When Basil Brown's famous excavation at Sutton Hoo was completed in 1939, it was perhaps no surprise that the fabulous ship-burial treasures revealed in Mound One took centre stage. That beautifully decorated helmet and the garnet-encrusted jewellery have since become icons of Anglo-Saxon craftsmanship. And yet, one of the most significant finds, with immense implications for constructional archaeology, was a host of humble iron nails, still joined to their washers. Like a giant join-the-dots diagram, they clearly delineated the position of the ship's planking, long since rotted away. These are what every ship and boat builder now knows as nails and roves: an extremely sturdy and adaptable fastening that essentially rivets two planks of wood together, creating an effective—or almost effective—watertight joint. I have a lovely seventeenth-century boat rib with its verdigris-patinated copper nail and rove still clinging on, long after the rest of the hull had disappeared. Boat pl...
