This seventh century Anglo-Saxon purse cover was one of many treasures found at a Pagan ship burial from Sutton Hoo in East Anglia on the Southeast coast of England. The cover is made of gold, cloisonné enamel, and dark red garnets. The cloisonné technique is one where different colored liquid enamel is poured on top of cloisonné which are formed with thin metal strips on top of ivory or bone. The decorations are symmetrical with two fighting animals at the center.
Pagan ship burials were used because there was a belief that the ships carried the souls of the dead to the afterlife. With the immense of amount of treasures the deceased was most likely of royalty. The purse itself carries with it traditions traced to Early Christian interlace designs and that of Germanic crafts of the Scythian animal style, as well as other ancient Near Eastern motifs. Crowded interlace design techniques that were flat were an undercurrent in Western Europe that continued through he Middle Ages, which replaced the use of organic form artwork. The two fighting animals in the middle of the purse that merge together to create the symmetry are characteristics of the Scythian style. As well as the duck and eagle that face one another hint at the possibility of invaders from the fifth century onward brought their artistic styles with them.
Northern European Art was largely influenced by Germanic tribes, but large waves of invasions by the Germanic tribes as well as the Franks into the British Isles and the Gauls led to no monumental architecture, painting, or sculpture. The metalwork brought by the invaders was the only form of expression really used by the native people in order to express themselves as a culture in burials and other such practices. The Sutton Hoo purse is an example of such a practice that can be seen emulated in tales such as Beowulf and other Germanic folklore.
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