From the cradle to the grave: Age organization and the early Anglo-Saxon burial rite

This is a study of the complex age organization that characterizes the earl y Anglo-Saxon burial rite. It involves an analysis of the grave goods, and wider aspects of the burial rite, demonstrating how the mortuary realm was active in the construction of stages in the lifecycle, and how this identit y was closely bound up with the gender and social status of the deceased. D espite offering some suggestions regarding the life experiences that each s tage held, it proposes that the real function of this system was to signal the position of members of the primary descent group within the households that made up the settlements of the early English.