Treasure hunt begins in England

Chapter 661 Report
Because the tomb was only smashed down after the collapse, and was not destroyed by geological disasters such as floods and earthquakes, the things in the tomb were damaged, but there was not much displacement.

So after just over two hours, Liang En and Professor Harry cleaned up the remaining debris of the helmet from the mud.

That's right, what remains of this thing is only 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 of the original helmet. Because these parts are made of bronze, gold and silver, they have not been rusted, and the whole looks like a European fire dragon with wings spread.

"Obviously, this helmet was completely smashed due to the collapse of the tomb after it was rusted." Looking at the pile of debris, Liang En said helplessly.

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

"It's much better than in the past, because in the past we could only take a model as a template and try it out a little bit, but now we can do 3D scans and then use computer-aided experiments."

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

"I remember that if we wanted to restore the helmet at that time, we needed to make a model of a human head with plaster and foam plastic, and then take these fragments to restore a little bit on it, and then use that kind of slender tack to fix it on on the model."

"In this way, the speed of recovery 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 is the best at computer recovery work, except for attending a press conference that night, he spent the next few days working on recovery work.

"It's finally done—" Five days later, Liang En stretched himself looking at the complete picture on the computer, and after lunch, in a meeting room vacated in the manor building, he asked the archaeological team Representatives introduced their own recovery situation.

"What we have now found is a richly decorated Anglo-Saxon helmet, which, judging by the circumstances, has both good protection and a secondary function like a crown."

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

The surface of the helmet is also decorated with patterns, among which there are criss-cross animal images and scenes of fighting between characters.These patterns are all formed in bas-relief by machining on the metal.

What can be recognized now is that in addition to the pattern of a knight who was about to trample the 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 sheet of iron. "

"The most unusual feature of the helmet is the visor: the bronze brows on the visor are inlaid with silver thread and garnet. The end of each brow is carved with a gilt bronze boar's head, which of course cannot be done just for aesthetics."

"The wild boar shows us the result of an early Anglo-Saxon cultural amalgamation, with the ancient Celts observing these boars, especially male ones, as a symbol of fertility, virility and strength.

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

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

"According to the information searched, this particular type of helmet is very rare. Only three similar medieval period helmets have been found in the UK. They were found in Bundy Grange, Wollaston and York, while Ours is the fourth."

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

"We can pay attention to the decoration on the surface of the helmet, especially the theme of the two figure plaques is very similar to the theme of the cultural relics found in the upper-class burial area in Uppland, Sweden." Speaking of this, Liang En created a picture on the screen. Those cultural relics photos.

"The similarities between the helmet from the Uppland burial and the Sutton Hoo helmet - and other artefacts found - suggest that although the helmet was made in Anglo-Saxon England, the metal from which it was made The artisans may come from Sweden."

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

After Liang En's brief report, the archaeologists 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 excavated. Because there are not many organic substances in it, the overall excavation speed is very fast, and everyone found a large number of cultural relics.

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

A large silver platter bears the seal overseen by the Byzantine king Anastasius I (reigned 491–518), the only significant Byzantine antiquity ever found in England.

In addition, silver bowls, cups and spoons with Greek inscriptions, as well as a bronze imported from the Near East, indicate the extent of the East Anglian king's trade, and this coincides with the information displayed on the helmet, attesting to the local Prosperous trade.

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

This is mainly due to the fact that the ship will be used for a while after construction, but since the hull is completely irradiated now 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 could also be Essehir (died 654) who died in action.

Although this point is somewhat imperfect, everyone still determined 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 faces.

(End of this chapter)