1.1M views · 19K reactions | Curator Sue Brunning gets up close with...

The Sutton Hoo helmet was discovered in an Anglo-Saxon ship burial in 1939. It’s one of only four complete helmets from this time found in England, and may have been worn by a king. The helmet was restored in the 1940s, but it wasn’t until 1968, nearly 30 years after the initial discovery, that research showed the restoration had been inaccurate. The 500 fragments had to be disassembled and put back into their correct positions, like an intricate and very fragile Anglo-Saxon jigsaw puzzle. The w

Check out this beautiful reconstruction of the Anglo-Saxon Sutton Hoo helmet (Art by Pedro Mendes). The original Sutton Hoo helmet was found during a 1939 excavation of the Sutton Hoo ship-burial. The burial was the final resting place of someone who had died in the early seventh century, during the Anglo-Saxon period – a time before 'England' existed. People think that an Anglo-Saxon king may have been buried here, and a popular candidate is Raedwald, who ruled the kingdom of East Anglia in the