0:07 bloomsbury in central London is home to
0:08 one of the country's most famous
0:11 national institutions established in
0:15 1753 the British Museum is one of the
0:19 oldest museums in the world inside these
0:21 walls there are more than seven million
0:24 objects spanning over two million years
0:34 of global history and culture at the top
0:36 of these stairs is some of the greatest
0:40 treasure ever found on English soil more
0:41 than a thousand years old
0:44 some call it page one of British history
0:48 it is the Sutton Hoo treasure with this
0:52 helmet at centre it is the prime example
0:56 of a superb helmet it's something that
0:59 is completely extraordinary in
1:06 it's also at once familiar because it is
1:08 a face and we can see it's a helmet and
1:11 yet very strange very other there's a
1:13 world of dragons and monsters and the
1:16 face is just behind it in the darkness
1:19 of the cheek pieces
1:21 that the helmet was ever discovered at
1:24 all was down to the efforts of one woman
1:28 mrs. Edith pretty the daughter of a
1:31 wealthy industrialist she had lived at
1:33 Sutton Hoo in Suffolk with her husband a
1:38 retired colonel since 1926 twelve years
1:40 later she was widowed with a young son
1:48 [Music]
1:50 mrs. pretty was interested in
1:52 spiritualism like a lot of people were
1:56 in the 1930s we know that she had a
1:58 friend who was a medium and she used to
2:01 go to meetings in Woodbridge with
2:03 spiritualists and there is a story that
2:06 either her or a friend of hers had
2:10 visions of soldiers with spears walking
2:12 around on the mounds which she could see
2:15 from her first-floor window whatever the
2:18 truth of these rumors these earthen
2:21 mounds were certainly intriguing I think
2:23 mrs. pretty was just curious about what
2:26 was in you know in the mounds on her
2:30 estate she'd been to Egypt and also they
2:32 were there always are rumors of gold in
2:35 the mountains but she didn't know a bit
2:37 about archaeology and I think really her
2:39 curiosity was tickled and she was
2:41 wealthy enough to be able to open them
2:44 and just have a look mrs. pretty
2:46 contacted Apes which Museum and they in
2:48 turn suggested an archeologist named
2:52 basil Brown he literally rode up at her
2:54 door one day and presented himself and
3:01 Basil Brown had a real passion for
3:06 investigating monuments assisted by mrs.
3:08 pretties gardener and gamekeeper Brown
3:10 carried out the delicate task of
3:13 excavating the site just a few weeks of
3:16 painstaking work on mound one revealed
3:18 the impression of a ship which had long
3:24 since rotted away somebody else less
3:26 skillful group charged straight through
3:28 that but battles very clever excavation
3:30 did act to reveal the impression of the
3:32 boat left in the sand the sort of shadow
3:35 boat the boat simply got bigger and
3:38 bigger and bigger this is as big as the
3:40 Scandinavian ships you know so he was
3:43 very aware I think during the excavation
3:45 of the ship that he was into something
3:50 very very special whispers about the
3:53 discovery began to get out and soon the
3:56 authorities were involved Charles
3:58 Phillips a Cambridge academic visited
4:00 the site and was dumbstruck by what he saw
4:01 saw
4:04 the burial chamber was yet to be opened
4:07 and was clearly unrolled Phillips felt
4:09 it was not appropriate work for one man
4:13 a garden and a chauffeur he took over
4:16 the excavation which was to become the
4:19 richest archaeological find in British history
4:20 history
4:22 it must have been absolutely
4:24 overwhelming for the excavating team at
4:26 that stage I don't think they'd
4:27 anticipated how could they have done
4:29 anything quite like this because nothing
4:31 quite like this had ever been found in
4:33 Britain before there are other rich
4:35 Grey's but this was really quite
4:38 spectacular and I think they were in a
4:40 sense almost shell-shocked by the
4:42 rapidity and the extraordinary variety
4:44 and wealth of the material that was
4:48 coming out of this this burial chamber [Music]
4:57 [Music]
5:00 it came like a bolt out of the blue
5:04 suddenly here's a window on a world you
5:09 know this barbaric splendid burial
5:12 overflowing with extraordinary treasures
5:16 weapons golden garnet jewelry and of
5:18 course containers quite a lot of
5:21 containers imported silver drinking
5:24 horns drinking vessels everything I mean
5:27 shoes buckles if you could put together
5:31 a kind of life for an anglo-saxon King
5:33 there's not much there that you would
5:39 actually want to add to it by July 1939
5:41 it was obvious that this was a sight of
5:44 utmost importance but the growing
5:46 specter of the coming war meant the
5:48 excavation team was under immense
5:50 pressure to work quickly the whole time
5:51 they were working they were very aware
5:55 that Walker breakout the next day and so
5:57 it was you could almost look at it as a
6:00 as a form of a rescue excavation in a
6:03 sense so that it was quite amazing what
6:10 I'm sure part of the special nature of
6:14 that sense of urgency was the growing
6:17 realization as they excavated this
6:18 extraordinary assembly so that it was
6:24 here in some sense an emblem of English
6:26 kingship there was a very resonant
6:28 symbolic thing for the time in which it
6:31 was excavated absolutely on the 28th of
6:35 July in 1939 the team made perhaps the
6:37 most momentous discovery of all the
6:41 rusted pieces of an iron helmet I'm
6:43 standing right above the spot where the
6:45 helmet was found it was smashed into
6:48 tiny fragments and that tells us that
6:51 the helmet itself must have been rusted
6:53 and corroded at the time that the burial
6:55 chamber collapsed which means that the
6:57 burial chamber must have been a very
6:59 massive and sturdy structure it had to
7:01 support the weight of the mound on top
7:03 of it and survive long enough for the
7:06 helmet to rust away and then of course
7:07 it all collapsed and the helmet was
7:13 broken into tiny pieces these pieces
7:15 have been painstakingly put back
7:19 together to form this terrifying helmet
7:22 although it is made of iron it was once
7:26 covered in tinned bronze panels this
7:28 replica helmet shows how it would have
7:34 glittered in battle it was highly
7:36 decorated with scenes of a horseman
7:39 riding over a fallen soldier
7:41 and these dancing warriors with our
7:48 Spears and semicircular headdresses the
7:51 face mask has human features a cast
7:55 bronze mouth nose and eyebrows look
7:57 closer still and you will see that each
7:59 eyebrow ends in a Boar's Head with
8:02 pointed tusks and at each end of the
8:05 crest there is a dragon head with sharp
8:12 little teeth the degree of detail in
8:14 that facemask the garnets that pick out
8:16 the eyebrows the little sort of
8:18 toothbrush moustache over the mouths I
8:19 mean all this stuff is quite
8:21 extraordinary it's it's almost as though
8:24 they are trying to present a portrait of
8:28 the man who is behind it and of course
8:29 it is extraordinary that when you
8:31 actually wear the helmet or why the
8:34 replica it also actually enhances your
8:37 voice it actually makes the voice echo
8:40 and drop in tones so that that too would
8:43 actually give the wearer some extra sort
8:46 of persona if you like they're quite
8:50 sinister these helmets the big question
8:52 was who would have worn it the
8:55 particular conditions of mound one meant
8:56 that there was nothing left of the
8:59 person who was laid to rest there you
9:01 have to imagine the ship buried in the
9:04 ground it's like a container for water
9:06 so water percolating down through the
9:09 mound would collect in the burial
9:12 chamber in the boat and it would be
9:14 quite acidic because it's filtered
9:16 through this sandy soil and you have to
9:19 imagine a body basically lying in what
9:22 is in effect an acid bath and so the
9:25 body and all the bones dissolved away
9:29 over many years leaving only a few
9:33 chemical traces behind so that's why no
9:36 body or bone was discovered
9:38 there may not have been a body but the
9:41 artifacts gave some strong clues as to
9:44 whose grave this might have been in this
9:47 letter to mrs. pretty Thomas Kendrick
9:48 from the British Museum suggests it was
9:51 someone very special indeed there is no
9:54 doubt that the man in your Barrow must
9:56 have been a very important person and we
9:58 are beginning to wonder if he was king
10:02 raedwald of East Anglia King red world
10:04 had ruled in the early 7th century
10:07 if Kendrick was right then it meant that
10:09 the ship barrier had taken place nearly
10:14 1,400 years ago well if you look at all
10:19 the assemblage together and if you look
10:24 at the contenders for the burial you can
10:26 make a personal choice I mean you can
10:30 never say that this is the burial of X
10:34 but given the golden garnet jewelry of
10:36 the assemblage given the date of the
10:40 coins and given the possibility that the
10:42 burial could have taken place within a
10:44 decade of the those coins coming
10:47 together say in the mid 620 s then you
10:51 could argue for red world almost all we
10:53 know about King red world comes from
10:55 this 8th century manuscript the
10:57 ecclesiastical history of the English
10:59 people written by the anglo-saxon monk
11:03 known as the venerable bead red world
11:05 has a particular place in English
11:07 history because according to bead a
11:10 number of these early English kings held
11:13 a special sway over the southern English
11:16 peoples they were Kings who ruled other
11:19 kings and beed says they held an
11:22 Imperium the Latin word meaning a kind
11:27 of Empire what wide rule in anglo-saxon
11:30 this appears is Bret Walder or Britain welder
11:32 welder
11:35 the lavishness of the grave and even
11:37 conceivably some of the symbolism of the
11:39 artifacts could suggest that it's him
11:43 that dating is spot-on some of the
11:45 things in the grave were incredibly
11:47 valuable but they also had a
11:49 significance over and above their
11:53 material worth this great gold belt
11:55 buckle weighs just over 400 grams of
11:57 gold which new research shows was the
12:00 equivalent of 300 anglo-saxon shillings
12:03 now what's even more significant about
12:06 that is the fact that 300 shillings we
12:08 know from the law codes of the time is
12:11 the life price of a nobleman it was the
12:12 amount that had to be paid in
12:15 compensation to settle the feud if a
12:18 nobleman was slain what this meant was
12:20 that the man who was able to wear this
12:22 great gold buckle would have been able
12:26 to sit in a hall surrounded by noblemen
12:28 but with the price of the life of any
12:30 single one of those simply sitting on
12:32 his belt the goods within this grave
12:35 were certainly fit for a king nothing
12:37 like a crown was worn by those early
12:39 kings the first example of what we would
12:41 call a crown with kind of prongs comes
12:45 from the 10th century then it was the
12:48 sword and the helmet which defined the monarchy
12:53 this is an enormous amount of wealth
12:56 that's going into the ground absolutely
12:58 superb material there is nothing
13:00 anywhere else in this period to touch
13:02 the quality of that jewelry and yet this
13:07 is something that this family the royal
13:10 family in East Anglia could afford to
13:12 discard into the ground of course it was
13:14 an act of honor and homage to the dead
13:17 man but it also says you know we are so
13:22 rich we still have more of this behind
13:25 even treasured heirlooms were placed in
13:27 the chamber the animal interlaced
13:29 patterns on the helmet suggest it was
13:30 about a hundred years old when it was
13:34 buried what's more there was an
13:37 intriguing feature to its back
13:40 the helmet has repair on it so that
13:42 suggests that it had a bit of use before
13:48 it is impossible to know finally if this
13:51 helmet was worn in battle but although
13:53 it is quite delicate with its silver
13:56 work and garnet inlay there is no doubt
13:58 that this was a functional piece of
14:02 armor it would be possible to wear it as
14:05 it's got nostrils so that you can
14:06 breathe when you're wearing it it's
14:09 quite stifling actually to put the
14:11 replica on but it would be possible and
14:13 of course you then have to wonder did
14:16 your King go into battle there's no
14:17 reason why it shouldn't have been worn
14:18 and it would have made an amazing figurehead
14:19 figurehead
14:22 we know that king red world fought at
14:23 least once in the Battle of the river
14:28 idol in his 8th century manuscript B
14:29 tells us that red world masked his
14:32 troops in marched the 256 miles to
14:34 Northumbria to face his enemy Ethel
14:38 Firth in the year 616 although red will
14:41 defeated his enemy in the north he lost
14:44 his son Regan here in the battle because
14:46 warfare was an aristocratic occupation
14:49 of course the casualties were very heavy
14:52 in the aristocracy if he lost red well
14:55 himself conceivably may have died in
14:58 battle we just don't know at first sight
15:00 the grave seemed to have strong
15:03 Scandinavian links ship burials like
15:05 this have only been found in Suffolk and
15:08 Sweden the helmet looked Swedish too
15:12 like this one the Vandal 14 helmet from
15:16 Upland with its ear flaps and eyebrows
15:18 but a closer look at the Sutton Hoo
15:22 helmet showed some important differences
15:25 Sutton Hoo helmet has been raced from a
15:27 piece of iron just hammered up the
15:29 Kappas in one whole piece whereas the
15:31 construction of the Swedish helmets show
15:32 that they were made from several
15:35 different bands of iron and therefore we
15:37 now think it's possible that the hand
15:40 was actually made in England an English
15:43 helmet may be but one crowded with
15:45 images taken from Scandinavian mythology
15:48 like these dancing warrior panels each
15:50 warrior is dragging a foot and holds
15:53 Spears and a short sword they seem to be
15:55 doing some kind of ritual movement of
15:58 course they could be fighting but we
16:01 do have parallels for that in
16:03 Scandinavia so this is obviously a motif
16:05 I think what we're looking at here is a
16:08 repertoire of images and clearly they're
16:10 very potent images of power you have
16:12 warriors on a helmet and clearly
16:14 successful warriors and they must be to
16:18 do with the mythology and traditions and
16:21 the conferring of power and success in
16:24 battle there was one other group of
16:26 mighty warriors who influenced this
16:29 helmet the Romans had left Britain at
16:31 the beginning of the fifth century but
16:34 their influence was still being felt a
16:38 century or two later this fallen warrior
16:39 design weather man on horseback is
16:42 riding over the conquered enemy has its
16:45 roots in the Roman period and the helmet
16:47 shape itself borrows heavily from Roman
16:52 parade helmets these early anglo-saxon
16:54 kingdoms are really interesting because
16:58 as far as we can tell they were just
17:00 successful warriors who established
17:04 their dynasties in Britain having
17:07 migrated from Scandinavia in the late
17:11 Roman period of course later on when
17:13 they became powerful these Kings liked
17:15 offer in murcia who built the great dike
17:16 between England Wales all of these
17:18 people in East Anglia they like to claim
17:20 that they had a great descent going back
17:25 even to Kings before the dynasty goes
17:29 back to Caesar and then ultimately to
17:32 Woden having a Germanic God as the
17:34 progenitor of your dynasty is not
17:35 uncommon actually amongst the early
17:37 anglo-saxon dynasties but it's very
17:39 interesting that the East Anglian
17:43 genealogy also includes Caesar in it and
17:46 that to me is really rather interesting
17:48 because one of the strands in this
17:51 extraordinary burial is a strand which
17:53 seems to be saying we are the heirs of
17:56 Rome the helmet itself is based on a
18:00 Roman parade helmet very clearly so that
18:01 in itself is a sort of evocation of the
18:04 Roman past so the fact that Caesar
18:06 appears in the genealogy I think it's no
18:12 they come from the pagan world of Odin
18:15 and Thor rodent and flower thee these
18:19 pagan gods of war and storm in the
18:21 Viking northern world that we're
18:23 familiar with later you know but they
18:28 also adopt Roman ideas of rulership of
18:32 kingship perhaps some of the symbolism
18:34 of their kingship and subsequently of
18:41 course Roman religion and Latin culture
18:44 the late Roman inheritance included
18:46 Christianity bead tells us that a
18:48 missionary landed on the island of
18:52 Thanet in Kent in 597 he talks about
18:54 King red walls who spent quite a bit of
18:56 time in Kent and were there for coming
18:58 to contact with Christianity there
19:01 having adopted Christianity but on
19:04 returning to his kingdom had reverted to
19:06 paganism or at least had gone halfway
19:08 back to being a pagan because he had
19:10 alters according to be placed side by
19:12 side one to Christ and one to the devil
19:14 which presumably meant the Germanic God
19:17 Woden so so red world seems to be
19:20 backing two horses at that time it's
19:22 possible that the family of the dead man
19:24 also decided to back to horses when they
19:26 came to assemble the grave goods
19:28 although it was a pagan burial with
19:31 provision made for the pagan afterlife -
19:34 silver baptismal spoons with the Greek
19:37 inscription solos and polos were also
19:41 included baptismal spoons of course are
19:44 are given at conversion and baptism you
19:46 know and these had that it seemed a
19:49 solace and poor lost soul and poor you
19:52 know the famous conversion of the
19:54 Apostle Paul in the New Testament and
19:55 even though he converted back to
19:57 paganism and was buried in a pagan
20:00 graveyard his family nevertheless buried
20:03 these things with him the spoons with
20:05 their Greek inscriptions were found at
20:06 the right shoulder of where the body
20:09 might have lain the pagan helmet was at
20:11 the left shoulder the helmet does not
20:14 contain any Christian symbolism in
20:17 contrast this eighth century helmet
20:18 found in York carries an emphatic
20:21 Christian message its crest forms a
20:22 cross shape
20:25 and there is a Latin inscription in the
20:27 name of our Lord Jesus Christ the Holy
20:30 Spirit and God too always say our men
20:34 that Christian inscription on the York
20:36 helmet is perhaps doing what these
20:39 extraordinary totemic images with the
20:41 logical images whatever they are are
20:43 doing all of a sudden who helmet the
20:45 Christian invocation the Christian
20:46 prayer on the Oak Hill which is bringing
20:48 protection to its wearer and so I think
20:51 perhaps these fascinating animal images
20:53 on the crest and on the face mask of the
20:55 sudden who helmet might be doing for the
20:57 wear of the sudden new helmet the
20:59 discovery of the Sutton Hoo treasure
21:01 turned anglo-saxon scholarship on its
21:03 head bringing with it a new
21:05 understanding of how sophisticated their
21:07 culture was just by looking at this
21:09 grave assemblage we realized that there
21:11 were international connections that
21:13 Goods and probably also people could
21:16 travel very long distances and very far
21:19 beyond their own cultures if you look at
21:21 the eyebrows the garnets used on those
21:24 may have come from as far away as India
21:26 or Sri Lanka so you see that the
21:28 materials themselves had travelled quite
21:29 a long distance before reaching
21:33 anglo-saxon England what's more it
21:34 seemed to prove something that few
21:37 people dare to believe was possible it
21:39 gave a reality to that great masterpiece
21:41 of early English literature the epic
21:44 poem Beowulf which described the great
21:46 deeds and death of a heroic king from
21:48 the seventh century there's a great
21:52 description in in Beowulf of the helmet
21:56 sarita helm that the white shining hell
21:58 may be silvered or whatever made by the
22:01 mastery of a gold master who worked
22:03 wonders so long ago you know this is
22:07 this is the world of burl wolf
22:09 in the poem it's referred to the fact
22:11 that the helmet has got what is called a
22:13 wallah it is something that is we
22:16 remember Windham wound with wire and it
22:18 somehow goes around the helmet where we
22:20 didn't have any idea what that was until
22:22 he was realized that this would fit
22:25 exactly as a description the crest that
22:27 we have on the Sun new helmet the
22:29 discovery of the treasure in July 1939
22:32 made headline news interest in is only
22:34 intensified when a treasure trove
22:36 inquiry decided that everything from the
22:38 grave belonged to mrs. pretty who had
22:40 funded the excavation and on whose land
22:43 it had been found in an act of
22:46 unparalleled generosity she promptly
22:48 gave all this extraordinary treasure to
22:51 the British Museum she was offered the
22:53 honor of dame of the british empire but
22:56 refused it within a fortnight of the
22:58 treasure trove inquest war had broken
23:02 out amazingly seems like this were
23:05 played out on the burial mound once war
23:07 was declared this area of which is
23:09 called sutton Heath's was used for
23:12 battle practice and the tanks and Bren
23:14 gun carriers drove all over these mounds
23:16 during the time when it was used for
23:18 battle practices actually tanks drove
23:20 right through the ship so when it was
23:22 reactivated you could actually see where
23:24 the tanks tracks had driven over the
23:28 remains of the ship London 2 was under
23:30 attack and the British Museum moved many
23:32 of its treasures to a London Underground
23:35 station the helmet still in over 500
23:39 pieces was boxed up and stored here at
23:41 the end of the war the huge job began of
23:43 piecing it back together which took two
23:48 years this was the outcome which was
23:50 proudly displayed in the festival of
23:52 Britain in 1951 [Music]
24:15 professor Laura Britain was absolutely
24:18 an act of regeneration after the war and
24:19 it was there to say look here we are
24:21 we're back in business this is what we
24:23 stand for these are British values this
24:25 is our British history this is our past
24:27 and it's something which we should be
24:30 very proud of there in ration book
24:36 Britain rather pinched this artefact was
24:40 displayed and an artifact which in the
24:43 conventional narrative of English
24:46 history and even British history
24:48 represented a kind of beginning you know
24:52 that the story of the monarchy leading
24:54 into the story of the empire all went
24:57 back to this despite all the attention
24:59 the helmet was getting there was a
25:01 growing sense of our knees about the way
25:03 it had been put back together it didn't
25:05 actually function as a helmet and the
25:07 sides of the face and the throat would
25:09 have been left completely unprotected
25:13 more than that because the crest and the
25:16 terminal dragon overlapped the neck
25:19 guard the neck guard wasn't flexible
25:20 which would have meant that when you
25:23 wore it you were like almost imprisoned
25:26 in it all these things gradually led to
25:28 the helmet being dismantled and then
25:32 being put together again which was like
25:40 opening a little box of horrors in 1971
25:42 the reassembling started and british
25:45 museum conservator Nigel Williams was
25:48 given the job for over six months the
25:50 helmet lay in over 500 fragments on
25:53 Williams work table a colleague
25:54 remembers the blood sweat and
25:56 frustrations involved he was an
25:57 optimistic man he probably thought Oh
26:00 three weeks I'll have something to show
26:04 it was really quite wrong it took him a
26:08 very long time and what slowed him up of
26:10 course was everything was such an
26:11 important how much pretty well
26:13 everything had to be discussed this does
26:15 slow you down you can't just go at it
26:17 although I do remember now that you're
26:18 seeing time
26:20 people get out of my room and let me get
26:21 on with it then an astounding
26:24 breakthrough is made in a box marked
26:27 head he founds the jaw of a dragon head
26:29 similar to those at either end of the
26:31 crest it hadn't been used on the
26:33 original reconstruction that little head
26:35 lay around for a while
26:37 item I think he'd be looking at it for
26:40 about eight months so you gradually you
26:44 begin to absorb so subconsciously the
26:48 shapes of things and it's when your eye
26:49 catches one and looks at another
26:53 suddenly you see outfit there I mean you
26:54 almost know you picked it up with your
26:56 goal you burn really don't need to try it
26:56 it
27:01 yeah I'll fit there yes all right yes
27:04 this third dragon head is a perfect fit
27:06 between the eyebrows interlocking with
27:09 the other elements of the face it also
27:11 revealed another layer of symbolism in
27:14 the helmet suddenly the features of the
27:16 face mask materialized into the shape of
27:19 a winged dragon the eyebrows appear as
27:21 wings while the nose and moustache
27:25 formed the body and the tail this is
27:28 once a human face and yet a face which
27:31 has animals strengths embodied in the
27:36 symbolism of this mask and which is also
27:39 not only something which embodies the
27:41 power of the wearer but perhaps also
27:43 terrifies the seer
27:46 I think the helmet has become an icon
27:50 that helmet has a sort of reality for
27:53 people because they can look at it and
27:57 see the early 7th century see those
27:59 early anglo-saxon warriors and how they
28:04 perceived themselves nearly 1500 years
28:06 after it was made the Sutton Hoo helmet
28:08 has taken its place in the British
28:11 Museum as one of its supreme treasures
28:14 discovered on the eve of war it became a
28:16 symbol of the nation and proof of a
28:18 forgotten sophisticated civilization
28:21 it's an object in the museum's
28:24 collections like no other we may never
28:26 know who made it and we can't be certain
28:27 who wore it
28:29 but it still has the power to make us
28:37 [Laughter] [Music]
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