Bones and a comb. Exactly that: they found bones and a comb to remove lice. But not only
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Archaeologists have discovered a key component of a mysterious artifact in Sutton Hoo, a National Trust site in Suffolk, England, famous for the Anglo-Saxon tomb of the seventh-century “ghost ship”, discovered on a hill between 1938 and 1939.
The fragments of the sixteenth -century Byzantine bucket fascinate the researchers since an accidentally plowing the pieces in 1986.
Researchers have long questioned the purpose of the artifact, which portrays a hunting scene in North Africa with warriors, a variety of weapons, lions and a hunting dog. Experts believe the bucket came from the Byzantine Empire and was manufactured in Antioch, located in present-day Türkiye, before reaching the east coast of Britain a century later.
Excavations in 2012 contributed more parts to the object called Bucde Bromeswell. But the entire base of the container has proven to be as difficult to find as the reasons for which it is present in an Anglo-Saxon site.
Now the bromeswell puzzle is a little more complete.
New excavations last summer revealed a block of earth containing pieces of the bucket. A careful analysis revealed the entire base, which includes decorations that complete feet, paws, figures, as well as the lost face of one of the warriors.
The team also discovered the surprising content of the bucket – cremated remains of animals and humans – which clarified best why the container was buried. Along with the burnt bones, the researchers found an unexpectedly intact comb that may contain evidence of DNA from the person, probably high status, which was buried for over a thousand years.
An scan shows how Bromeswell’s bucket has been cleaned and partially reassembled since its discovery in 1986 Time Team Digital Images
Unexpected funeral objects
The earth block underwent computerized tomography and X-rays at Bradford University before being sent to the Trust York Archaeological for a deeper analysis in November. An research team with experience in the study of human bones, organic remains and conservation removed the earth meticulously within the bucket, analyzing each fragment as it appeared slowly.
The careful approach revealed cremated human bones, which included parts of an ankle bone and a cranial vault, or the protective top of the skull, according to a statement from the National Trust. Researchers also found remains of animal bones and an initial analysis suggests that the pieces came from something larger than a pig. The team noted that the horses were used to be part of the Anglo-Saxon funeral breads to reflect the high status of the individual who had died.
The compact bone remains, as well as some curious unknown fibers, suggest that the remains were originally kept in a bag that was placed in the bucket. However, some bone fragments were also found outside the bucket and copper league spots on the bones indicate that they were buried outside the container at the same time, the researchers say.
Both human bones and animal bones are undergoing additional studies and radiocarbon dating to provide additional context.
Several cremation tombs in Sutton Hoo were placed in containers such as ceramic pots and bronze bowls, including an impressive suspended bronze bowl on display at the high Hall exhibition. But buckets like these are rare and has never been found one with cremated remains inside, says Laura Howarth, Archeology Manager at the National Trust Sutton Hoo website, in e-mail statements.
Initial digitizations also suggested that there were funeral objects inside the bucket and the investigators meticulously recovered the delicate but practically intact comb, with thin teeth and wider teeth, probably made of horn. The comb, unlike the bones, had not been burned.
The removal of the dirt layers reveals the intact base of the bucket Time Team Digital Images
Bone and horn combs were found in male and female graves and the different sizes suggest that they were used to comb the hair, beard and remove lice.
Sutton hoo acid soil, which rotted the wood from the Anglo-Saxon ship and left only impressions of iron rivets and rows, means that many of the bone combs previously found in Sutton Hoo were not well preserved, Howarth said.
The team failed to determine the sex of the individual from bone fragments, but researchers are optimistic about the possibility of recovering old comb to find out more about one’s identity.
Scientists are also looking forward to seeing the leaves and other plant remains more closely inside the bucket, which can provide climate, atmosphere, and the year when the bucket was buried, says Naomi Sewpaul, an environmental archaeologist who analyzed the findings, in a Youtube video from the online British television program “Time Team”.
“We knew this bucket would have been a rare and valuable possession in Anglo-Saxon times, but it has always been a mystery to which it was buried,” says Angus Wainwright, a National Trust archaeologist in a statement. “We now know it was used to contain the remains of an important person in the Sutton Hoo community. I hope that a deeper analysis will reveal more information about this special burial.”
A long trip
The base of the bucket, which is surprisingly in good condition, was found in one piece and the computed tomography showed concentric rings that suggest that it was done by cold hammering – when a metal as copper is shaped by percussive movements without heating. Currently, there is no evidence that suggested that the bucket had a top.
There is still doubts about the original goal of the bucket and the way I arrived in England. Investigators suspect that it may have been a diplomatic gift or that it was acquired by a mercenary salary soldier.
“We thought the bucket had a life prior to the funeral,” Howarth writes in an email. “We cannot be sure how this bucket made of hundreds of kilometers away in the Byzantine Empire ended up in this corner of Suffolk. It may have been an antiquity at the time of the funeral, a gift, a memory, etc. But by reusing this luxury object as a cremation container, it is marking something about the status of the buried individual (as seen in life and in death) Discoveries helped redefine the bucket of a possible isolated finding to part of a burial context. ”
The new investigation in Sutton Hoo is part of a two -year project that started last summer, carried out by the National Trust, Field Archaeology Specialists (FAS) Heritage and the Team Team. The project unearthed the bucket fragment during the last week of a one -month excavation in the summer of 2024.
Sutton Hoo has been the place of multiple excavations over the years because the discovery of the ship’s funeral in the late 1930s changed the way historians understand Anglo-Saxon life.
The 27-meter-long wooden ship was dragged 0.8 kilometers from the Deben River when an Anglo-Saxon warrior king died 1400 years ago. The funeral was probably Raedwald de East Anglia, who died around 624, and was placed inside the ship, surrounded by treasures and buried on a hill.
In addition to the famous ship’s funeral, a royal cemetery and an Anglo-Saxon cemetery of the 6th century were found in the past. Archaeologists determined that the Anglo-Saxon cemetery, which is prior to the royal cemetery, contained 13 cremations and nine buries in 2000, before the construction of the Sutton Hoo Visitor Center. It is thought that the people buried here were residents of families of low to relatively high status, and perhaps even the grandparents or great-grandparents of those who were later buried in the royal cemetery.
The excavations of this time are already taking place in Garden Field, a place near the ship’s funeral, and continue during June to find out more information about the Anglo-Saxon cemetery.
“We finally resolved the bromeswell bucket puzzle – now we know it is the first of these rare objects to be used in a cremation burial. It is a remarkable mix – a container of the southern classic world containing the remains of a very northern and very Germanic cremation,” says Helen Geake, Anglo -Saxon expert Time Team, in a statement. “It’s the epitome of the strangeness of Sutton Hoo – has ships, horses, hills and now swimming buckets. Who knows what else can you still contain?”
