Angela Care Evans

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Angela Care Evans, FSA , [1] is an archaeologist and former Curator in the department of Britain, Europe, and Prehistory at the British Museum. [2] [3] [4] She has published extensively on the Sutton Hoo Mound 1 artefacts and early medieval metalwork.

Contents

Expertise

Care Evans is an expert in early medieval English archaeology and material culture, especially the Sutton Hoo burial, metalwork including brooches and horse harnesses, and shipbuilding. [5] [6] [7] [8]

In 1983 she co-authored with Rupert Bruce Mitford volume three of the British Museum's guides to the Sutton Hoo excavations and artefacts. [9]

In 1986 she published the second edition of The Sutton Hoo Ship Burial, the mass-market publication by the British Museum about the Sutton Hoo artefacts, which condensed the four volumes by Bruce Mitford, and later Bruce Mitford and Care Evans, into a single book suitable for general interest. [10] [11] [12] Another edition was issued in 1994. Care Evans is careful in the book to discuss arguments for and against Rædwald as the person buried in Mound 1 at Sutton Hoo, and she proposes that the artefacts are treated as 'art' rather than 'regalia', as the notion of royalty in early medieval England does not exactly align with modern royalty.

In her 1999 article "In Debt to the Amateurs", Care Evans discussed how the photographs of Sutton Hoo taken in 1939 by Mercie Lack ARPS and Barbara Wagstaff ARPS have importantly shaped the reception and understanding of the archaeological site: with the images of the 'ghost ship' acquired by the Woodbridge, Ipswich and British Museum, and entering into the visual culture of early medieval historiography. [13]

In 2005 she co-authored Sutton Hoo: A Seventh-century Princely Burial Ground and Its Context with archaeologist Martin Carver for the British Museum Press. Care Evans specifically wrote about the Mound 1 bridle with gilt bronze plaques and interlace ornamentation. In October 2008 she and Carver hosted the Sutton Hoo Society's annual conference 'Arts and Crafts in the Mead Hall'. [14]

She has appeared in ITV, Channel 4, and BBC television programmes as a specialist on the Sutton Hoo ship burial, including Time Team (2002) and Masterpieces of the British Museum (2006). [15] [16]

Care Evans continues to give lectures and seminars on early medieval topics. [17]

Selected publications

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rædwald of East Anglia</span> Bretwalda

Rædwald, also written as Raedwald or Redwald, was a king of East Anglia, an Anglo-Saxon kingdom which included the present-day English counties of Norfolk and Suffolk. He was the son of Tytila of East Anglia and a member of the Wuffingas dynasty, who were the first kings of the East Angles. Details about Rædwald's reign are scarce, primarily because the Viking invasions of the 9th century destroyed the monasteries in East Anglia where many documents would have been kept. Rædwald reigned from about 599 until his death around 624, initially under the overlordship of Æthelberht of Kent. In 616, as a result of fighting the Battle of the River Idle and defeating Æthelfrith of Northumbria, he was able to install Edwin, who was acquiescent to his authority, as the new king of Northumbria. During the battle, both Æthelfrith and Rædwald's son, Rægenhere, were killed.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sutton Hoo</span> Archaeological site in Suffolk, England

Sutton Hoo is the site of two Anglo-Saxon cemeteries dating from the 6th to 7th centuries near Woodbridge, Suffolk, England. Archaeologists have been excavating the area since 1938, when an undisturbed ship burial containing a wealth of Anglo-Saxon artifacts was discovered. The site is important in establishing the history of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of East Anglia as well as illuminating the Anglo-Saxons during a period which lacks historical documentation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Benty Grange helmet</span> 7th-century boar-crested Anglo-Saxon helmet

The Benty Grange helmet is an Anglo-Saxon boar-crested helmet from the seventh century AD. It was excavated by Thomas Bateman in 1848 from a tumulus at the Benty Grange farm in Monyash in western Derbyshire. The grave had probably been looted by the time of Bateman's excavation, but still contained other high-status objects suggestive of a richly furnished burial, such as the fragmentary remains of a hanging bowl. The helmet is displayed at Sheffield's Weston Park Museum, which purchased it from Bateman's estate in 1893.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Snape Anglo-Saxon Cemetery</span> Anglo-Saxon burial site

The Snape Anglo-Saxon Cemetery is a place of burial dated to the 6th century AD located on Snape Common, near to the town of Aldeburgh in Suffolk, Eastern England. Dating to the early part of the Anglo-Saxon Era of English history, it contains a variety of different forms of burial, with inhumation and cremation burials being found in roughly equal proportions. The site is also known for the inclusion of a high status ship burial. A number of these burials were included within burial mounds.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eorpwald of East Anglia</span> King of the East Angles

Eorpwald; also Erpenwald or Earpwald,, succeeded his father Rædwald as King of the East Angles. Eorpwald was a member of the East Anglian dynasty known as the Wuffingas, named after the semi-historical king Wuffa.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hanging bowl</span> Bowl hung from chains

Hanging bowls are a distinctive type of artefact of the period between the end of Roman rule in Britain in c. 410 AD and the emergence of the Christian Anglo-Saxon kingdoms during the 7th century, continuing rather later. The surviving examples have mostly been found in Anglo-Saxon graves, but there is general agreement that they reflect Celtic traditions of decoration, albeit sometimes combined with Anglo-Saxon influences.

Martin Oswald Hugh Carver, FSA, Hon FSA Scot, is Emeritus Professor of Archaeology at the University of York, England, director of the Sutton Hoo Research Project and a leading exponent of new methods in excavation and survey. He specialises in the archaeology of early Medieval Europe. He has an international reputation for his excavations at Sutton Hoo, on behalf of the British Museum and the Society of Antiquaries and at the Pictish monastery at Portmahomack Tarbat, Easter Ross, Scotland. He has undertaken archaeological research in England, Scotland, France, Italy and Algeria.

Charles William Phillips was a British archaeologist best known for leading the 1939 excavation of the Sutton Hoo burial ship, an intact collection of Anglo-Saxon grave-goods. In 1946, he replaced O. G. S. Crawford as the Archaeology Officer of the Ordnance Survey. He was awarded the Victoria Medal of the Royal Geographical Society in 1967 for his contributions to the topography and mapping of Early Britain.

Basil John Wait Brown was an English archaeologist and astronomer. Self-taught, he discovered and excavated a 6th-century Anglo-Saxon ship burial at Sutton Hoo in 1939, which has come to be called "one of the most important archaeological discoveries of all time". Although Brown was described as an amateur archaeologist, his career as a paid excavation employee for a provincial museum spanned more than thirty years.

<i>The Dig</i> (novel) 2007 historical novel by John Preston

The Dig is a historical novel by John Preston, published in May 2007, set in the context of the 1939 Anglo-Saxon ship burial excavation at Sutton Hoo, Suffolk, England. The dust jacket describes it as "a brilliantly realized account of the most famous archaeological dig in Britain in modern times".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rupert Bruce-Mitford</span> British archaeologist and scholar (1914–1994)

Rupert Leo Scott Bruce-Mitford was a British archaeologist and scholar. He spent the majority of his career at the British Museum, primarily as the Keeper of the Department of British and Medieval Antiquities, and was particularly known for his work on the Sutton Hoo ship-burial. Considered the "spiritus rector" of such research, he oversaw the production of the monumental three-volume work The Sutton Hoo Ship-Burial, termed by the president of the Society of Antiquaries as "one of the great books of the century".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sutton Hoo helmet</span> Decorated Anglo-Saxon helmet

The Sutton Hoo helmet is a decorated Anglo-Saxon helmet found during a 1939 excavation of the Sutton Hoo ship-burial. It was buried around the years c. 620–625 CE and is widely associated with an Anglo-Saxon leader, King Rædwald of East Anglia; its elaborate decoration may have given it a secondary function akin to a crown. The helmet was both a functional piece of armour and a decorative piece of metalwork. An iconic object from an archaeological find hailed as the "British Tutankhamen", it has become a symbol of the Early Middle Ages, "of Archaeology in general", and of England.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sutton Hoo purse-lid</span> Anglo-Saxon archaeological object found in Suffolk, England

The Sutton Hoo purse-lid is one of the major objects excavated from the Anglo-Saxon royal burial-ground at Sutton Hoo in Suffolk, England. The site contains a collection of burial mounds, of which much the most significant is the undisturbed ship burial in Mound 1 containing very rich grave goods including the purse-lid. The person buried in Mound 1 is usually thought to have been Rædwald, King of East Anglia, who died around 624. The purse-lid is considered to be "one of the most remarkable creations of the early medieval period." About seven and a half inches long, it is decorated with beautiful ornament in gold and garnet cloisonné enamel, and was undoubtedly a symbol of great wealth and status. In 2017 the purse-lid was on display at the British Museum.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nigel Williams (conservator)</span> British conservator and expert on the restoration of ceramics and glass (1944–1992)

Nigel Reuben Rook Williams was an English conservator and expert on the restoration of ceramics and glass. From 1961 until his death he worked at the British Museum, where he became the Chief Conservator of Ceramics and Glass in 1983. There his work included the successful restorations of the Sutton Hoo helmet and the Portland Vase.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peter van Geersdaele</span> English conservator (1933–2018)

Peter Charles van Geersdaele was an English conservator best known for his work on the Sutton Hoo ship-burial. Among other work he oversaw the creation of a plaster cast of the ship impression, from which a fibreglass replica of the ship was formed. He later helped mould an impression of the Graveney boat, in addition to other excavation and restoration work.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lokrume helmet fragment</span> Decorated fragment from a Viking Age helmet

The Lokrume helmet fragment is a decorated eyebrow piece from a Viking Age helmet. It is made of iron, the surface of which is covered with silver and features an interlace pattern in niello or wire. Discovered in Lokrume, a small settlement on the Swedish island of Gotland, the fragment was first described in print in 1907 and is in the collection of the Gotland Museum.

<i>Sutton Hoo Helmet</i> (sculpture) Sculpture based on a Saxon helmet

Sutton Hoo Helmet is a 2002 sculpture by the English artist Rick Kirby. A representation of the Anglo-Saxon helmet by the same name found in the Sutton Hoo ship-burial, it was commissioned by the National Trust to suspend outside an exhibition hall at the Sutton Hoo visitor centre. At the opening of the centre, the sculpture was unveiled by the Literature Nobel laureate Seamus Heaney on 13 March 2002. It remained in place, dominating the entrance of the exhibition hall, until 2019, when it was moved to the entrance to the Sutton Hoo site.

Mercie Keer Lack ARPS (1894-1985) was a British teacher and photographer particularly known for her photography of the discoveries at the site of Sutton Hoo in 1939,, and for her photographs of London street scenes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hellvi helmet eyebrow</span> Iron Age helmet eyebrow fragment

The Hellvi helmet eyebrow is a decorative eyebrow from a Vendel Period helmet. It comprises two fragments; the arch is made of iron decorated with strips of silver, and terminates in a bronze animal head that was cast on. The eyebrow was donated to the Statens historiska museum in November 1880 along with several other objects, all said to be from a grave find in Gotland, Sweden.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tranmer House</span> Country house in Suffolk, United Kingdom

Tranmer House is a country house in Sutton Hoo, Woodbridge, Suffolk, England, dating from 1910. The house is located on the Sutton Hoo Anglo-Saxon burial site, and in 1938 was the home of Edith Pretty. In June 1938, Pretty employed Basil Brown to undertake the excavation of a range of burial mounds on the estate, leading to Brown's discovery in May 1939 of a ship burial, "one of the most important archaeological discoveries of all time". The house is now owned by the National Trust.

References

  1. "Ms Angela Evans". Society of Antiquaries of London. Retrieved 24 November 2020.
  2. "Anglo-Saxon burial treasure returned to Sutton Hoo home". The Telegraph. 19 August 2001. Retrieved 24 November 2020.
  3. Szabo, John F.; Kuefler, Nicholas E. (18 June 2015). The Bayeux Tapestry: A Critically Annotated Bibliography. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 176. ISBN   978-1-4422-5156-4.
  4. Heath, Tina. "Saxon treasures return to Suffolk". Ipswich Star. Retrieved 24 November 2020.
  5. "Library". archaeologydataservice.ac.uk. Retrieved 24 November 2020.
  6. "Anglo Saxon find 'worth £100,000'". 24 June 2005. Retrieved 24 November 2020.
  7. "Saxon Gold Fit For A Princess Goes On Show | Culture24". www.culture24.org.uk. Retrieved 24 November 2020.
  8. LWDadmin (15 April 2005). "newsletter-409-april-2005 - HADAS Newsletter Archive". HADAS. Retrieved 24 November 2020.
  9. Hills, C. M. (1985). "Rupert Bruce-Mitford & Angela Care Evans: The Sutton Hoo ship-burial, Vol. 3. London: British Museum publications, 1983. Two parts, 998 pp., 16 col. pls., 679 figs., 16 tables. £100". Antiquity. 59 (225): 60–61. doi:10.1017/S0003598X00056611. ISSN   0003-598X. S2CID   163185472.
  10. Campbell, James (1 January 2000). The Anglo-Saxon State. A&C Black. p. 61. ISBN   978-1-85285-176-7.
  11. Welch, Martin (1 January 1988). "The Sutton Hoo Ship Burial. By Angela Care Evans". Archaeological Journal. 145 (1): 432–433. doi:10.1080/00665983.1988.11077893. ISSN   0066-5983.
  12. Wooding, Jonathan M. (1996). "The Sutton Hoo ship burial (review)". Parergon. 13 (2): 303–304. doi:10.1353/pgn.1996.0074. ISSN   1832-8334. S2CID   143122058.
  13. Care Evans, Angela (1999). "In Debt to the Amateurs" (PDF). Saxon. 30.
  14. "Salon 191". Society of Antiquaries of London. 14 February 2020. Retrieved 24 November 2020.
  15. "Angela Care Evans". IMDb. Retrieved 24 November 2020.
  16. "Collections Search | BFI | British Film Institute". collections-search.bfi.org.uk. Retrieved 24 November 2020.
  17. "Wuffing Education for Anglo-Saxon Day Schools at Sutton Hoo". www.wuffings.co.uk. Retrieved 24 November 2020.