Sutton Hoo Treasure
The Men of the North
The Dark Ages: Age of Light
Sutton Hoo Treasure
When the Vikings began behaving like Vikings and invaded Britain, they encountered the most exciting jewellers of the Dark Ages – the Anglo-Saxons.
How do we know they were exciting? Because they have left behind this – the Sutton Hoo treasure. This is the finest horde of Anglo-Saxon gold ever dug
up in Britain, one of the great treasures of the British Museum. My legs go weak everytime I see it because it is in such excellent condition. Much of
the art that survives from the Dark Ages has been battered by time but not the Sutton Hoo treasure. In the finest pieces here, there is hardly a gram
of gold bent out of place or a garnet missing.
The Sutton Hoo treasure was dug up out of the ground in East Anglia just a few weeks before the start of the Second World War in 1939, so it couldn’t be
investigated properly until after the war was over, what a torture that must have been for the waiting archaeologists.
The treasure dates from around 620 A.D. and comes from the grave of an important East Anglian king. The king was buried in a ship, his transport
to the next world. And all this was buried with them to serve him in the afterlife. These bits of sword here, and the helmets mark him out as a mighty
warrior. You wouldn’t want to get on the wrong side of this man, never.
Regal Lyre
Fabulous Cooking Cauldron
They found a lyre in his grave as well so the king, believed to be King Raedwald, could listen to his favourite music in the afterlife. That’s a
re-creation of it.
He had to eat well, so this fabulous cooking cauldron was buried with him. Look at all the intricate Celtic decoration around it.
Most important of all, the people who buried the king made sure that he would look good in the next world by burying him with his best Anglo-Saxon
ruler bling, which is where this gold comes in and those magnificent garnets.
If you have ever seen finer jewellery than this, let me know where because I want to go there. How did they do it, these Anglo-Saxon wizards?
Shaun Greenhalgh
To penetrate their secrets, I have tracked down a man who knows. In his youth, Sean Greenhalgh was a skilled forger and some of the worlds greatest
museums have admired his output. Shaun was finally caught and sent to prison so he has served his time and these days puts all that expertise to
much better use as an independent craftsmen. The methods he uses aren’t exactly the same as the methods of the dark ages – the modern world has
changed too much for that – but they are about as close as you can get. And what Shaun’s work gives us is an insider’s view of how Anglo-Saxon
jewellers actually made their pieces.
So, Shaun, can you tell us what it is you’re going to be making? Sean Greenhalgh “It’s an Anglo-Saxon disc brooch, silver, with some enamel
gilding… Covering most of the aspects that Anglo-Saxon jewellers we use.”
They obviously had lots of different techniques in the way they made their jewellery, so which ones are you picking up here?
Shaun Greenhalgh “This is probably the 10th century, it’s like a late Saxon disc brooch, the earlier ones with the golden garnet mostly, but
these are the ones with religious symbolism on them.”
Is this based on an existing brooch?
Shaun Greenhalgh “No, it’s my own design, but it kind of encompasses elements of other things going off, so it’s an original design in itself. The
centre part will be done in gold ribbon, plus all the different coloured enamels.”
And that’s a picture of an Anglo-Saxon king?
Shaun Greenhalgh “Yes, with just a generic long-tache beard with a sword in his right hand, and the element I haven’t actually put in is the
hand of God over his shoulder, that will be done in white and gold enamel.”
The delights of Shaun’s Anglo-Saxon disc brooch will have to wait. First, we need to cross the Channel and search out those powerful Dark Age
creatives, the Carolingians – rulers of the Franks.
