Museum Explorer
Death in
Anglo-Saxon England
From Mound 1, Sutton Hoo, Suffolk
Anglo-Saxon
Height: 31.8 cm
Width: 21.5 cm
M&ME 1939,10-10,93
Sutton Hoo helmet
From: Mound 1, Sutton Hoo, Suffolk, England
Date: early 7th century AD
This magnificent helmet is from the ancient burial at Sutton Hoo, where a man was buried in a ship, this helmet lying next to his body. He would have worn the helmet, possibly to show he was a warrior. When it was dug up it had shattered into over 500 pieces, which conservators carefully put back together - like doing a huge 3-D jigsaw puzzle.
The helmet hides a number of animals - boars heads on the eyebrows, a dragon head above the nose and a great bird made up of the eyebrows and nose.
