Saxon king’s treasures go on display

A hoard of glass and copper jugs, ceremonial crosses and other Saxon artifacts has gone on display in London, giving the public a first look at a rare find of a royal tomb from the 7th century.

“To find an intact chamber grave and a moment genuinely frozen in time is a once-in-a-lifetime discovery,” Ian Blair, the senior archeologist on the dig, said Thursday at the Museum of London.

Nothing is left of the king who was buried in the wood-walled grave. His tomb was found beneath the streets of Prittlewell, in the English Channel port of Southend, 35 miles east of London.

The grave was discovered completely intact after excavation began in October. It is the most significant Saxon discovery since 1939, when a burial chamber was recovered in an 84-foot-long ship at the Sutton Hoo site in eastern England. Experts estimate that the Southend burial was contemporary with the Sutton Hoo burial and the kings may have known each other.