The use of grave-goods in conversion-period England c. 600 - c. 850 A.D.

This study comprises a descriptive analysis of the entire range of Anglo-Saxon grave goods and an exploration of their causes and meanings from the 7th and 8th centuries, a time when kingdoms went through far-reaching changes in their ideologies, trade relationships and social structures. The first half of the book consists of discussion of identification of the data, the grave-goods types, the cultural affliations of grave-goods and interpretation of the data. The second half consists of a gazetteer of conversion-period Anglo-Saxon burial sites, numerous maps and pages of figures illustrating the artefacts. Geake concludes that the grave-goods from this period expressed a pan-English neo-classical' identity, an Anglo-Saxon imperial ideology, drawing heavily on Roman prototypes and that this identity was promoted by the church and the state to legitimise the power of their hierarchies.