Who discovered sutton hoo?

Answer 1

It was first discovered in Tudor times, when looters attempted to break in to the burial mounds, but fortunately they missed the main burial chambers. The area was also explored extensively in mid-Victorian times, during which time a viewing platform of the area was built and a quantity of iron bolts (presumably ship-rivets) was found at the entrance to one of the long-barrows. It was intended that the burial mounds be excavated, but nothing was carried out and no useful records were made, largely because the Victorians placed a greater priority on overseas Archaeology than on exploring their own historic sites.

The site was finally discovered for what it actually was, and fully excavated, in 1938 and '39, largely as a result of Spiritualist evidence. A mansion had been built nearby in 1910 and in '26 it was purchased by retired military officer Colonel Frank Pretty. He died in 1934; his widow Edith became interested in spiritualism following her bereavement, and some of her spiritualist friends claimed to have seen 'shadowy figures' around the burial mounds. One even said that they had had a vision of a man on a white horse there. Her nephew, who was a dowser, detected the presence of buried gold inside what is now known to have been the ship-chamber.

Such was Edith Pretty's interest that she decided to organise an archaeological excavation of the site, and contacted Ipswich Museum, obtaining via them the services of amateur archaeologist Basil Brown, who had been studying Roman sites on the museum's behalf. Brown began work on the site in June 1938, his work funded largely by Mrs. Pretty herself and assisted by some of her estate workers. At first he concentrated upon the smaller burial sites, some of which had already been robbed of valuable items but which nonetheless still revealed some glass and metal artefacts, and in May the following year he discovered the hull of the famous longship in one of the larger mounds.

Word of the discovery reached archaeologist Charles Philips of Cambridge University, who was taken to the Sutton Hoo site by Ipswich Museum curator Mr. Maynard and was astonished at what he saw. After consultations with The British Museum, The Science Museum and the Ministry of Works, Philips was eventually put in charge of the excavations and instructed Basil Brown to stop digging until an assessment of what had been discovered could be made. However, Brown carried on his work, which in the long run was probably a good thing, since it prevented the site from being burgled by treasure-hunters. Philips fell out with the management of Ipswich Museum, but nonetheless, by the time WW2 broke out in September '39, the dig had been completed and the recovered items safely put into storage.

Excavations of other parts of the site were carried out by Rupert Bruce-Mitford of the British Museum between 1965 and '71, and by Martin Carver of the University of York between 1983-92. Carver discovered that the Hoo had been used as a burial site for Anglo-Saxon execution victims long after the great long-barrow burial mounds were constructed, as well as a ceremonial burial ground for later Saxon nobles.

However, to this day, parts of the burial sites remain yet to be excavated, and await the attentions of future archaeologists.