A REASSESSMENT OF LEATHERWORK FROM THE SUTTON HOO SHIP BURIAL

Abstract

The seventh-century ship burial at Sutton Hoo Mound 1, excavated in 1939, contained an impressive display of gold, silver and bronze objects, weapons and other offerings. Organic materials such as wood, textiles and leather were also present. The leather items were studied, and the results published in 1983, when two pairs of shoes were identified from the extremely fragmented remains that survived. Recently, a reassessment of the leather fragments revised the identification to two bags and a single pair of shoes. Multiple reconstruction techniques, developed over the last twenty years, were used to examine the leather fragments and associated metal fittings to provide a new understanding of the leather items and how they had been placed in the burial.