Faith, Work (Kings), Death(Kings)

Consequences of Conversion

• Emergence of Hiberno-Saxon style• Start of written Anglo-Saxon• Promotion of literacy in Latin and Anglo-

Saxon

Consequences of Conversion

• Written laws and charters• Mingling of church and state• Increased communication between regions

Masterpieces of Insular Art

• Book of Durrow• Lindisfarne Gospels• Book of Kells

Book of Durrow

Durrow- Mark

Lindisfarne Gospels

Sutton Hoo Shoulder Clasp

Comparison

Turn the pages

Lindisfarne Gospels

Luke 23:24-25 with Anglo-Saxon gloss

Book of Kells

• Iona? before 806• 680 pages Vellum• Links to designs

– Celtic stone carving and metalwork,

– Byzantine– Coptic– Assyrian and – Armenian

Sutton Hoo

Sutton Hoo

9

1 Ship Burial

2 Ship Burial

3 Cremation w. horse

5,7 Cremation

9 Burial w. horse

17 Warrior prince

17

Ship Burial

Anglo-Saxon and other ships

Ship Length Width CrewSutton Hoo I 24 m 4.3 m 38 oarsSutton Hoo II 20 mSnape 14 m 3 mGokstad (Viking) 23.2 m 5.2 m 32 oarsPinta Deck 17

m5.4 m 26

Sutton Hoo, Grave with Offerings

Sutton Hoo -Pagan

A Royal Pillow, Down and textile remnants

North Sea

Context

Shield

Sutton Hoo Shield Boss Vendel XII

Shield Details

Sutton Hoo- Pagan

Sutton Hoo-Christian?

Sutton HooReplica of lyre

Taplow, Drinking horn, late 6th C.

Sutton Hoo, Hanging Bowl

Shoulder clasps

Mound 17 Sutton Hoo prince

Global Cooling - - 535-6≳

• Procopius (536) “. . . the sun gave forth its light without brightness, like the moon, during this whole year, and it seemed exceedingly like the sun in eclipse . . .”

• Anglo-Saxon chronicle(538, 540) two eclipses• Annals of Ulster (536) “Failure of bread”

Global Cooling - 535-6≳

• Mongolian pine – Frost ring 536– Cool spell to 545

“The last decade-long cooling event was a.d. 536–545 where dust veil, cold, famine, and plague was recorded in Byzantium and China.”Engvild “A review of the risks of sudden global cooling and its effects on agriculture” Agricultural and Forest Meteorology 115, 127-137 (2003)

SwedenBoat BurialsRoyal Burials

Questions

• Was the burial pattern at Sutton Hoo a product of a socially narrow dynastic elite? OR

• Was there one produced and manifested throughout the whole of the populace.

• Was there a common distinct Germanic culture throughout the various folk of the North, across the hinterland of the North Sea and the Baltic, expressed in burial patterns and iconography?

Gamla Uppsala

Cheek piece, Sutton Hoo Helmet panels Valsgärde 7

Cheek piece, Sutton Hoo Helmet panels Die

Torslunda

Sutton Hoo Helmets Valsgärde I

Sutton Hoo - Sweden

• No animal sacrifice at Mound I– Animals at other mounds

• Christian elements• Common: boar depictionCasandra Vasu An Interpretation of Swedish Influences On the East Anglian Gravesite M.A. Thesis, Bowling Green State University 2008

Benty Grange, Derbyshire

Street HouseCemeterynr. Loftus, N. Yorkshire

Street HousePendant, Bed Burial

Sæberht

• Nephew of Æthelberht• c. 604 East Saxon king under dominion of

Æthelberht• Christian convert• d. ~616• Sons revert to paganism

Prittlewell

http://www.museumoflondon.org.uk/• Prittlewell Priory (now a museum), Southend,

Essex• Excavation 22nd October to 23rd December 2003

Burial chamber

Southend, Essex Rptd. 2/5/2004

Sæberht’s grave

Gold and silver finds6th and 7th centuries

Staffordshire

Sword HiltsGold and silver6th and 7th centuries

Staffordshire