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Title: The Real Sutton Hoo: Digging into "The Dig" with Dr. Catherine Hills (University of Cambridge, UK)
Sponsor: The Archaeological Research Facility
About: Sutton Hoo is near Woodbridge in Suffolk, near the east coast of England. It is the site of burials dating to the later sixth and early seventh century AD. One burial mound produced a spectacular burial, in a ship with lavish grave goods. The discovery of this burial in 1939 has received renewed public interest this year because it is the subject of the 2021 film “The Dig”.
https://www.netflix.com/watch/81167887
How much of the story told in the film is true? What is the significance of the find? This lecture will review the history of investigations, from the sixteenth century to the present day, and put the finds in the wider context of early medieval England and beyond. Several recent discoveries have added to our picture of this period: the Staffordshire Hoard, the Prittlewell burial and the site at Rendlesham, a few miles away, recorded by Bede as the home of Raedwald, king of East Anglia, who may have been buried at Sutton Hoo. Brief accounts of these will be included, showing how they relate to Sutton Hoo in this very active field of research into early medieval England.
About the speaker: Dr. Catherine Hills is a Fellow emerita of Newnham College and a Senior Fellow of the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, both at Cambridge University.