The early Anglo-Saxons were pagans. They believed that when people died they went to an afterlife, and that they needed to take provisions with them for this final journey.
So, when someone died, the goods they would need were buried with their remains.
Most people were cremated, but when a king died, he was buried with the best goods the people could provide. Some of these goods survive. The most spectacular of all were found at Sutton Hoo.
