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A REASSESSMENT OF LEATHERWORK FROM THE SUTTON HOO SHIP BURIAL

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2020

Marquita Volken ,
Quita Mould  and
Esther Cameron
Marquita Volken
Affiliation:
C.P. 6248/rue du rôtillon 10, CH-1002Lausanne, Switzerland. Email: gentle.craft@vtxnet.ch
Quita Mould
Affiliation:
51 Whin Common Road, Denver, Downham MarketPE38 ODX, UK. Email: quita@onetel.com
Esther Cameron
Affiliation:
36 Bertie Road, Cumnor, Oxford, OX2 9PS, UK. Email: esthercameron.oxford@gmail.com
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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.

Keywords

burial practicesAnglo-Saxon researcharchaeological leather studiesclothing and costume studiesreconstructive archaeology
Type
Research paper
Information
The Antiquaries Journal , Volume 101 , September 2021 , pp. 160 - 180
Copyright
© The Society of Antiquaries of London, 2020

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