Starting My Treasure Hunting In England

Because the tomb was only smashed down after a collapse, rather than being damaged by geological disasters such as floods and earthquakes, the things in the tomb were somewhat damaged, but they did not move much.

So just over two hours later, Liang En and Professor Harry cleaned up the remaining fragments of the helmet from the soil.

That's right, all that remains of this thing is a pile of fragments, which may not even be half of the original helmet. This is mainly due to the corrosion of the iron part.

The most conspicuous part of this pile of fragments is the nose, eyebrows and mouth on the original helmet. Because these parts were made of bronze, gold and silver, they have not been rusted. The overall look is like a European fire dragon with wings spread.

"Obviously, this helmet was completely smashed by the collapse of the tomb after it became rusty." Liang En said helplessly as he looked at the pile of fragments.

"It may only take two hours to dig out these things, but it will take two to three days, or even longer, to put the helmet back together."

"This is much better than in the past, because in the past we could only use a model as a template and try it out bit by bit, but now we can do 3D scanning and then conduct computer-assisted experiments."

After hearing Liang En's complaint, Professor Harry quickly talked about their past situation.

"I remember that at that time, if we wanted to restore the helmet, we needed to make a model of the human head with plaster and foam plastic, and then use these fragments to restore it bit by bit. After confirming, we would fix it with slender tacks. On the model.”

"As a result, the recovery speed will not be fast at all. At the beginning, it is very likely that only a few pieces of the original position can be determined a day. It really takes a month or two to restore a helmet."

Considering that Liang En was the best at using computers for restoration, apart from attending a press conference that night, he spent the next few days doing restoration work.

"It's finally done -" Five days later, Liang En stretched while looking at the complete picture on the computer, and after lunch, in a conference room that was vacated in the manor building, he presented the results selected by the archaeological team to The representatives introduced their own recovery situations.

"What we have found is a richly decorated Anglo-Saxon helmet. Judging from the condition, this helmet has good protection and a secondary function like a crown."

"The entire helmet's visor is forged from a single piece of iron, and the ear protection and neck protection on the left and right sides are additionally attached with leather hooks. The mask on the front of the helmet is exquisite, and its image is lifelike, with an opening under the nose. Two small holes to allow the wearer to breathe.

The surface of the helmet is also decorated with patterns, including criss-crossing animal images and scenes of characters fighting each other. These patterns are bas-reliefs carved on metal.

In addition to the pattern we found before of a knight about to trample a fallen warrior with iron hooves, we can also see a piece depicting two warriors wearing horned helmets, fighting with spears and short swords or daggers. of iron pieces. "

"The most unusual feature of the helmet is the visor: the bronze brows on the visor are embedded with silver threads and garnets. The end of each brow is engraved with a gilt copper boar's head pattern. Such a pattern cannot be just for aesthetics."

"The wild boar pattern shows us the result of early Anglo-Saxon cultural integration. The ancient Celts observed these wild boars, especially male ones, and believed that wild boars were a symbol of fertility, masculinity and strength.

The Celtic druids, for example, most likely called themselves "boars" because of their solitary lifestyle, a metaphor for their tendency to roam the woods like wild boars. "

"So the person who could decorate his helmet with the image of a wild boar must have had a high status in that era. It was very likely that he had military, political and religious power at the same time."

"According to the information found, this particular type of helmet is very rare. Only three similar medieval helmets have been found in Britain. They were found at Bunty Grange, Wollaston and York. Ours is the fourth one.”

"Each of these helmets is different from the other three, and each one is beautifully decorated. So it can be judged that these helmets are not a standard product, but a boutique product customized according to customer requirements."

"We can pay attention to the decoration on the surface of the helmet, especially the themes of the two character plaques, which are very similar to the themes of cultural relics found in the upper-class tomb area found in Uppland, Sweden." Speaking of which, Liang En created on the screen Those cultural relic photos.

"The similarities between the helmet from the Uppland tomb and the helmet from Sutton Hoo - as well as other artifacts found suggest that although the helmet was made in Anglo-Saxon England, the metal it was made of The craftsmen may have come from Sweden.”

"In other words, with just such a helmet, we can see the connection between various countries in England at that time and Western Europe, Northern Europe, and even distant Byzantium."

After Liang En's brief report, the archaeological team members all let out small exclamations, because from Liang En's report they knew that this seemingly inconspicuous helmet was much more precious than they had imagined before.

Because most of the scholars rushed over this time, after talking about the helmet, everyone simply took advantage of this occasion to hold a simple summary meeting.

After this period of excavation, a large number of cultural relics were successfully unearthed. Because there were not many organic matter inside, the overall excavation speed was very fast, and everyone found a large number of cultural relics.

For example, we found gold coins from France, hanging bowls from western England, tableware from the Byzantine court, and even gems from India and Sri Lanka. In total, there are 41 pure gold products and a large number of imported silverware.

A large silver plate with a seal supervised by the Byzantine king Anastasius I (reigned 491-518) is the only significant Byzantine antiquities discovered in England so far.

In addition, silver bowls, cups and spoons engraved with Greek inscriptions, as well as a bronze vessel imported from the Near East, indicate the extensive trade scope of the king of East Anglia. This coincides with the information displayed on the helmet, proving that the local Prosperous trade.

It's just that everyone still hasn't figured out who the owner of the tomb is, even though they determined the construction time of the ship between 625 and 637 through the construction process of the ship and the cultural relics unearthed inside, especially some coins.

This is mainly because the ship will be used for a period of time after it is built, but because the hull has been completely irradiated, it is impossible to determine how long the ship has been used.

Now everyone mainly speculates that the owner of this cemetery may be King Redwald of East Anglia (died in 624 or 625). But it may also be Ætheshir (died 654) who died in battle.

Although this was somewhat imperfect, everyone was certain that this tomb should be one of the greatest archaeological discoveries in British history, so at the end of the summary meeting everyone had a bright smile on their face.