Second, the connection between any specific burial and any specific ritual role depends on multiple lines of evidence converging.

A staff alone, or even three staffs, does not securely identify the burial as that of a ritual practitioner.

Third, by 1079, Christianity was firmly established in England.

The burial was in a Christian churchyard, within a Christian church building.

Whatever pre-Christian practices the burial customs echoed, the interment in consecrated ground suggests the individual was recognized, at least by the community, as a Christian.

What the staffs more broadly suggest is that the burial customs applied to this individual drew on Scandinavian or Scandinavian-influenced traditions, either because the deceased came from such a background or because the community burying him maintained practices that reflected Scandinavian heritage.