The Anglo-Saxon button brooch is a small disc brooch, about 2cm in diameter and decorated with a single human face mask, found mainly in southern England and occasionally in France; although many examples survive, its origins and development are not fully understood. This book offers a comprehensive study of its typology, genealogy and chronology. It investigates formal and structural design features, proposes a prototype- and statistics-based typology, and examines the physical, conceptual and geographical dimensions of the classification. Through an in-depth description of class-internal distinctions and class-external similarities, the author also explores the development of button brooches and reconstructs their genealogy or derivational history. He then situates the evolutionary trajectory of button brooches in a temporal framework, by linking them to other brooch types such as Jutlandic relief brooches and Saxon cast saucer brooches, and by taking account of associated grave goods as appropriate. A catalogue of the entire corpus of 209 button brooches and that of related objects is provided in the appendices; there are also over 200 plates and other illustrations, enabling the details to be carefully studied. SEIICHI SUZUKI is Professor of Old Germanic Studies, Kansai Gaidai University, Japan.

A vivid and detailed reconstruction of the costume worn in England before the arrival of the Norman conquerers.

The Tribal Hidage, attributed to the 7th century, records the named groups and polities of early Anglo-Saxon England and the taxation tribute due from their lands and surpluses. Whilst providing some indication of relative wealth and its distribution, rather little can be deduced from the Hidage concerning the underlying economic and social realities of the communities documented. Sue Harrington and the late Martin Welch have adopted a new approach to these issues, based on archaeological information from 12,000 burials and 28,000 objects of the period AD 450–650. The nature, distribution and spatial relationships of settlement and burial evidence are examined over time against a background of the productive capabilities of the environment in which they are set, the availability of raw materials, evidence for metalworking and other industrial/craft activities, and communication and trade routes. This has enabled the identification of central areas of wealth that influenced places around them. Key within this period was the influence of the Franks who may have driven economic exploitation by building on the pre-existing Roman infrastructure of the south-east. Frankish material culture was as widespread as that of the Kentish people, whose wealth is evident in many well-furnished graves, but more nuanced approaches to wealth distribution are apparent further to the West, perhaps due to ongoing interaction with communities who maintained an essentially ‘Romano-British’ way of life.

An Archaeology of the Early Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms is a volume which offers an unparalleled view of the archaeological remains of the period. Using the development of the kingdoms as a framework, this study closely examines the wealth of material evidence and analyzes its significance to our understanding of the society that created it. From our understanding of the migrations of the Germanic peoples into the British Isles, the subsequent patterns of settlement, land-use, trade, through to social hierarchy and cultural identity within the kingdoms, this fully revised edition illuminates one of the most obscure and misunderstood periods in European history.

Anglo-Saxon Studies in Archaeology and History is an annual series concerned with the archaeology and history of England and its neighbours during the Anglo-Saxon period. ASSAH offers researchers an opportunity to publish new work in an interdisciplinary and multi-disciplinary forum which allows for a diversity of approaches and subject matter. Contributions focus not just on Anglo-Saxon England but also its international context.

Volume 23 of Anglo-Saxon Studies in Archaeology and History (ASSAH), a series concerned with the archaeology and history of England and its neighbours during the Anglo-Saxon period (circa AD 400-1100).

This electronic version has been made available under a Creative Commons (BY) open access license. This book is available as an open access ebook under a CC-BY licence. Early Anglo-Saxon cemeteries are known for their grave goods, but this abundance obscures their interest as the creations of pluralistic, multi-generational communities. This book explores over one hundred early Anglo-Saxon and Merovingian cemeteries, using a multi-dimensional methodology to move beyond artefacts. It offers an alternative way to explore the horizontal organisation of cemeteries from a holistically focused perspective. The physical communication of digging a grave and laying out a body was used to negotiate the arrangement of a cemetery and to construct family and community stories. This approach foregrounds community, because people used and reused cemetery spaces to emphasise different characteristics of the deceased, based on their own attitudes, lifeways and live experiences. This book will appeal to scholars of Anglo-Saxon studies and will be of value to archaeologists interested in mortuary spaces, communities and social archaeology.