EARLY ANGLO-SAXON CHRISTIAN RELIQUARIES
CONCLUSION The author has proposed above that the containers were used in Christian worship, and they functioned as Christian reliquaries. A strange phoneme and possibly an unusual ceremonial type practice appears to have been applied to reliquaries prior to burial and eventual closure of the grave. Early in this study It became apparent that many boxes were consigned to the grave in a deliberately broken or deconstructed condition prior to back filling and the final closing of the grave cut. Seventeen Type l relic boxes are recorded as missing either lid top or body base, some both. In addition to metal components and fragments an undamaged complete lid top assembly Type l was recovered from the fire debris at the SFB at Dover Painted House (Kent), although from its condition it does not appear to have been included in the original fire. In 1997 a further complete lid assembly was recovered by metal detection from Ascot-under-Wychwood (Oxfordshire) and a uniquely a deconstructed Type ll found by field walking undertaken at the Burwell Village (Suffolk) site. All three, appear to be little used high-status artefacts manufactured and decorated with great skill. The early development of the Christianisation of AS Kingdoms is usually assumed to be driven by the ruling class and powerful elite who were responsible for the initial drive to eradicate heathen practices from the Anglo-Saxon people. They are encouraged and influenced by Christian communities in Gaul and Byzantine with "the most of all external influences obvious was Rome" (Mayre-Harding 1972). By the mid seventh century with an increase in the establishment of monastic and female religious institutions, assisted by missionary zeal, additional clergy, aided by an effective and active bureaucracy it would appear that individuals within the population were providing the principal momentum of acceptance of conversion. One more God in a pantheon of gods would have little effect on day-to-day life for a largely illiterate and uneducated population.
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