In Mound 2, he found a bead, Bronze Age pottery shards, a gilt bronze disc, a piece of blue glass, the tip of a sword blade, iron knives, a ship's rivets, and a smaller boat that appeared to have been cut in half, with one half placed on top of the other as a cover. He found little in the latter, as it appeared to have been robbed. It was enough to convince Pretty to have him excavate two more mounds in hopes of discovering more Sutton Hoo treasure. He made several promising finds, including the remains of a cremated man, fragments of early Saxon pottery, rotten wooden fibers that together resembled a tray, the lid of a Mediterranean jug, a portion of a decorated limestone plaque, and a corroded iron axe head.

With the help of two workers on Pretty's estate, Brown first excavated what became known as Mound 3. He arrived on Jand stayed with Pretty's chauffeur. Maynard recommended local archaeologist Basil Brown (played by Ralph Fiennes in The Dig movie) to find out what, if anything, lay beneath the strange mounds on Pretty's land.Įdith Pretty hired Basil Brown, agreeing to pay him 30 shillings a week for two weeks to explore the mounds. In July of that year, a formal meeting was held during which Pretty, Redstone, and the curator of the Ipswich Corporation Museum, Guy Maynard, discussed the possibility of excavation. Redstone, a member of the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology, about potentially excavating the mounds on her Sutton Hoo estate. How did Edith Pretty end up hiring archaeologist Basil Brown to explore the mounds on her property?Īt the Woodbridge Flower Fete (festival) in 1937, Edith Pretty talked to Vincent B.

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