Unusual phosphatic material in the Sutton Hoo ship burial.

Abstract

IN the course of an investigation to determine whether there was a body in the Sutton Hoo ship burial1, chemical analysis has revealed some unusual phosphatic material derived from calcined bone. That this phosphatic material should have persisted after some 1,300 years is of the utmost importance when one considers that the acidic nature of the soil at Sutton Hoo2 (subsoil sand, pH 4.5) does not favour the preservation of skeletal remains. In the whole of the burial deposit, the excavators thought they recognized only one small fragment of bone which they described as unburnt3. This piece, cancellous and brown in colour, was found on top of the largest of the silver dishes in close association with many fragments of wood, bark and iron. From visual examination only, a distinguished anatomist agreed with the excavators; but the opinion of others, based on more detailed examination, was that the fragment was not bone.