Burial Ship's Treasures Il he I rustees of the British Museum announce that Mrs. E. M. Pretty has given to the Museum all the antiquities, com- prising'articles in gold, gems and enamel, silver, bronze, iron, stone, wood, leather and textile fabrics, which were found recently in the burial ship of an Anglo- Saxon king on her estate at Sutton'Hoo. in Suffolk. A condition of this generous gift to the nation provides for the loan of the finds for a certain period, when the various objects have been prepared for exhibition, to the Borough Museum of Ipswich. A correspondent writes:- Since the discovery of the burial ship and its contents, which were described in The Timex on July 31 and August 5 and 15, and the decision of the jury at the inquest'that the relics were not treasure trove, archaeologists who appreciate the significance of the find have been hoping that efforts would be made to preserve the collection intact. Fears of a possible dis- persal have been removed by the muni- ficence of Mrs. Pretty's gift, which has been placed in the hands of national authorities who have had experience of the form of preservative treatment that the articles require, while ensuring that they shall be available for display locally in the museum at Ipswich for a certain period each year. VALUE OF THE DISCOVERY Archaeologically the discovery, is regarded as the most important of its kind ever made in this country and the most valuable of its period that has been made anywhere. The quality of the jewels and the quantity of the material found have no comparison in previous discoveries in Western Europe, especialy in Anglo- Saxon or Frankish materials. Several ship burials of about the same period have been unearthed in Norway and in Denmark, but none of comparable importance. Modem archaeologists are glad that the dis- covery has been left to the present generation, because to-day much more is known than in any previous period of the historical value of the contents of the ship at Sutton Hoo. If the discovery had been made a century ago, when comparatively little was -known, only the gold and silver articles would probably have been preserved, and the rest of the collection would have been thrown away. Preservation of the little bits of textiles, wood, and other frag- ments found in the ship would have been diffi- cult or impossible at that time. The outstanding feature of the find is the completeness of the funeral furniture, and the extensive equipment, domestic and personal, with its remarkably fine metal work, particu- larly that of the gold jewels. There is a good deal of comparable material in our museums, but none so fine or so complete. There is little doubt that the burial ship was that of an Anglo-Saxon king or ruling chief, but there is no evidence yet which would enable him to be identified. The Merovingian coins found in the purse, though undated, are con- sidered to be those of about the year A.D. 640, which would seem to fix the approximate date of the burial. Attempts to identify the burial Continued in next column with that of Redwald, the King of the East Angles, are described as speculation and with- out substantiation in fact. So far as is known, no recognizable evidence of a skeleton, either in the form of.ashes of a cremation or of the remains of the harder bones and teeth, has yet been found in the ship. In the absence of such evidence, the possibility that the funeral furnishings and the ship were those of some ruling chief lost at sea is not being overlooked. Archaeologists find it difficult to believe that the skeleton could have entirely disappeared if a body had been buried in the ship, though they entertain a hope that some traces may yet be found during the careful excavations that are being made on the site. BURIAL SHIP'S TREASURES GIFT TO BRITISH MUSEUM SEARCH FOR TRACES OF SKELETON