SUTTON HOO HELMET AH2155 by CAS HANWEI
In about 625 a King of East Anglia, possibly King Raedwald, was buried at the present-day Sutton Hoo estate near Woodbridge in Suffolk, UK. His tomb was a large wooden ship about 85 feet long and 15 feet wide at its widest spot. The ship had been sailed upriver and then dragged overland and then into a pit dug at the burial spot. The ship was then covered with a large mound of soil.

The Sutton Hoo Helmet (AH2155) was recovered from the site of an Anglo-Saxon ship burial. Dating from the early 7th century, the helmet is believed to have belonged to King Raedwald, who died in 624 C.E. and is a great archeological importance. This reconstruction illustrates admirably the skill and decorative talent of the armours of the period.

Elaborate burial goods included coins, weapons, armor, which miraculously escaped grave robbers. All organic goods, including the corpse (if one was interred there at all), disintegrated in the acidic soil.

The ship lay undisturbed by human hands until 1939. Initial excavations showed that the site likely contained a wealth of ancient treasure. An official "coronor's treasure trove inquest" awarded the contents of the grave to the property owner, Mrs. Edith Pretty, who in turn donated them to the British Museum. Between 1965 and 1970 the British Museum excavated the site, and its contents comprise one the Museum's most impressive exhibits of Anglo-Saxon artifacts.