Sutton Hoo, Anglo-Saxon cemetery site in Suffolk, England

Sutton Hoo is an archaeological site near Woodbridge in Suffolk, England, consisting of two Anglo-Saxon cemeteries of the 6th and 7th centuries. About twenty earthen mounds rise slightly above the hill-spur above the tidal estuary of the River Deben; the largest covered a 27 m ship burial. The acidic soil left only sand impressions of the hull and its iron rivets.

In 1939, archaeologist Basil Brown uncovered an intact ship burial beneath the largest mound, revealing objects that transformed our understanding of early medieval Britain. The excavation exposed a complete burial assemblage of gold, silver and gemstones believed to belong to a 7th-century king or high-ranking noble.

The name comes from Old English: sut and tun mean "southern farmstead", and hoo describes a hill shaped like a heel spur, recorded in the Domesday Book as Hoi or Hou. The visitor centre opened in 2002 and displays a detailed model of the royal grave alongside replicas of the 1939 finds, including a gold helmet whose original is in the British Museum.

The National Trust manages the grounds and offers guided tours, exhibition spaces and interactive displays that explain the finds and the story of Anglo-Saxon society. Paths around the burial mounds are mostly firm and allow walking even in damp weather, though some slopes can become steep in places.

The wooden ship discovered beneath the largest mound measured roughly 90 feet (27 meters) in length, and its shape survived through more than four thousand metal rivets that remained in their original positions. Although the timber had long since decayed, the rivets traced the entire outline of the hull in the soil and allowed archaeologists to reconstruct the vessel's design and scale with precision.