Charles Phillips (archaeologist)

Charles William Phillips OBE FSA (24 April 1901 – 23 September 1985) was a British archaeologist best known for leading the 1939 excavation of the Sutton Hoo burial ship, an intact collection of Anglo-Saxon grave-goods.

[7] This included a stint at Stonehenge at the end of World War I, when a shortage of workers necessitated the use of older schoolboys to take in the harvest nearby.

[8] While home for the Christmas holiday that year, Phillips spent time exploring Burgh Castle, collecting pieces of Romano-British pottery that were placed in the school library.

[14] Phillips was in charge of the excavation of the Sutton Hoo ship-burial, widely considered the grave of the Anglo-Saxon king Rædwald of East Anglia, from 10 July to 25 August 1939.

[17] On 11 May, the remainder of an iron ship rivet was found, and seven days later Guy Maynard, the then curator of Ipswich Museum, was informed of the "indications of a large vessel" remaining in the soil.

[18] With the ship cleared but for the burial chamber, he arrived at Sutton Hoo on 8 July, and began work two days later.

[20] During the Second World War, Phillips served in the Royal Air Force in the Central Airphotographic Interpretation Unit and the Directorate of Military Survey.

[23] He was awarded the Victoria Medal of the Royal Geographical Society in 1967 for his contributions to the topography and mapping of Early Britain.

[10] In the 2021 film The Dig, which tells the story of the Sutton Hoo excavations, Phillips was played by actor Ken Stott.