Hanging bowl from the ship-burial at Sutton
Hoo
Medieval Celtic, late 6th-early 7th century
AD
From Sutton Hoo, Suffolk,
England
Fit for a royal feast
This once magnificent bronze hanging bowl is
the largest of three found in 1939 in a richly furnished ship
burial. The burial, probably of King Raedwald (599-624/5),
Anglo-Saxon ruler of East Anglia, is the most lavishly equipped
tomb surviving from the early middle ages. This bowl is an import
from British peoples living beyond the Anglo-Saxon heartlands and
was perhaps acquired as tribute or through a marriage alliance. Its
discovery among other exotic imports of silver and bronze confirms
that it was highly valued. The bowl was in Anglo-Saxon hands for
some time because it was repaired using silver patches decorated in
the local Anglo-Saxon
style.
Hanging bowls were
designed to be hung by hooked mounts from three or four rings fixed
to the rim. Here the thin sheet bowl has elaborately ornamented and
inlaid hook-mounts, with extra ornamental square mounts in between.
There is a disc under the base and inside, uniquely, a free
standing bronze fish that could rotate. Three colours of enamel
were used: red, blue and pale green. Other glass was inlaid: some
blue rods and bright patterns of
millefiori.
The curving lines and abstract patterns are typical of medieval
Celtic art from Britain and Ireland and it has been argued that
this bowl was made in
Ireland.
The silvery
(tinned) trout swimming inside is a clue to the bowl's
original use. It may have held water for hand washing after a
feast, or perhaps something stronger for
drinking.
J. Brenan, Hanging bowls and their contex, BAR British Series 220 (Oxford, Tempus Reparatum, 1991)
M. Carver, Sutton Hoo: burial ground of k (London, The British Museum Press, 1997)
A.C. Evans, The Sutton Hoo ship burial, revised edition (London, The British Museum Press, 1994)