage left an archaeological record of bitumen that we could examine to look for a match.

Sutton Hoo Bitumen samples. Burger et al (2016) 

Bitumen families are a little different to oil families. They have additional chemical characteristics acquired when oil is converted into bitumen. The kind of bitumen used in the ancient world was formed by microbes consuming the liquid parts of oil and leaving behind mostly solid residues. The results of this microbial conversion vary depending on the location of the bitumen. So far, the Sutton Hoo tar has the strongest match to a bitumen deposit in modern-day Syria. While this might seem surprising, many foreign and exotic treasures have been found at Sutton Hoo, and these small pieces of ancient Syrian oil are just one more. But there may still be another surprise. We know the chemical composition of the lumps, the rough date of their burial and their point of origin. What we don’t know is what they were used for. Many of the other objects from Sutton Hoo have clear uses, functions or symbolism, including the swords, shields, combs and crockery. But we don’t have this information for the pieces of tar. 

What function did they have or what symbolism did they carry? Why are there tiny pieces of Syrian tar in an Anglo Saxon grave? Why did somebody put them there? It seems Sutton Hoo is keeping some of its secrets hidden for now. Until they are revealed, I am waiting to be surprised. 

Top image: Sutton Hoo boat burial. Wikimedia Commons/Eebahgum, CC BY-SA 

This article, originally titled ‘Ancient Syrian bitumen discovered in Anglo-Saxon boat at Sutton Hoo’, by Stephen A. Bowden was originally published on The Conversation and has been republished under a Creative Commons license.

Anglo-Saxon Royal Palace Unearthed Near Famous Burial Site

Ancient Origins

A team of archeologists believe they have unearthed a lost Anglo-Saxon royal palace, located only 6 km (four miles) from the famous Sutton Hoo burial site.

According to BBC, the researchers have been working in the area of Rendlesham, which is located close to the Sutton Hoo burial site, known for its undisturbed ship burial, magnificent Anglo-Saxon helmet, and the hoard of ornate artifacts of outstanding historical and archaeological significance. It is one of the most famous discoveries ever made in Britain.

Replica of Anglo-Saxon mask discovered at Sutton Hoo (Bill Tyne / Flickr)

The project co-ordinator, Faye Minter, reported that her team discovered the remains of a 23m (75ft) by 9m (30ft) structure, which could have once been a royal hall or palace. She concluded that it was possible that there are other royal burials similar to Sutton Hoo, which was excavated for the first time in 1939 and dated back to the 7^th century. It consists of about 20 burial mounds and the excavations revealed many fascinating and impressive treasures. This time the researchers hope to find even more burials, which could have been placed along the River Deben. Ms Minter, of Suffolk County Council's archaeological unit, suggested that the discovered ''palace'' may be the place described by The Venerable Bede dated back to the 8^th century.

A burial mound at Sutton Hoo (public domain)

''We have discovered what we think is a large Anglo Saxon Hall, which could be the palace itself, if you could call it that,” said Faye Minter [via BBC]. “We're convinced we've found a royal settlement of very high status, and I suppose it would be a large hall rather than a palace as it would spring to mind to us."

As the researchers announced during the conference in Bury St Edmunds, the remains of the palace cover 120-acre (50 ha) site and were discovered due to the analysis of the aerial photography and geophysical surveys.

This LIDAR (Light Detection And Ranging) survey shows the core Anglo-Saxon areas at Rendlesham, including the main residence area. Credit: Suffolk Archaeological Service.

Until now about 4,000 items, including intricate metalwork, coins and weights, have been found at Rendlesham. However, only about 1,000 of them are Anglo-Saxon. According to Dr Helen Geake of the British Museum the discovery of the palace was an ''incredibly exciting'' moment. The researchers suppose that there may be a few more palaces or halls like this dotted in this area.  Those times the king would have toured his kingdom in order to show his power, magnificence, charisma and the reasons to follow him by his people. Therefore, it seems to be logical to have lots of palaces to base himself around the area which belonged to him.

The Great Buckle found at Sutton Hoo (public domain)

It is another surprising discovery related to Anglo-Saxons. In April 12, 2016, Natalia Klimczak from Ancient Origins reported the surprising discover of cemetery. She wrote:
''A group of more than 40 skeletons was found during the building of a new toilet for the parishioners of a church in Hildersham, Cambridgeshire, UK. The remains are about 900 years old.
According to the BBC, the burials are dated to the 11th or 12th century. Some of the graves lay 45 cm (18 in) below the path outside the Holy Trinity Church. They were dug into the chalk, with the bodies laid directly in the cavity. Most of the skeletons were of adults, but five of the individuals were children. The researchers examined 19 skeletons dated to the 9th or 10th century, predating the church by several hundred years, but they left 24 graves intact.
The graves are said to be Anglo-Saxon, although Cambridge University Archaeological Unit experts who examined the site dated the bones to the 11th or 12th century. Until the discovery was made, there was no proof for the existence of a cemetery in this area. The researchers believe that the graves belonged to villagers who lived outside the walls of what was probably an Anglo-Saxon church.
During the excavations , the bones were stored in the mortuary at the village undertaker's for the night. After the end of the works, the skeletons were buried in one new grave. A funeral took place just before Christmas 2015, and the toilet was completed soon after.''
Top image: Main: Sutton Hoo burial mound (public domain). Inset: Replica of Anglo-Saxon mask discovered at Sutton Hoo (Bill Tyne / Flickr)
By Natalia Klimzcak

Cate Blanchett sets her sights on Sutton Hoo drama The Dig

Oscar-winning star of Blue Jasmine in talks to play amateur archaeologist in Susanne Bier's period drama

Ben Child

Sutton coup? … Cate Blanchett looks set to star in Susanne Bier's drama The Dig. Photograph: Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic

Cate Blanchett is in talks to play the grieving widow who oversaw one of Britain's greatest archaeological finds in the Susanne Bier period drama The Dig, reports Screen.
Blanchett looks set to play amateur archaeologist Edith Pretty, a driving force behind the 1938-9 excavation of Sutton Hoo burial grounds near Woodbridge, Suffolk. The grounds were unearthed on the Sutton Hoo House estate which Pretty owned along with her husband Frank, who had died four years earlier, after she hired archaeologist Basil Brown to begin an excavation.
Brown made some promising early finds in 1938. But it was when he returned in the summer of 1939 for a further dig that the real treasure was discovered. A 27-metre seventh-century Saxon ship, most likely the last resting-place of King Rædwald of East Anglia, was among the new finds. Pretty donated the entire discovery to the British Museum, and the House and burial site are now in the care of the National Trust.
Screen reports that the script by Tamara Drewe and Byzantium writer Moira Buffini, based on John Preston's novel The Dig, represents a "layered piece with great emotional weight in the tradition of films like The Remains of the Day, spanning love, life and death".
Both Blanchett and Bier are Oscar-winners: the Australian actor won best supporting actress in 2005 for Martin Scorsese's The Aviator and best actor this year for the Woody Allen comedy Blue Jasmine. The Danish film-maker's drama In a Better World won the best foreign language film prize at the 2011 Academy Awards.
The Dig is being put together by Philomena producer Gaby Tana, Clerkenwell Films, and former Clerkenwell executive Ellie Wood, with support from BBC Films. The project is being tipped for a high-profile deal at the upcoming Cannes film festival.
http://www.theguardian.com/film/2014/apr/08/cate-blanchett-sutton-hoo-the-dig-susanne-bier
 

Royal settlement linked to Sutton Hoo treasures

Finds from Rendlesham in Suffolk will go on display for the first time this week at the National Trust's Sutton Hoo visitor centre

Maev Kennedy

The Guardian

 

The burial mound at Sutton Hoo, one of Britain's most important archaeological sites, where Anglo-saxon treasures were found. Photograph: Garry Weaser/The Guardian

The home of the Anglo-Saxons who built the world famous burial mounds at Sutton Hoo in Suffolk, where a king was laid with golden treasure heaped around him, has been discovered on nearby farmland a few miles from the site.
The finds from Rendlesham, which will go on display for the first time this week at the National Trust's Sutton Hoo visitor centre, include fragments of exquisite gold jewellery comparable in workmanship, if not in scale, to the Sutton Hoo treasures, pieces of gilt bronze horse harness, Saxon pennies and metal offcuts from a blacksmith's workshop.
The 50-hectare (123.5-acre) site, four miles north-east of Sutton Hoo, was discovered by archaeologists after a local landowner, Sir Michael Bunbury, became concerned about nighthawks – treasure-hunting thieves who use metal detectors. The archaeology unit of Suffolk county council has for five years been surveying his fields, using aerial photography, soil analysis, ground-penetrating radar and metal detecting, eventually pin pointing the 50 hectare Anglo Saxon site within 160 hectares of farmland.
The Venerable Bede, in his eighth-century history, wrote of a royal settlement but its location was unknown until now.
Professor Christopher Scull, of Cardiff and London universities, said the site was of international importance for understanding the Anglo-Saxon elite and their European trading connections. "The quality of some of the metalwork leaves no doubt that it was made for and used by the highest ranks of society."
The Sutton Hoo discovery was one of the greatest of the 20th century. The low mounds on a ridge overlooking the river Deben were well known, but archaeologists believed grave robbers had emptied them centuries ago, until an eccentric landowner, Edith Pretty, insisted that she had seen ghostly figures walking on them.
In 1939 a local archaeologist, Basil Brown, working with her gardener and gamekeeper, began to uncover the outline of a huge ship, the timbers rotted away but its shape perfectly preserved in the sandy soil. It was full of treasure, including solid gold buckles, jewelled and enamelled shoulder and belt clasps, and luxury imports from Rome, Byzantium and North Africa. One of its remaining mysteries
http://www.theguardian.com/science/2014/mar/10/royal-settlement-sutton-hoo-treasures