The document provides information about Anglo-Saxons who migrated from northern Europe and ruled Britain for over 500 years. It describes archaeological findings from the Sutton Hoo burial site in Suffolk, England, including helmets, weapons, silver plates and bowls, and gold buckles and clasps that provide clues about Anglo-Saxon life. Specifically, it outlines the discovery of an elaborate gold and gemstone-encrusted helmet and shoulder clasps from the grave of an important Anglo-Saxon warrior that show the craftsmanship and symbols of strength that were important to their society.

1. Anglo-Saxons
in

2. Interior

4. Anglo Saxons
Do you remember what countries they came from?

5. Anglo-Saxons
Can you match the maps to the countries?
Denmark
Germany
The Netherlands

6. Anglo-Saxons
In the fifth century AD, people from tribes called Angles, Saxons
and Jutes left their homelands in northern Europe to look for a
new home. They knew that the Romans had recently left the
green land of Britain unguarded. The Anglo-Saxons were to rule
for over 500 years.
Some objects were left behind by the Anglo-Saxons which have
given us clues about how they lived. This tour gives you an
introduction to that time through objects in the British
Museum, home to the largest and finest Anglo-Saxon collection
in the world.
How do we know about their way of life?

7. Burial site
The most famous
Anglo-Saxon
treasures in the
Museum come
from the Sutton
Hoo burial site in
Suffolk. Here
mysterious grassy
mounds covered a
number of ancient
graves. In one
particular grave,
belonging to an
important Anglo-
Saxon warrior,
some objects were
buried.

8. Where is Sutton Hoo?

9. Sutton HooAs well as weapons,
the warrior was
buried with
expensive luxury
objects such as
silver bowls and
plates, drinking
horns, a musical
instrument called a
lyre, and a number
of expensive
buckles and
fastenings. Can you
see the helmet next
to him, and the lyre
in the corner?

10. Helmet
Archaeologists
discovered this helmet
lying in the tomb. It was
an amazing, rare find. It
was also very unusual
because it had a face-
mask.

11. What animals can you
see in the helmet?
Look at the nose, eyebrows and
holes for the warrior's eyes.
What sort of impression would
the person who wore it have
made? Can you see a
dragon with outstretched wings,
made up by the two
bushy eyebrows, nose and
moustache?
When this helmet was found it
had broken into more than 500
pieces. Conservators carefully
put it back together, rather like
doing a huge 3-D jigsaw.

12. Reproduction

13. Like most Anglo-Saxon men, the warrior wore a belt. This solid gold buckle
was used to fasten it. The master craftsman who made it decorated it in a
Germanic style. What looks like an abstract pattern is in fact many snakes
twisted together. If you are careful, you can follow one from mouth to tail.
How many can you find?

15. The senses
Do you know the five senses?

16. Which is which?
Can you match the senses with each picture?
Hearing sight taste touch smell

17. Look at The Fuller Brooch

21. Purse lid
Wealth, and its
public display, was
probably used to
establish status in
early Anglo-Saxon
society much as it is
today. The purse lid
from Sutton Hoo is
the richest of its kind
yet found.

24. What animals can you see?
• The lid was made to cover a leather pouch containing gold coins.
It hung by three hinged straps from the waist belt, and was
fastened by a gold buckle. Seven gold, garnet cloisonné and
millefiori glass plaques were set into it. These are made with a
combination of very large garnets and small ones, deliberately
used to pick out details of the imagery.
• The plaques include twinned images of a bird-of-prey swooping
on a duck-like bird, and a man standing heroically between two
beasts. These images must have had deep significance for the
Anglo-Saxons, but it is impossible for us to interpret them. The
fierce creatures are perhaps a powerful evocation of strength
and courage, qualities that a successful leader of men must
possess.

25. Shoulder clasps
The decoration on each half of the clasps is nearly identical. It
comprises four panels containing an extraordinary
combination of geometric stepped cell-work within borders of
sinuous animal ornament, all immaculately executed in garnet
cloisonné, chequerboard millefiori and intense opaque blue
glass. In contrast, the four curved ends are filled with a bold
design of two entwined boars made with some of the largest
garnets known in Anglo-Saxon England. Their strong shoulders
are picked out in large slabs of millefiori, their tusks in blue
glass and their spiky crests and curly tails in deliberately small
garnets. The boar, probably a symbol of ferocity, strength and
courage, may be a reminder of the wearer’s qualities as a
warrior. It is also used as a protective device by both men and
women in early Anglo-Saxon England.

26. These curved gold shoulder
clasps are feats of astonishing
craftsmanship. Each one is
made in two halves, which are
hinged and fastened by a
strong pin. Their weight and
the rows of loops on the back
suggest that they were
attached to a thick garment
made of wool or padded
linen. No trace of the garment
survived in the grave.

28. British Museum link for Sutton Hoo
• http://culturalinstitute.britishmuseum.org/ex
hibit/sutton-hoo-anglo-saxon-ship-
burial/gQOPNM9M?hl=en-
GB&position=9%2C0