Made in England? New insights into the origins of the Sutton Hoo helmet

This article is from Current Archaeology issue 438

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Measuring just 42.1mm by 32.8mm (1.7in by 1.3in), the copper-alloy rectangle found near Lynsted in Kent in 2024 is small enough to nestle comfortably in the palm of your hand – but its discovery has opened up a big conversation. Its upper surface is dominated by a dynamic depiction of a humanoid figure grasping a sword in one hand and two crossed spears in the other. The legs of this enigmatic individual are bent as if running or dancing, and its head is crowned with some kind of headdress whose curving horns terminate in birds’ heads. Such figures – today variously described as ‘dancing warriors’, ‘weapon dancers’, shamanic priests, or representations of the god Woden/Odin – seem to have been popular across the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms and wider northern Europe during the 6th and 7th centuries, appearing on diverse artefacts (as we explore in more detail below). Analysis of the Lynsted find by experts at the British Museum and Kent County Council has highlighted the striking similarity between its imagery and one of the motifs on the Sutton Hoo helmet, raising interesting questions about where this famous object and others like it could have been made. 

Found by metal-detectorist Stephen Newbury, the Lynsted rectangle is more properly described as a patrix (plural: patrices), a kind of die-stamp that was used to create decorative elements, known as Pressblech foils, to enhance high-status metalwork. Unlike a seal matrix, which has a negative image that is pushed into soft material like wax or clay to create a positive but mirror-image version of its design, a patrix has a positive image, over which a very thin sheet of precious metal is placed and hammered to create a raised relief of the underlying motif without reversing it. Pressblech foils were used to adorn the elaborate helmets that were placed in elite early medieval ship burials at Vendel and Valsgärde in Sweden, as well as the Sutton Hoo helmet, itself recovered from a ship grave, whose cap, neck guard, and cheekpieces were covered with shimmering images of horsemen and dancing warriors. Moreover, when the Staffordshire Hoard – the largest collection of Anglo-Saxon gold and silver yet found – was discovered near Lichfield in 2009, it was found to contain more than 1,250 fragments of foil, making up almost a third of the entire assemblage. Careful analysis of these delicate scraps revealed images of marching, possibly running or kneeling, and mounted warriors; they are thought to come from another ornate 7th-century helmet (see CA 349). 

Scandinavian signs? 

It has long been suggested that the Sutton Hoo and Staffordshire Hoard helmets could have been imported from Scandinavia – not only because of their parallels with the finds from Vendel and Valsgärde, but because a number of patrices with similar motifs have been found in Denmark and Sweden. Danish examples include a patrix from Falster depicting a dancing horned figure, and one from Tåsinge showing a mounted warrior trampling another man beneath his horse – another theme that is seen on the Sutton Hoo and Staffordshire Hoard helmets, and which is thought possibly to have origins in Roman iconography. A particularly significant find, though, are the Torslunda plates: a set of four patrices recovered from a burial on the Swedish island of Öland. Each carries a different design, with one depicting the now-familiar dancing warrior (in this case seen alongside a wolf-headed figure), while another offers a different connection to the Sutton Hoo finds. It shows a man standing between two tall beasts, an image that appears not on the Sutton Hoo helmet, but on the elaborate purse lid from the same burial.

The discovery of a ‘dancing warrior’ patrix on this side of the Channel adds exciting new possibilities to the debate, providing the first evidence that helmets like those found in Staffordshire and Suffolk could have been made in England rather than relying on imports from the Continent. It is worth highlighting, though, that while the Lynsted find is very similar to the dancing figures on the Sutton Hoo helmet it is not an exact match, indicating that it had not been used to make this specific artefact. Moreover, while it is the only example of its kind currently known in Britain, two other possible patrices of the same period are documented on the Portable Antiquities Scheme database: a triangular one depicting a wolf-headed figure, discovered in Cambridgeshire in 2006 (search for NLM-468D41 at https://finds.org.uk), and another less-certain identification (the PAS database notes that it is unusually thick) showing the upper torso and face of a horned figure, found in Hampshire in 2013 (HAMP-B292C2). This diversity of imagery raises the tantalising possibility that, while decorated helmets are currently rare finds, there could have been other examples, and other designs, circulating in early medieval England. 

These motifs were meaningful both in early medieval Scandinavia and Anglo-Saxon England. They speak of the free flow of ideas and objects across the Channel…

Shared ideas

Above all, the Kent patrix adds further detail to a growing picture of a shared interest in particular imagery that spread widely across northern Europe in the 6th and 7th centuries. Dancing warrior motifs do not only appear on helmets: they are seen on an eclectic array of objects in Scandinavia and England. 

If we focus on Kent, a handful of other examples are known – including two from the same cemetery, excavated at Finglesham in the 1960s. There, Grave 95 contained the remains of a high-status man who was accompanied by a sword, spear, and shield, as well as a gilded triangular belt buckle bearing an image of a horned figure holding a spear in each hand. In Grave 138, meanwhile, a woman had an elaborate necklace  and a small, bronze pendant depicting a head crowned with curving horns tipped with birds’ heads. A similar head is also known from the Anglo-Saxon cemetery at Dover Buckland, topping a large pin or toilet implement.

Casting our gaze more widely, objects bearing similar imagery are found scattered across the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms. Dancing warriors appear as far north as Ayton (today in the Scottish Borders, it once lay within the Anglian kingdom of Northumbria), on a buckle plate now in the collections of the National Museum of Scotland. These figures also appear on a mount from Berkshire (BERK-4F2E17) and a fragment of Pressblech foil found in a barrow at Caenby, Lincolnshire, while mounts shaped like heads topped with curving, bird-headed horns range across Leicestershire (LEIC 40DB05), Norfolk (NMS559 and NMS-F90626), Suffolk (SF449), Cambridgeshire (FAHG-8EAAA3), and Hampshire (HAMP2432 and BERK-DB4E15)

The wide-ranging distribution of images like these attest that they were meaningful, even significant, both in early medieval Scandinavia and Anglo-Saxon England. They speak of the free flow of ideas and objects across the Channel (and, of course, the Lynsted patrix could itself be an imported item), but it is now clear that, as well as a deep appreciation of this shared repertoire of artistic or iconographical motifs, the technology to bring them to glittering life on the extravagant helmets that appear only fleetingly within the archaeological record also existed within these shores. As for the patrix’s future, it was recently declared Treasure, and the Beaney House of Art & Knowledge in Canterbury has expressed an interest in acquiring it so that it can be displayed close to where it was found.

Further information: To read the Portable Antiquities Scheme database entry for the Lynsted patrix, see https://finds.org.uk/database/artefacts/record/id/1175312 or search for KENT-23D64B.