Monuments and the past in early Anglo‐Saxon England

Recent research on both old and new excavation data from Anglo‐Saxon burial sites reveals a widespread and frequent practice of reusing monuments of earlier periods. Both Roman and prehistoric structures provided the focus of cemeteries, burial groups and single graves between the late fifth and early eighth centuries AD. It is argued that this practice was central to the symbolism of Anglo‐Saxon mortuary practices, and was important for the construction and negotiation of origin myths, identities and social structures.