Silver bowls and spoons from the ship burial at Sutton Hoo

These shallow bowls were part of a set of 10. They come from the eastern Mediterranean and may have been brought to East Anglia as a gift, probably via the Frankish kingdom in continental Europe.
Each bowl is decorated with a cross pattern. The spoons are inscribed in Greek with two names, Saulos and possibly Paulos. It was once thought that these were Christian references to the conversion of St Paul, but it is possible that the engraver simply made a mistake and put an ‘S’ instead of another ‘P’.