POLITIES AND PRINCES AD 400–800: NEW PERSPECTIVES ON THE FUNERARY LANDSCAPE OF THE SOUTH SAXON KINGDOM

Burials, borders and boundaries are themes much pursued in early medieval research. Barrow burials, in particular, have been suggested as markers or ‘sentinel graves’; funerary monuments used to define territorial boundaries and entrance points to kingdoms. This paper assesses the burial evidence of the fifth to eighth centuries from West Sussex, England, taking a topographic perspective and examining the uses made of ancient remains and natural topography. Certain distinctive topographic traits in cemetery and burial placement are argued to exist and, when considered alongside the written accounts of the kingdom, are suggested here as evidence for putative early micro‐kingdom structures, centred around the major river valleys, surviving into and perhaps even beyond the seventh century AD.