East Anglia: the life and death of a kingdom

The Sutton Hoo exhibition for 2008, organised in partnership with the British Museum and Norwich Castle Museum and Art Gallery, explores the birth, life and death of the Kingdom of East Anglia. For a period this was the most powerful of all the early English kingdoms. But in 869 AD, its army was defeated and Edmund, its king, was killed by Viking invaders.

This impressive exhibition traces the often bloody history of the kingdom using a wealth of treasures on loan from regional and national museums. These items are some of the most precious and most important artefacts to have been made and used in the area.

On loan from the British Museum is the gold and garnet shoulder-clasps and sceptre, originally discovered at Sutton Hoo on the eve of the Second World War. They are thought to be part of the regalia of King Raedwald, East Anglia's most powerful king. Masterpieces of early medieval jewellery making, they are constructed of gold inlayed with red garnets and blue glass in an exquisite geometric pattern with stylised boars.

Sutton Hoo Visitor Centre
15 March - 2 November 2008

Image: Shoulder clasps from the ship-burial at Sutton Hoo