Historian Gale Owen-Crocker, in her book, Dress in Anglo-Saxon England writes, "Despite allusions to mailcoats in the heroic poetry of the Anglo-Saxon period, the general absence of archaeological evidence for them, even in graves equipped with fine weapons, suggests that, at least in the earlier centuries of the Anglo-Saxon era, they were a rare luxury, and it was not unusual to fight without protective clothing; on the Franks Casket some spear-carriers are not equipped with armour".
