Land fit for a king: archaeologists unearthed a ‘remarkable’ temple near Sutton Hoo

A possible pre-Christian temple from the time of East Anglian Kings has been discovered in Suffolk by a team of archaeologists led by UCL researchers.

The discovery, which is thought to be a temple from 1,400 years ago, was made over the summer by Suffolk County Council’s Rendlesham Revealed community archaeology project. Last year the project uncovered the remains of a large timber royal hall, confirming the location was a royal settlement of the East Anglian Kings.  

However, this year’s excavations, which were announced last week, also uncovered evidence of fine metalworking associated with royal occupation, including a mold used for casting decorative horse harnesses similar to the one from the nearby princely burial ground at Sutton Hoo.

Following discovery, the royal compound was found to have been more than twice the size than was previously thought, bounded by a 1.5 kilometre-long perimeter ditch that enclosed an area of 15 hectares.

This year’s breakthrough caps a three-year campaign of excavation that challenged expectations and transformed understanding of the period.

‘The results of excavations at Rendlesham speak vividly of the power and wealth of the East Anglian Kings, and the sophistication of the society they rules,’ said Professor Christopher Scull, the project’s principal academic advisor. ‘The possible temple, or cult house, provides rare and remarkable evidence for the practice at a royal site of the pre-Christian beliefs that underpinned early English society.’

Professor Scull added: ‘Its distinctive and substantial foundations indicate that one of the buildings, 10 metres long and five metres wide, was unusually high and robustly built for its size, so perhaps it was constructed for a special purpose.

‘It is most similar to buildings elsewhere in England that are seen as temples or cult houses, therefore it may have been used for pre-Christian worship by the early Kings of the East Angles.’

In addition to finding the potential temple, this summer’s excavations also discovered:

• The foundations of three new timber buildings, including the probable cult house, or temple
• Evidence of 7^th century metal working, including the discovery of waste products and a fired clay mold to make decorative horse harnesses
• Two graves of an unknown date
• Enclosures and evidence of earlier settlement and activity from the Neolithic, Bronze Age, Iron Age and Roman periods
• A WWII searchlight emplacement

Cllr Melanie Vigo di Gallidoro, Suffolk County Council’s deputy cabinet member for protected landscapes and archaeology said: ‘This year’s findings round off three seasons of fieldwork which confirm the international significance of Rendlesham’s archaeology and its fundamental importance for our knowledge of early England.

‘Everyone involved in the project can take pride that together we have achieved something remarkable. Over 200 volunteers from the local community were involved this year, bringing the total number of volunteers to over 600 for the three-year fieldwork programme, including from the Suffolk family Carers, Suffolk Mind, and local primary school children from Rendlesham, Eyke and Wickham Market.

‘I’d like to thank the landowners and Suffolk County Council Archaeological Service for enabling this project, along with the archaeological contractors Cotswold Archaeology. And of course to all National Lottery players who made possible the grant of £517,300 from The National Lottery Heritage Fund.’

Images: Suffolk County Council 

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