“The pagan barbarians had buried their most precious possessions with their dead. These possessions would vary, from the weapons of ordinary men and the simple bronze or copper jewelry which even poor women owned to the to the treasures of great warriors and kings, such as those superbly rich objects of Sutton Hoo, in Suffolk, buried about the middle of the seventh century. For the archaeologist and historian these objects are magnificent and tangible evidence of the life style of the people of the period. For these people themselves, however, the buried goods were permanently lost and this was a serious loss at all levels of the economy. Churchmen denounced these burials as pagan and tried to persuade people to leave their valuables to the Church.”

— H.G. Koeningsberger,
Medieval Europe 400-1500, page 77.