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The famous helmet from the ship interment at Sutton Hoo in England may be grounds that Anglo - Saxon warriors fought as mercenaries for theByzantine Empirein the sixth 100 , a new study finds .
The helmet and chain mail service pelage found near it have distinctive features that designate they were copy of Byzantine armor , study authorHelen Gittos , a medieval historian at the University of Oxford , told Live Science .
The new study suggests that the famous Sutton Hoo helmet may have been influenced by the helmets used by Anglo-Saxon warriors fighting as mercenaries for the Byzantine Empire.
These martialartifacts , in turn , evoke that the homo interred in theship burial at Sutton Hoo — possibly the early Anglo - Saxon kingRaedwald — had brought back Byzantine armor after fighting in what was then the Far East ; the armor is made in a typical Anglo - Saxon style , and Gittos speculate the warrior had later asked English workers to make an ornate copy , which he was eventually bury with .
Gittos said the range of mountains chain mail coat from Sutton Hoo is now bad rusted , but it seemed to have been modeled after chain mail wear out by some soldiers in the Byzantine U. S. Army at that time . The gold- and jewel - encrustedSutton Hoo helmet , too , may not look very Roman at first coup d’oeil , but it has articulated brass guards and a neck guard , which were distinctive features of Romanic helmets , she said .
In the raw field of study , published Jan. 2 in the journalThe English Historical Review , Gittos debate that some of the artifacts from early English Robert Graves and settlements suggest some Anglo - Saxon warrior fought for the Byzantine Empire against the Sasanian Persians — contrary to earlier mesmerism that these object had been get through trade .
The study identifies several artifacts in early English graves that may have been brought back by Anglo-Saxon warriors fighting for the Byzantines against the Sasanian Persians.
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Early Anglo-Saxon warriors
The Sutton Hoo site , which includes the ship burial and more than a 12 other grave , was distinguish in 1939 , just before the get-go of World War II . While Sutton Hoo yielded many artifacts , it was n’t until the 2003 discovery of the " Prittlewell Prince , " an Anglo - Saxon nobleman buried in the Essex region east of London , that many of the Sutton Hoo finding and other Anglo - Saxon artifacts were well understood , Gittos said . Unlike the Sutton Hoo graves , the Prittlewell grave accent had never been looted by grave robbers , and it was excavated with advanced techniques , lead in a precise date between 580 and 605 .
Among other artifact , the Prittlewell grave accent contained a bronze ewer , silver spoons and alloy bowls that appear to have been made in the eastern Mediterranean but were not valuable enough to have been swop , Gittos said . Instead , she reason , it seemed probable that the early Anglo - Saxon nobleman bury in the Prittlewell grave accent had acquired them when he was fight in the Far East .
Artifacts from other early English graves also suggest such contacts with the Byzantines , she said , many centuries before some Anglo - Saxons fought as bodyguard in the ByzantineVarangian Guard .
(Image credit: © MOLA)
" Those who come back brought back with them metalwork and other items which were current , and typical , and not the variety of things that were part of normal trading web , " Gittos wrote in the study .
The grave of the Anglo - Saxon nobleman known as the " Prittlewell Prince , " find in 2003 , has avail researchers better read other early Anglo - Saxon artifacts found elsewhere in England .
This hanging pipe bowl regain in the Prittlewell grave accent was made to an Egyptian design , possibly in Egypt .
(Image credit: © MOLA)
Against the Sasanians
Gittos noted that the tangled loss leader launched a major military military campaign in the 570s against the Sasanian Persians who threatened their easterly territories , and historic records show the knotty leaders recruit mercenary fighter from " both sides of the Alps . "
The promise salary " fork out the recruit ' pump eager for peril through a flow dispersion ofgold , purchasing from them ebullience for death by regard for payment , " according to a seventh - century Byzantine historiographer .
Foreign warriors enrol by the Byzantine Empire were initially pay a cause of armour and then money to buy more armour , weapon system and equipment . in an elaborate way decorated horse cavalry equipment , depictions of horse on other artifacts and even the skeleton of horses , have also been happen in the graves of early Anglo - Saxon warrior , which suggests their skill as horsemen was especially worthful . " These were experience horse worth enrol , " Gittos wrote in the study .
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King ’s College London historiographer and archaeologistKen Dark , who was n’t involved in the study , told Live Science it was a " fascinating interpretation . "
It had been indicate before that some of the artifacts from Anglo - Saxon settlements and Steffi Graf may have initiate in the Byzantine reality .
" Nevertheless , there is no lineal evidence that western Britons fought in Byzantine ground forces , although their military prowess — specially at scrap in woods — is noted in the Emperor Maurice ’s [ 6th - 100 war manual]Strategikon , so this might be potential , " Dark said in an email .
