The following discussion takes account of recent work, published and unpublished, but is largely based on personal inspection of the remains of some 150 shields from Early Saxon burials (Appendix 5). Comparative evidence includes the well studied Sutton Hoo shield, essentially a Scandinavian shield in an Anglo-Saxon context (Bruce-Mitford 1978, 91), the Swedish parallels from Vendel Period burials at Valsgärde (seventh/eighth century AD), and the well preserved shield remains from Roman Iron Age bog deposits in the Continental homelands of the Anglo-Saxons (mostly third/fourth century AD).