Discription.
At about 90 feet long and over 14 feet wide the Sutton Hoo Burial is easily the largest Anglo Saxon ship ever discovered. For a while it was uncertain how such a ship could have been built, but it is now known that a long trench was dug atop a 100ft. high cliff. Oak beams five inches squared surrounded the structure and a strong gabled roof supported it. Two layers of one-inch oak planking which lay cross-grained formed the roof. .
At the time, this formation of layering and craftsmanship would have appeared to be a conventional and structured design. .
The ship displayed such technical innovations as a fixed steering position and narrower planks were built to enhance flexibility. As the major source of transport for the Anglo Saxon people, ships were plentiful, and were soon regarded as a reliable and safe means of travel. This said, it is often wondered how, with all the knowledge they new about ships, could not have known that this structure would eventually collapse. .
Beams started to rot and more than a thousand tonnes of sand began to fall in, sandwiching the contents. The sand soon to turned to acid and caused the deterioration of many organic items stored inside the ship.
Such a result could have been prevented however, and it is often wondered why this burial was in the form of a ship. The most common explanation used today is that it was intended to be the designated form of transport into the afterlife. Which seems like a reasonable answer seeing as how a person was buried there for that very purpose. .
However because of the acidic nature of the sand, no skeletal bones were ever discovered. Because of this it was soon suggested that this burial was just a symbolic one, perhaps intended for someone lost at sea or battle, for after thirteen centuries underground, if there were any mortal remains, the acidic sand would have turned it to dust. However the evidence is quite over whelming and there can be little room for doubt that a person had once laid there.
