On Monday June 20th, 1939, the Sutton Hoo burial site was discovered and since this time it has given us a very detailed insight on the Anglo-Saxon world. The burial site consists of nineteen or twenty burial mounds that were most likely formed between 625 and 670 AD.
Today, even though there are many burial sites, many of them remain empty. Many of these sites were robbed and many of the items were taken. Mound number one, which is to be the most interesting, survived the chain of robberies and was excavated in 1939. Upon its excavation, the remains of a ship measuring about twenty-seven meters long and a little over four meters wide was discovered. The ship was not the only thing buried here. Along with it was a large chamber containing many artifacts, which gives us important clues to the culture of this time. The most impressive artifacts were found in mound one and they were: an iron standard, a sceptre, spears, an iron-bound wooden bucket, a bronze bowl, a hanging bowl containing the remains of a musical instrument, drinking horns, a shield, a helmet, a sword, the iron head of an axe, the remains of a coat of mail, ten silver bowls, two silver spoons (with "Saul" and "Gaul" engraved in them) thirty-seven gold coins, three unstruck circular blanks, two small gold ingots, and various pieces of jewelry. .
There was no evidence of a body in the acidic soil, which has lead to the assumption that the ship may have been a cenotaph, a monument commemorating someone whose body is buried elsewhere. However, residual phosphates suggest that there once was a body buried there. The identity of the body is still unknown, but the ship is to be dated around 625 AD. The date gives a clue to whom the king might have been, but the date is not agreed upon universally. They believed it was that of King Raedwald, whose death in 625 AD relates with the age of the ship. Later arguments said that this was impossible because the coins that were discovered were believed to be from the 650 AD, therefore his identity was rejected.
