

Before this discovery, a dearth of written sources was presumed to signal an absence of culture in this period.įilms tend to portray archaeologists as treasure-hunters or forensic detectives – notably the Indiana Jones franchise. It transformed understanding of the “dark age” of the seventh century.

Netflix’s The Dig, based on the novel of the same name by John Preston (2007), recounts the tale of this remarkable find. For a nation on the brink of war and facing its own “dark age”, the Sutton Hoo ship burial was a source of pride and inspiration, equivalent to the tomb of Tutankhamun. In 1939, on the eve of the second world war, she was proven right as the sumptuous ship burial of an Anglo-Saxon king was uncovered. Edith Pretty was convinced that the mounds on her land in Sutton Hoo, Suffolk, held important archaeological secrets.
