2019
Lyn Blackmore, Ian Blair, Sue Hirst and Christopher Scull
This internationally important, late 6th-century AD princely burial was discovered in 2003 at Prittlewell, Southend-on-Sea, Essex, within an existing early Anglo-Saxon cemetery. Detailed research, scientific analyses and investigative conservation since have produced exciting new information, enabling the reconstruction of the large wooden chamber grave and the coffin of a man buried with small gold crosses, suggesting that he was a Christian. The lavishly furnished chamber included an astonishing array of grave goods – some still hanging on the chamber walls – indicating that he was of the highest status and that the East Saxon kingdom where he lived had contacts with Kent, Merovingian Francia and the Christian Mediterranean world. This research was funded by Southend-on-Sea Borough Council and Historic England.
MOLA Monograph Series 73