Anglo-Saxonsin

Interior

Anglo SaxonsDo you remember what countries they came from?

Anglo-SaxonsCan you match the maps to the countries?

Denmark

Germany

The Netherlands

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?

Burial siteThe 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.

Where is Sutton Hoo?

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?

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.

What animals can yousee 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.

Reproduction

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?

The sensesDo you know the five senses?

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

Look at The Fuller Brooch

Purse lidWealth, 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.

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.

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.

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.

British Museum link for Sutton Hoo

• http://culturalinstitute.britishmuseum.org/exhibit/sutton-hoo-anglo-saxon-ship-burial/gQOPNM9M?hl=en-GB&position=9%2C0