Rendlesham and Sutton Hoo

The continuing archaeological investigation of what appears to have been the extended principal royal centre of the Kingdom of the East Angles in the seventh century at Rendlesham and Sutton Hoo in Suffolk has yielded more significant discoveries. 

In terms of buildings the identification of a pagan temple was highlighted and reported upon by Arkeonews in 1,400-year-old temple from the time of the East Anglian Kings discovered at Suffolk royal settlement and by the Daily Telegraph in ‘Sutton Hoo king’s lost temple’ discovered in Suffolk

A more general account of the site and of the continuing process of interpreting it can be seen from an article in the Daily Telegraph which can be seen at Sutton Hoo now rivals Stonehenge as England’s premier ancient site

The BBC News website also takes a wider look at the implications of the site at Royal Anglo-Saxon complex is 'unique in England' which offers a useful synthesis of the discoveries and the significance of the complex.

I have only visited Sutton Hoo once, and the more than thirty years ago. There is a sense of achievement in getting there and the royal burial ground is distinctly atmospheric. Friends who worked on the 1960s dig recalled how one of the archaeological team refused to walk back to the camp site after dark via the burial ground. Even on a dull weekend afternoon one sensed something that would make one wonder about stepping out ther at night… a sacred space, be it Christian or pagan, a place where time present and time past blend imperceptibly in a blend of M.R.James’s Ghost Stories and T.S. Eliot’s Four Quartets….