Long after the discovery of Anglo-Saxon graveyards at the Sutton Hoo site in East Anglia, England, scientists are still analyzing the treasures uncovered there. Perhaps the most famous grave at the site was discovered in 1939 by Suffolk amateur archaeologist Basil Brown. Inside a mound, he and his colleagues discovered the remains of a 27 meter-long Anglo-Saxon ship packed with grave goods including shields, cauldrons, jewelry, and a now-iconic iron-and-bronze helmet.
Remains of the high-ranking individual buried here were dissolved by in the acidic soil, but a lot of his loot remained intact. Safely ensconced at the British Museum, many items from the burial chamber in the ship have been catalogued and displayed. Still, a few mysteries remain. For decades, no one could identify a cache of hard, black nuggets. They were tentatively categorized as pine tar, which the Anglo-Saxons would have used for waterproofing ships. Now a team of scientists have figured it out. Writing in PLoS One, they describe using techniques including mass spectrometry and gas chromatography to analyze the chemical composition of the lumps.
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