Chapter 2: This Is Bigger Than Sutton Hoo

Professor Poul Anderson, Director of Archeology, University of Cambridge, shook his salt-and-peppered head as he looked at the pitted sword, protected in the clear glass container sitting in the center of the table in the portacabin. He hadn’t even taken his coat off. He’d come straight to the dig from the train station, driven a rental car from Norwich, and okay, his specialization was Scandinavia and Anglo-Saxon England, although he was more than familiar with the Celtic and Romano-Celtic period, as well as the early Middle Ages, but this curved blade from the dig didn’t ring any bells. None at all, although the curve seemed familiar, but no, he couldn’t place it.

“I’m sorry,” he said, “I still can’t place this. Run this by me again. Where the hell did this come from, exactly?”

“Down in the number four traverse trench,” Dr. Greta Kett said. “At the stern of the ship, laid out on a woman right beside the King, and we think the guy must be Thorstein himself. Thorstein’s Mound, well, the old tales are right now and then I guess, and we’re deciphering the runes on some stones now, but one of them was above his head, and it definitely says “Thorstein King, the Young Wolf.” He was laid out, armor, helm, sword, shield, gold and silver, jewelry, weapons, human and horse and cattle sacrifices, grave goods, all the usual stuff.

This is bigger and better than Sutton Hoo, you know that, but I think we all knew that when we found the ship intact, but it’s a little earlier, late-5th century from all the preliminary dates, tail end of the Saxon conquest. Way better than Sutton Hoo, better than any other Saxon or Viking ship burial we know of. The peat preserved the wood, and the ship’s almost intact, everything’s intact, including the bodies, the clothes, everything. Just, everything. It’s just amazing.”

She was almost jumping up and down now, bouncing on her toes. “This sword, it was in a woman’s hands, she was in armor, chain mail, shield, helm, bow and arrows, lying beside the King, except we’re absolutely sure she was buried a couple of decades before him. He was added later, she was lying there with this in her hands, laid out, and we’ve just got the test results back from the lab, you’re going to love this.”

“Tell me, for chrissakes, Greta. Doesn’t look like any Saxon or Germanic or Romano-British sword I’ve ever seen, not even Celtic.”

“It’s not. It’s a Japanese sword from the Kofun period, Yamoto made, we’ve done a metallurgical analysis, run every test we can come up with, and that’s absolutely one hundred percent. It’s from Yamoto, no uncertainty at all about that, and it’s an early curved blade, cutting style. We think it’s the earliest kotō period katana ever found, early 6th century. We’ve asked the Japanese to send someone who’s an expert on them to help.”

“Holy Jesus, you’re not joking, are you, Greta? A Japanese katana dated to the period, in a late 6th Century ship-burial mound? In Norfolk?”

“It gets better, Poul.” Greta was just about beside herself, and Poul had never seen her like this.

“How does it get better than this. This is already the biggest archeological find in England, since, well, Sutton Hoo. And throw a Japanese sword into the mix, and Jesus...”

“Add in a Eurasian steppe nomad composite bow, we think Xianbei from the initial analysis, and some Chinese-style armor, light cavalry chain mail. Bright brilliant armor, it’s called, and I know that doesn’t mean anything to you, but it was the best armor made in Northern Wei, which was the Empire that ruled Northern China in the 4th, 5th and early 6th Centuries. We’ve run samples through multiple lab tests as well, this isn’t something I want to be wrong on, and it’s Chinese origin, same period, definitely made in Northern Wei, and this set is just about the best quality of its type ever found, and it was made specifically for a woman, the woman that was wearing it, and the woman...” Greta smiled.