The working life of Museum of London

A few years ago the Museum of London Archaeology Service (MoLAS) excavated a site at Priory Crescent, Prittlewell, Essex. It turned out to be ‘perhaps the most spectacular discovery of its kind made during the past 50 years’ – the 7th century grave is probably that of an ‘Anglo-Saxon King of Essex’. The occupant of the grave was dubbed the ‘Prince of Prittlewell’ and the ‘King of Bling’ in newspaper coverage at the time.

I think the videos made on site are a fascinating view of the objects in situ, and Ian Blair does a brilliant job of explaining the archaeology of the site so I’m sharing them on the Museum of London Archaeology playlist on YouTube. Hopefully we’ll be adding videos from more recent sites to this playlist as time goes on.

You can learn more about the excavation, the finds, the occupant of the grave and the site itself at our site, Treasures of a Saxon King of Essex. The site also features 3D reconstructions of two finds – the gold buckle and a blue glass vessel.

There’s also a British Archaeology article, My Lord Essex which provides a lot more information. The ‘King of Bling’ theme was picked in Channel 4’s Time Team episode.