Lost Anglo-Saxon palace discovered near Sutton Hoo burial site

Remnants of an ancient Anglo-Saxon royal palace discovered near the Sutton Hoo burial site in East Anglia, England, might have been part of the “king’s village” referred to by the Venerable Bede in the 8th-century scholar’s book An Ecclesiastical History of the English People.

According to BBC News and the Daily Mail, archaeologists found a 75-foot by 30-foot structure at Rendlesham in Suffolk, roughly four miles away from the well-known Sutton Hoo excavation, using aerial photography and light detection and ranging survey equipment. They believe that the building, which is part of a 120-acre site, may be a large hall or the main place itself.

“We’re convinced we’ve found a royal settlement of very high status, and I suppose it would be a large hall rather than a palace as it would spring to mind to us,” project coordinator Faye Minter, a member of the Suffolk County Council archaeological unit told BBC News  Tuesday. Her team believes that other burial sites, similar to Sutton Hoo, may also be located in the vicinity.

“We hope there will be more to come,” Minter said. “Whether or not they would be ship burials like Sutton Hoo, who can say?” Approximately 4,000 items, including weights, metalwork and coins, one-fourth of which are Anglo-Saxon in origin, have been discovered at the Rendelseham site, which is believed to have been linked to the Sutton Hoo location.

New find may be the ‘largest and richest settlement of its time’

In the late 1930s, Edith Pretty, owner of the Sutton Hoo site, asked archaeologists to investigate one of several large mounds on her property. The ensuing dig resulted in the discovery of an 88-foot ship and several other artifacts, most of which are now on display in the British Museum.

Minter and her colleagues believe that Sutton Hoo would have been the burial site of the Anglo-Saxon King Raedwald, who lived at Rendlesham before his death in about 624 AD. Experts say that the Rendlesham palace was likely one of several the late monarch would have resided in.

As Dr. Helen Geake of the British Museum told BBC News, “There would have been quite a few of these palaces or halls dotted around. The king [of the time] would have toured his kingdom in order to show his magnificence to his people, so he would have had lots of places to base himself around East Anglia.” Nonetheless, she called the palace’s discovery “incredibly exciting.”

The find will officially be announced by Minter and the Suffolk County Council archaeological unit during a September 24 meeting in Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk, according to the Daily Mail. A council spokesperson told the Xinhua news agency that the upcoming conference “will reveal that Rendlesham has the largest and richest settlement of its time known in England.”

“The quality of some of the metalwork leaves no doubt that it was made for and used by the highest ranks of society,” added Professor Christopher Scull of Cardiff University and University College London. “These exceptional discoveries are truly significant in throwing new light on early East Anglia and the origins of Anglo-Saxon kingdoms.”

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Image credit: Suffolk Archaeological Service

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