Initially conceived as an attempt to disprove the idea that cowrie shells served as currency during the period of the Hungarian invasion in the Carpathian basin (10th century AD), this study has grown into somehting much larger. It collects data for the presence of cowrie shells as grave goods over a far wider spatial and chronological range as part of a comparative anthropological study to determine their various functions, in particular as fertility amulets, as well as tracing their spread from the Eurasian Steppe to western Europe during the migration period.