Monday, February 22, 2010

sutton hoo

sutton who? 'hoo' is an anglo-saxon word for 'ridge'...

at the suggestion of my friend, hugh, i [finally] visited this site---named sutton hoo---of a very significant, recent anglo-saxon treasure find in neighboring suffolk. this past weekend, james and i had access to julliette's car...the weather didn't suck...why not?

i must admit that i felt like i did months ago while visiting the 'conceptual ruin' of caister st. edmund. [post here]---that the site was all in your mind, not in front of your eyes. the story, mind you, was brought vividly to life by the exhibition at the visitor's center and even more by the wonderful national trust guide, with whom we booked a tour. but, in front of your eyes were a couple of grass mounds; some were surrounded by gravel rectangles, marking known burial sites---a leader ringed by his family/subjects. one gravel rectangle represented a prince [equipped with a satchel of lamb chops to fuel his journey in death] buried with his horse [who had oats to keep him galloping on]!

however, i did think this signage was unwittingly funny:
















the sunset that day was something to see:



2 comments:

  1. Oooh oooh oooh! I'm so psyched that you got there!

    Didn't they have an interpretive center with artifacts?

    That "NO EXIT..." sign is priceless!

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  2. the visitor's center had surprisingly few artifacts....though, on second thought, it makes sense...how could they store one of the largest treasure troves of gold in an unguarded place? they said that the nearby ipswich museum has most of it. the iconic saxon mask [see wikipedia entry on sutton hoo] is a recreation.

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