236 Book reviews

Sutton Hoo: A Seventh-Century Princely Burial Ground and its

Context. By Martin Carver. Reports of the Research Committee of the
Society of Antiquaries of London No. 69. London: British Museum
Press. 2005. xl + 536 pp. + 13 colour plates and 223 b/w figures and
plates £90. ISBN 0 7141 2322 6.

There are two principal narratives in this comprehensive, lavishly

illustrated and well-produced report of the fieldwork conducted at
Sutton Hoo between 1983 and 2001. Both narratives independently deserve
scholarly attention, but together they render this book a cornerstone of
early medieval archaeology for decades to come. The first is the story
of the fieldwork undertaken by a team directed by Martin Carver. This
includes the fieldwalking survey of south-east Suffolk, the exploratory
methods on the mound cemetery and the excavations themselves. Set
against the results of the previous seasons of excavation at Sutton Hoo
since 1938, the volume provides a window onto changing fieldwork
methods and approaches, and the many challenges for interpretation
that the fragmentary evidence from this highly denuded site revealed.
The second narrative is that of the archaeology itself. Of most interest
for readers of this journal is the rich evidence for the short-lived use of
the site as a princely burial ground. The report appraises previous work
(including the famous Mound 1 ship burial) and synthesizes the rich, if
fragmentary, data provided by the excavation of the site under Carver’s
direction. Presenting detailed and careful arguments based on artefacts,
materials and contexts, the text culminates in a definitive statement by
the author of his interpretation of the site, honed and adapted over
twenty years of research. While Mound 1 still looms large in the discussion,
the report is able to place it in context, presenting a new vision of
Sutton Hoo as a ‘princely burial ground’. This is achieved by combining
the data from previous excavations, with the careful excavation of a series
of burial mounds including inhumation and cremation graves that
had been heavily disturbed by grave robbers. It also incorporates the
intact weapon burial and accompanying horse burial beneath Mound 17.
Carver sees Sutton Hoo as an innovative, short-lived experiment
in mortuary commemoration. The evidence is for the brief use of
monumentality in the form of earthen mounds in the later sixth and
early seventh centuries AD, strategically situated on a prominent ridge
overlooking the River Deben. The funerary practices were incredibly
diverse but shared the use of rich and exotic material culture, materials
and structures (including ships and possibly beds) as well as a mixture
of cremation and inhumation disposal methods. Moreover, these
mounds were more than grave markers. They served as the focus and
end points of a series of elaborate ritual performances. There are even
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 Book reviews 237

hints that mound-building itself could incorporate ritualized elements.

Overall, the Sutton Hoo experiment is seen by Carver as associated
with the emergence of the East Anglian kingdom and the aspirations of
one group or family towards pagan royal status drawing upon both
Roman and Scandinavian precedents. He regards the mounds at Sutton
Hoo as the material equivalent to kings’ lists or origin myths, articulating
visions of past, present and future for the burying community.
The report is careful to balance this evidence and interpretation
against the equally important story of the site’s occupation before and
after the mound cemetery. It incorporates a systematic review of the
prehistoric activity in the Suffolk landscape from c.3300 BC, and also
includes a report into the sixth-century cremation graves found during
the construction of the Sutton Hoo Visitor Centre in 2001, which –
disappointingly and ironically given the care and precision of Carver’s
excavations – were obliged to be investigated in a rescue environment
ahead of development. These graves, although not ‘typical’ in every
sense, provide a local precursor to the wealthier barrow burials, indicating
that the princely burial ground emerged in a landscape thick with
settlements and existing, varied mortuary traditions.
Yet the story of Sutton Hoo persists into the ‘afterlife’ of the mound
cemetery, and the report thus also provides a detailed analysis of a
collection of early medieval deviant burials. The careful excavation of
the stains left by the bodies in the acidic sandy soil shows how Sutton
Hoo was transformed from princely burial site to a place of ritualized
judicial killing and burial. The graves were found in two groups: one
around a burial mound, the other associated with what appears to be
the site of a gallows. The radiocarbon dates from these deviant burials
suggest that the killings may have begun during the lifetime of the
barrow cemetery and the practice could have its roots in pagan
sacrificial killings of criminals and outcasts. It is certainly evidence of
the enactment of authority by a pagan group with aspirations to royal
status at a place with an enduring association with the power, authority
and perhaps fear of the dead. The use of the site for judicial killing
persisted through the Christian Anglo-Saxon era until around the time
of the Norman Conquest.
Although inevitably beyond the primary interest of readers of this
review, it is important to emphasize that the narrative of the archaeology
of Sutton Hoo does not end with the early Middle Ages. It includes
evidence for a medieval worked landscape, the activities of generations
of grave robbers who themselves were revealed in the archaeological
record, the archaeology of the Second World War, and the aftermath
of the excavations with the building of the National Trust Visitor
Centre opened in 2002.
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238 Book reviews

This book demonstrates how far archaeologists have come beyond

digging rich graves in isolation. It is a remarkable achievement, and
demonstrates richly the potential for archaeology to write historical
narratives about the early medieval past. Congratulations duly go to the
principal author, yet the range of contributors as well as the long list of
individuals recognized for their fieldwork and scholarship, remind us
that this report is a collective effort. Sutton Hoo is therefore a fascinating
insight into the twin narratives of the research programme and the site’s
archaeology. It is a monument to the collective, and collaborative, effort
and expertise of the team involved in this project over so many years,
and to the success of Carver’s research vision.

University of Chester HOWARD WILLIAMS

Oggetti di ornamento personale dall’Emilia Romagna bizantina: I

contesti di rinvenimento. By Cinzia Cavallari. Studi e scavi, nuova
serie 13. Bologna: Ante Quem. 2005. 226 pp. + 10 colour plates + 197
b/w figures and plates. 21 × 30cm. EUR 23. ISBN 88 7849 013 X.

Although the main title of this volume suggests a detailed catalogue and
analysis of dress items of sixth- to eighth-century date from the core
area of the Byzantine exarchate in north-east Italy, in reality Cavallari’s
main objectives are to explore wider questions, specifically seeking to
place burials and findspots of personal ornaments into a wider settlement
and social context. Therefore, this volume (which, like others in this
publication series, derives from a doctoral thesis) draws upon excava-
tions by the provincial Soprintendenza and by Bologna University and
on archive and museum data for stray and isolated finds, to highlight
late antique urban, rural and burial activity. Despite the title, the material
examined extends from the fourth to eighth centuries and thus covers
late Roman, Gothic, Byzantine and Lombard-period occupations of a
region dominated by the city of Ravenna, elevated to imperial capital
from the early fifth century.
Cavallari divides her thesis into three main parts: ‘Le forme d’insedi-
amento: città e territorio’ (pp. 15–40), ‘Le attestazioni sepolcrali’
(pp. 41–125) and ‘I reperti d’ornamento personale’ (pp. 127–79). The
first provides mainly a summary historico-archaeological outline of
towns and key rural sites in the Bologna, Forli-Cesena, Ferrara, Ravenna
and Rimini provinces as well as in the small San Marino state; entries
like that for Forli summarize Roman to early medieval activity, with
findspots imposed on modern maps, not plans of the antique centres;
short supporting bibliographies are supplied. As her Introduction
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© 2008 The Authors. Journal Compilation © 2008 Blackwell Publishing Ltd