The Excavation

C .W Phillips describes the general condition of the ship remains:

'the timbers of the ship had rotted away almost without exception, but since all but the burial chamber area had been filled in directly with sand while the ship was still whole none of the clench nails which held the ship together could move from their place even when the wood which they secured had disappeared. By careful work from the inside it was possible to remove all the content of the boat without displacing any of the nails which remained in their places on the sides of the excavation. This process was aided by a change in the consistency of the sand which was to be found where the boat's timbers had once been. A dusty blackish layer, accompanied by some leached sand, could be felt for carefully by slowly shaving down the sand, and warning was given of its approach by the appearance of the bright red patches signalling the near presence of clench nails. In this way all the boat which survived was emptied so that the face of the excavation everywhere was the sand which had pressed against the timbers of the boat from the outside, and which sometimes still bore in recognisable form the imprint of the grain of wood. The only parts missing were the point of the bow and the end of the stern, the latter having been removed by the plough.'

Phillips continues with a description of the vessel itself:

'The Sutton Hoo ship is a great open rowing-boat some 80ft. long as traced in the ground. Its greatest beam is 14ft. and its depth 5ft., its prow rising to a height of at least 12.5 ft. above the level of the keel-plank amidships and it drew 2ft. of water when light... It is clinker built without permanent decking and carrying no mast or other equipment for sailing. The hull is stiffened with twenty-six ribs, and the boat was probably propelled by thirty-eight rowers, the actual number depending on whether the tholes ran in unbroken sequence on each side of the boat between the extreme points fore and aft at which they were observed.'

The burial ship itself appears to have been a working vessel prior to burial. The impression of the timbers remaining in the sand indicates evidence of patching and over-riveting. Detailed examinations of the size of the ship and the lack of evidence of the use of a sail suggest that she may have been used as an open royal barge. The ship's overall length was over 27 metres, accommodating 40 oarsman and steered through the water by a paddle lashed to the starboard side (Evans 1986:22-29).

There has been considerable speculation about the manner in which a working ship of this size was transported to its final resting place at sutton Hoo. Below is an artists impression of the possible process.

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The Chamber

Constructed in the centre of the ship is a chamber measuring 5.5 metres by 4.5 metres (the width of the ship). It is unclear how high the chamber was as the entire structure collapsed some time after burial but probably about 3 metres. The chamber housed an assemblage of grave goods including personal items of clothing and recreation, armoury and weapons and items indicating wealth and status. A number of the items were highly decorated and fashioned from precious metals and other materials.(see Artefacts)

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