The Dark Ages, the period between the fall of Rome and the Renaissance, gained a reputation for brutality, barbarism, poor quality of life and constant fighting between warlords and tribes. . It was the time of heroes and legends, of unknown kings and kingdoms. As the name suggests, little is known about the Dark Ages, but as recent generations of historians have discovered, the Dark Ages were not as dark as was once thought. In 1939, a ship burial site was discovered which shook the historic foundations of Britain. Sutton Hoo, located in the south-eastern region of Britain, was the epicenter of a major discovery which housed the oldest and richest medieval burial in Britain and perhaps all of Europe1. The largest of the burial grounds that housed the ship and all of its artifacts was believed to be the burial place of an ancient Saxon king named King Raedwald, ruler of the Eastern Angles. Objects found in his burial chamber were dated to around the beginning of the 7th century. The amount of gold and silver buried at Sutton Hoo suggests that this royalty was richer than most people think. Having buried so much gold and silver meant that they had not yet exhausted their wealth and had much more left. The belt buckle artifact was made of gold equivalent to a noble man's price. Having this much value on your belt buckle suggests wealth and power beyond what historians thought at the time. Within the Sutton Hoo burial site were artifacts from far-flung locations, showing the vast network of which the so-called king was a part. G. Baldwin Brown wrote: "Germanic art of the Migration period...may have been affected by Classical, Eastern, and Celtic traditions before taking on a form and...... middle of article... ...en.Works Cited1. Martin Carver, Sutton Hoo Kings Cemetery? (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1998), xi.2. Peter S. Wells, Journey to the Other World: The Legacy of Sutton Hoo (U of Minnesota Press, 1992), p.293 Carver, Sutton Hoo: Graveyard of Kings?, 354 Bernice Grohskopf, The Treasure of Sutton Hoo: Boat Burial for an Anglo-Saxon King (Kingsport, Tennessee: Kingsport Press, 1970), 64.5 Grohskopf, The Treasure of Sutton Hoo, 62-646 "Sutton Hoo Ship Burial Helmet Clip 2." Video clip online. YouTube. YouTube, October 23, 2012. Web. 17 November 2013.7 RLS Bruce-Mitford, The Sutton Hoo Ship-burial: A Handbook (British Museum, 1972; 2nd ed. 1979), p.518 Grohskopf, The Treasure of Sutton Hoo, 66.9 Bruce-Mitford, A Handbook, 51.10 « Sutton Hoo Ship 2 Funeral Helmet Clip.” Video clip online. YouTube