The Armour Archive

Well, Ok that's not ALL I got but I certainly didn't get all I wanted to...

I recently went to the newly established Sutton Hoo museum at the burial mound site. Not a bad little place. Shame is they seemed to have spent more on the tea shop than they did on the exhibits. There were some nice items there but they didn't allow photography inside the museum. I would of like to have had a shot of the burial site recreation, it showed the layout of the find as it would of been when first assembled.

The armour recreations I thought were pretty piss poor. The "informational" video was anything but, and the lack of most all of the actual find pieces made for a rather prolonged internal discussion on why the hell they built the thing in the first place.

On the plus side... the mucking big helm over the doorway (pictured below) was a slick touch (wonder if it would fit in my living room?)

[img]http://www.skeesick.com/images/SuttonHoo2.jpg[/img]

(the door is directly below the helm)

The walk around the mounds was quite nice. It was cool and drizzly and a bit foggy (imagine that, in England no less...) and the feel of being out amongst the mounds was quite nice indeed.

The long ship reconstruction was nice as well. The picture I have of it isn't much (the other rolls of film have just been taken to be developed) so you'll have to peer pass the kids and still not see much.

[img]http://www.skeesick.com/images/Longship.jpg[/img]

Oh yes, and the tea room was quite nice. Had a nice proper cream tea while contemplating how this site could of really been something special instead of what it was.

To sum up... quite disappointing, however I still think it worth the trip if for no other reason than to walk along and view the mounds and view the burial recreation. Besides, I'm close enough that the first pint is on me if you let me know your coming.... can't do much better than that.

This is Janos in the field signing off....

J

You have just been to Sutton Hoo the ride.
More of a theme park then a museum. These are springing up all over the place as the world gets interested in history....without wanting to delve into all the boring specifics.

Think of it is a local cultural centre gone mad. The local council hasn't made a cent out of all the stuff that got pulled out of the ground in their shire and now want to cash in....

Glad you enjoyed it and the helm over the door is kind of stunning.

Sasha


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The larger the island of knowledge,
the longer the shoreline of monumental screw-ups.
- Ralph W. Sockman (1889-1970),

Tell me about the ship! I know they built a half-scale model (ca. 45') so is this it? It doesn't look like 90'+.

Details (if remembered or photographed) will be greatly appreciated.

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Full time civil servant, part time blacksmith, and seasonal Viking ship captain.

Visit your National Parks: www.nps.gov

Go viking: www.wam.umd.edu/~eowyn/Longship/

Hit hot iron: www.anvilfire.com

Well, for those who haven't been yet, here's a picture of one of the reconstructions used in the display:

http://home.earthlink.net/~courageux/suttonhoosmall.jpg

It is disappointing that the musuem doesn't have access to the authentic artifacts, but the amount of effort my friend put into these replicas has given me a much greater appreciation for the skill of the craftsmen who made the originals... -c-

Cheval,

Its rather surprising to see that reconstruction... especially since that is not the one that was on display at the museum. Wish that it was, its much better. The one they had on display appeared to be all stainless steel, or simply mild buffed to a painfully high shine. There were no copper accents on the helm that was on display either.

Do you know anything about why this might be? I certainly wouldn't of been disappointed in reconstructions of that caliber.

J

Sasha, your analogy is spot on. Its a shame of course but there seemed to be little interest in much more depth the museum than what was provided. Hopefully its a work in progress. It does have the foundation to be a great facility. Its just far from the mark currently.

Your quite right about the helm... I thought that was a great touch and a really well done abstraction of the helm.

Cap'n,

Hopefully the pics will come back soon as I've got some better shots of the ship. The display text on the ship wasn't great and didn't go into much on the building of the reconstruction though from what I saw (and know) all joinery and hardware seemed to be accurate. The construction methods on the ship carried into the burrial display inside. The burial display had a section of the ship reconstructed with the body and items layed out in the original positions. Then nice thing about the display was the detail you could see on the reconstruction of the ship section. Looked as though they went to the trouble to split thier own logs and all. As I stated above I thought this was one of the best features.

Your right in that it is definetly not 90' but I'd say 45' is close. The photo makes it look smaller than it really is. (the people looking at he signage in background left are about 3/4 of the way down the ship, my kids nearly even with the prow) Are there particular details you looking for? If so and its not shown on my other photos I wouldn't mind getting that detail for you. The museum is relatively close and I've got a National Trust membership (means I get in "free" after paying a yearly fee)

J