The Sutton Hoo Research Project 1983-2001

Sutton Hoo is an archaeological site in Suffolk, south-east England (National Grid Reference TM 288 487), famous for the Anglo-Saxon ship burial discovered there in 1939.

Investigations at the site since 1939 have revealed:

* Field boundaries and farming activities from the NEOLITHIC, BEAKER (Early Bronze Age), Later BRONZE AGE and IRON AGE;
* Cemeteries of the EARLY MEDIEVAL period (sometimes Dark Age, locally termed ANGLO-SAXON), dating between the 6th and the 12th centuries AD;
* MEDIEVAL and POST-MEDIEVAL agricultural and cultural events including two campaigns of (unrecorded) exploratory digging in the 16th and 19th centuries.

Together the results offer a 5000 year sequence through a landscape of rural England.

There have been three main campaigns of scientific investigation:

* Excavations in 1938-1939 by the landowner of Mound 1 (ship burial) and Mounds 2-4
* Excavations in 1965-71 by the British Museum, including the re-excavation of Mound 1 and investigations of Mound 5 and the prehistoric site.
* Survey and excavation 1983-2001 by the Sutton Hoo Research Trust, comprising intensive surveys of the locality and the excavation of one hectare of the burial ground. Excavation defined many hundreds of features of the prehistoric sequence (c3000-0 BC), Mounds 2, 5-7, 13-14, 17-18 (7th century AD) and two execution cemeteries (8-12th century AD).