The Role of Anglo-Saxon Great Hall Complexes in Kingdom Formation, in Comparison and in Context AD 500–750

Adam McBride investigates the emergence of Anglo-Saxon great hall complexes between AD 500 and 750 and asks what these high-status settlements reveal about the formation of early English kingdoms. Comparative analysis of known hall complexes is combined with new fieldwork, quantitative methods and a regional study of the Upper Thames Valley.

The book links monumental halls with the consolidation of elite authority, new supra-regional communities and changing political ideology after the end of Roman rule. Settlement and burial evidence are considered together to trace the development of socio-economic power before the great halls appeared and during their florescence. Its archaeological focus makes it especially useful for studying kingdom formation without reducing early Anglo-Saxon political change to a conventional narrative.