Archaeologists digging at the famous Anglo-Saxon Sutton Hoo site have come across what they believe could be a 1,400-year-old temple.
Said to have been built by the old English King Raedwald of East Anglia, if true, it could finally solve a mystery that has lingered for centuries.
The Venerable Bede, a monk and scholar who lived in the seventh and eighth centuries BC, wrote that Raedwald, who died in 625 AD, built a temple in which altars to Christ and pagan gods were found.
He is thought to have been the person buried in a ship found at Sutton Hoo and was the first East Anglian king to convert to Christianity — but also maintained ties to other religions.
While the temple’s location was initially believed to have been lost, archaeological teams working in Rendlesham, close to Raedwald’s burial place, uncovered the remains of a building.
Rendlesham Revealed, a community-based archaeology project, found the remains earlier this summer along with a number of other buildings during excavations.
Professor Christopher Scull, of Cardiff University and University College London, told The Telegraph: “Its distinctive and substantial foundations indicate that one of the buildings, 10 metres long and five metres wide, was unusually high and robustly built for its size, so perhaps it was constructed for a special purpose.
“It is most similar to buildings elsewhere in England that are seen as temples or cult houses, and therefore it may have been used for pre-Christian worship by the early kings of the East Angles.
“The results of excavations at Rendlesham speak vividly of the power and wealth of the East Anglian kings, and the sophistication of the society they ruled.”
Raedwald ruled from 599 until his death 26 years later, and was referred to at the time as a ‘bretwalda’, an Old English term meaning “Britain-ruler”.
Archaeologists believe he is most likely the person who was found inside the Sutton Hoo ship burial which was found by chance in 1938, having laid undisturbed for thousands of years.
Another ship burial site was found decades later in 1998 which was thought to contain his son, Regenhere.
Separate digs last year found evidence of a giant royal compound, as well as a large timber hall, surrounded by a ditch that was almost one mile long and enclosed by an area the size of 20 football pitches.
As well as the temple, this summer’s excavations turned up fine metalwork ordinarily linked to a royal occupation.
Rendlesham and the Sutton Hoo site have been inhabited for at least 6,000 years, with evidence of human activity found dating back to the fourth millennium BC.
Perhaps the most famous find at the archaeological site is the Sutton Hoo helmet, a beautifully decorated helmet thought to belong to Raedwald.
It is believed to have served as both a functional piece of armour that would’ve offered proaction in battle as well as a decorative piece and a symbol of prestige.
