The making of kingdoms:

Issue dedicated to the publication of papers delivered to the 47th Sachsensymposium, held in York in September 1996, on the theme of `The making of kingdoms'. Papers focus on the formative period of north-west European kingdoms, between c. AD 300--900, and draw on data from several distinct but geographically and culturally linked regions around the North Sea and Baltic. They are presented thematically, and include

summarises the perspective taken towards the earlier records for Anglo-Saxon kingship

the paper aims to illuminate the character of `productive sites' (characterised by large numbers of Middle and Late Saxon coins and other artefacts, and discovered by metal detector users), and to demonstrate that metal-detected and excavated sites are part of a continuum, using a comparison of the productive site at Cottam with the excavated Middle Saxon settlement at Wharram Percy

the author examines the reasons for the different development of the Church in Britain and in neighbouring areas of the continent, especially Gaul, looking in particular at the survival of Christianity from the Late Roman period through to the sixth century, and the survival of the British Church in Anglo-Saxon England

discussion of evidence relating to the origins and early history of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Lindsey on the east coast of England, in the area to the south of the Humber Estuary

the paper looks at the kinds of grave-goods found in seventh- and early-eighth-century graves in England, and the geographical distributions of these objects, aiming to show that the same types of grave-goods are found in all the early Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and suggesting that the sources of inspiration underlying the design and selection of the objects can be shown to be either earlier Romano-British material or contemporary Byzantine practice