Nov 16, 20211 min read

Anglo Saxon metalwork

Another session with Dana Goodburn-Brown

Today we imaged a variety of Anglo Saxon items from a cemetary in Deal, Kent. It was the first time I have imaged a whole sword - quite a rare find. My previous imaging sessions with Dana have only involved sword fragments. As you can see from the images below, the sword needed to be imaged in sections. Dana, or one of her clever friends, will digitally stitch the images together so that the whole sword is demonstrated.

We also had an old bucket, complete with soil! It was very difficult to image. The first image was taken from 'above', with the detector beneath. The image (also available below) shows the construction of the bucket with strips of metalwork and rivets (or similar). Another image was attempted from the side (a lateral view, in clinical terms), but it was a mixed success. The density of the soil and metalwork made it almost impossible to see the contents.

Lastly, we imaged some Anglo Saxon beads. Just to see what they looked like. As expected, not very interesting.