British Museum Reflection

LOCAL AND GLOBAL CITIZENSHIP:
BRITISH MUSEUM
Produced by Crystin (Yuqi Shi)

Activity 1: pre-discussion
Drinking Culture
◦ What kind of drinking vessels do you
usually use when you are drinking?
◦ How do you like about these stylistic
drinking vessels that Anglo-Saxon people
used in the ancient time?
◦ If you can design your own drinking
vessels, which type you would prefer, and
why?
These feasting vessels come from one of the richest Anglo-
Saxon graves ever found. The array of drinking vessels in the
grave reflects the importance of feasting and hospitality in
Anglo-Saxon society. The green glass claw beakers- two of
four from the burial – would have been prized luxury items.
The gilded mounts, decorated with intricate designs of
interlacing creatures and human faces were fitted to the rims of
wooden cups.
This drinking-horn is one of up to six found in the

burial. Such horns were prestigious in Anglo-Saxon
England, belonging only to those of the highest
status. They probably held ale or mead and were
used during feasts for communal drinking. As the
horn did not survive, the original gilded silver
fittings, decorated with interlacing creatures, human
faces and a fierce bird‘s head, are attached to a
reconstruction.
Vessels for food and drink were placed
in both men’s and women's graves. The
finest were made of glass, like the different coloured
drinking beakers and horn. These luxury vessels would
have made a statement about the dead person's status.
They may also have been intended as symbolic
offerings from mourners, providing the dead with
refreshments on their final journey.
Post-discussion:
What is the drinking culture in your country?
Is it connected with people’s social status?
How is it different from Anglo-Saxon’s?
Anglo-Saxon England
AD 450-650
After the Roman army withdrew from Britain in AD 410,
groups of Germanic peoples from northwest Europe crossed
the North Sea to settle parts of southern and eastern Britain.
Eventually, a new Anglo-Saxon culture and several distinct
kingdoms emerged. The early Anglo-Saxons did not write
texts, but the objects they placed in graves give insights into
their world. Women were often buried with domestic objects,
revealing their importance in the home. Men were
accompanied by spears and shields, highlighting the central
role of warriors in Anglo-Saxon society. The most important
were honoured with lavish burials containing gold, silver and
Sussex means the gem-set artefacts. Little is known about early Anglo-Saxon
South Saxons (Anglo- beliefs, but they apparently worshipped many gods and the
Saxon words we use natural world was important. Their conversion to
today) Christianity, beginning in the late AD 500s, was a gradual
process that reshaped Anglo-Saxon culture forever.
Activity 2: pre-thinking
Death and Burial
◦ What’s the burial ceremony like in your
country?
◦ How do your people preserve bodies after
their death?
◦ How do you perceive death and burial?
◦ How do people in your culture generally
feel about death and burail?
the Sutton Hoo ship burial from Suffolk

The Sutton Hoo ship burial was discovered in 1939, when landowner Edith Pretty asked
archaeologist Basil Brown to explore the largest burial mound on her estate. Inside, he
found the imprint of a decayed ship studded with iron rivets, and a central chamber filled
with treasures. It proved to be the richest intact burial known from early medieval
Europe, perhaps the final resting place of an Anglo-Saxon king. The discovery confirmed
once and for all that early Anglo-Saxon England was not isolated or unsophisticated.
Post-thinking:
Why do you think could be the reason that Anglo-
Saxon people buried their king in a wooden boat?
(what does that symbolize?)
These magnificent treasures are from a single grave placed in an Anglo-Saxon

cemetery at Sutton Hoo, Suffolk. But this was no ordinary grave. It was arranged
inside a wooden chamber built in the middle of a 27-metre-long ship, covered by
a large earth mound. The burial took place in the early AD 600s when Sutton Hoo
belonged to East Anglia, one of several competing Anglo-Saxon kingdoms.
Activity 3:
design brooches
Ring brooches evolved in Ireland under
the Vikings. Traditionally made from
copper alloy decorated with gilt and
enamel, these ones are silver once rare in
Ireland but now imported by Vikings in
quantity as bullion and coins. The
brooches' massive form and spherical or
thistle-like terminals are characteristic of
Irish-Viking designs. The silver brooch
pin reflects a later fashion for large Irish
kite-shaped brooches.
VIKINGS IN BRITAIN AND IRELAND
From the late AD 700s, Vikings from Scandinavia began to
dominate the seaways around Britain and Ireland, raiding
undefended monasteries, settling some areas and developing
coastal towns like Dublin as international trading centres.
Viking activity had a profound influence upon many Celtic-
speaking regions.
Viking words we use today:

box crash flat frown kneel low law ugly lift nasty….
Viking bracelet

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LOCAL AND GLOBAL CITIZENSHIP:

Produced by Crystin (Yuqi Shi)

This drinking-horn is one of up to six found in the

the Sutton Hoo ship burial from Suffolk

These magnificent treasures are from a single grave placed in an Anglo-Saxon

Viking words we use today:

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