Between the sixth and the eighth centuries AD, the practice of depositing grave goods with the dead was almost entirely abandoned across western Europe. By bringing together data from 237 cemeteries across Europe, and analyzing them through geostatistical methods, this paper demonstrates the near contemporaneity of the change across almost all of the area studied, beginning in the mid-sixth century, and accelerating towards the end of the seventh century. It interprets this change in light of the evidence for trade and connectivity, which allowed the rapid diffusion of cultural practices across wide areas.