Lombards

From "The English Historical Review", 115, no. 463 (2000), p. 1093: In a rigorous and minute analysis of the much debated appearance (unique of its kind) of the temr 'romani' in a Lombard document of 767, A. Ghignoli argues convincingly that it resalts, in fact, from a mistranscription by the baffled tweltfth-century notary responsible for the copy in wich the document survives of the contextually much more fitting word 'massari'.

In this article it is attempted to survey historical developments from 379 through 568 A. D. in the territory of the two southern Pannonian Roman provinces established under the Emperor Diocletian, i.e. Pannonia Secunda or Sirmiensis and Pannonia Savia. The period between the Antiquity and the Middle Ages was marked in Pannonia by a series of short-lived ascendancies of several barbarian conglomerates dominated by various Germanic peoples (Goths, Gepids, Lombards) and by Huns.

The Byzantine Southern Italy (876-1071) consisted of the themes of Longobardia (modern Apulia), Lucania (modern Basilicata) and Calabria, is the least studied region of the Byzantine Empire. After the Byzantine reconquest of this region from the Lombards and the Arabs, Constantinople organized the political, military and ecclesiastical infrastructure of the region in order to establish on the one hand the Byzantine power, and on the other to intergrade the Lombards and the Latin Church within the Empire. The Byzantine politics and the attitude of the population itself formed a frontier society based on co-existence and tolerance without disputes as every demographic group acknowledged its own different identity and the identity of the other. The Byzantine culture in southern Italy was formed, developed and finally established within this context, but always under the control of the central authorities. Until today the Byzantine art of southern Italy has not been the subject of a special study, but it is always studied briefly as a part of the Medieval art of the region. As a result the Byzantine monuments have not been placed so far within the political, religious, social and ideological context in which they were created. This PhD thesis examines for the first time only the art of the Byzantine period in association with the information of the rich Byzantine archive this region possesses. This methodological approach allowed to study the way the artistic creation, the cults and the state ideology were transferred from Constantinople to the western frontier, the way Byzantine art was developed within the context of the demographic differences of this border area, how Byzantine art was acculturated by a frontier society, the means by which the art, the cults and the state ideology were established and how the interaction between the Byzantines and the Lombards is manifested. The first part of the thesis is dedicated to the monuments and the other kind of evidence that are directly or indirectly connected with Constantinople itself such as the praitorion of the Catepans of Italy, the liturgical roll Exultet 1 of Bari, and the various commissions of the Byzantine officials. The detailed analysis of the epigram of Basil Mesardonites for his building activity in the praitorion alongside with the archeological data and the evidence from the written sources led to the reestablishment of the praitorion as the political, military and religious centre of the Byzantines, while an attempt is made for its archeological reconstruction. Regarding the Exultet 1 this thesis challenges for the first time the established view that the roll was commissioned by the Lombard archbishop of Bari alone, explores the role the Byzantines played in its decoration and reveals the mechanisms by which the art and the imperial ideology were transferred directly from Constantinople to the western frontier. The detailed analysis of the commissions of the Byzantine officials challenges the traditional view that the churches and the works of art were sponsored only by the local officials. The second part of this thesis studies monumental art in six built and cave churches, i.e. S. Pietro at Otranto, S. Maria della Croce at Casaranello, S. Cristina at Carpignano, Ss. Stefani near Vaste, the anonymous cave church in Grottaglie and the fragments of frescoes that were excavated in the Church BB in Masseria Quattro Macine. The detailed iconographic and artistic analysis not only led to the identification of unknown saints until today and the redating of some of the paintings, but it also revealed the degree of convergence with the monuments of the rest of the empire regarding the art and the cults, and the degree of deviation from the Byzantine tradition as an expression of local eclecticism. The third part of the thesis is dedicated to local issues of art and cult. Here the question of the liturgical use of the cave churches is analysed and the traditional view that the cave churches were private funerary chapels where the liturgy did not took place is challenged. Another local element that is studied in detail is the Christοcentric decoration of the apse and finally the establishment and the diffusion of the popular cults of southern Italy, those of the Virgin Mary, of the archangel Michael, and of St Nicholas as they are attested in monumental art and the written sources.

In which some passages of the Historia Langobardorum are examined, with the purpose of evidentiating the existence of a "trickster" or shapeshifting figure in the Lombard culture of the VII century.
Parallels among this character and the Norse character of Loki (or rather Loptr) are made.
Original Latin text included.
Emglish translation soon to follow.

In its dealings with women, the Lombard state was highly oppressive. As indicated by the Lombard laws, Rothari’s Edict and the Laws of King Grimwald, illustrate that much restriction was placed on the freedom of action possessed by women. This subordinate position was likely based on old attitudes about a woman’s inherent sinfulness, notably in sexual matters, as seen in surviving narrative sources which heavily criticised the sexual behaviour of Lombard queens. As indicated by medieval narrative sources, ‘woman’ was a marked gendered; medieval people considered ‘man’ as the human standard, and women as capable of extraordinary good, as seen with the Virgin Mary, and evil, as would have been explicated by Eve. That is, a woman could be recognized as either esteemed or maligned, and in some cases both seemed to apply. In Paul the Deacon’s History of the Lombards, we are given several portrayals of women, some myth and others historical accounts of Lombard queens. As one of the few primary sources for Lombard history, Paul’s portrayal of femininity upholds medieval gender ideology. The ubiquitous idea of a hierarchical gender binary, which saw ‘man’ as more perfectly human than ‘woman,’ constrained medieval ideas about sexual difference and the agency of women.

promoted the collection of relics in cathedrals and/or urban foundations both to centralize their power and to increase their prestige. Their ventures were part of a wider framework in which the mobility of the saints’ bodies, which was strictly defined by the Carolingian authorities, put various political and social agents in a relationship, often competitive, with each other. This paper considers two cases of the translation of saints’ bodies at the peripheries of the Carolingian Empire: the furta sacra of St Mark (from Alexandria, Egypt to Venice, 828) and St Bartholomew (from the island of Lipari to Benevento, 838-839). Both the hagiographical traditions narrate the theft and transport of the relics from the Islamic world to the Italian peninsula by boat. These two cases are also both related to a conscious and ambitious plan to strengthen local public authorities. The paper examines the underlying political strategies that led to the mobility of two of the most important relics...

Excavations at the Torba Tower conducted between 2017 and 2019 have revealed part of sequence of the more than four m. of stratified archaeological layers present in the courtyard between the monastery and the church of Santa Maria. Two important phases were identified: the first slightly precedes the Lombards’ arrival; the other, of late 6th to early 7th century date, is associated with a horse burial and the intense deposition of silts and clays interleaved with some trodden surfaces with hearths.

This work is focused on the ways in which the people and the kingdom of the Lombards are depicted by the narrative sources of the frankish kingdom. The sources analyzed are the Libri Historiarum X by Gregory of Tours, the Chronicle of Fredegar with its continuators, the Annales Regni Francorum in both their versions and the Annales mettenses priores. The results show the influence of the historical and political context in the representation of the lombard world by the Frankish historiography between sixth and ninth century.

La conversazione si è tenuta il 10/6/2022 nell'ambito della settima edizione della “Lunga Notte delle Chiese”, evento di carattere nazionale che ha visto l’apertura serale dei luoghi di culto. Il tema per il 2022 è stato “IN-CONTRO” due parole apparentemente contrapposte ma che in realtà esprimono l’elemento centrale e significativo del dialogo, ossia quello della diversità. Il programma generale delle iniziative promosse insieme ai volontari parrocchiali del territorio, avrà quindi come filo conduttore quello dell’incontro e della condivisione. Nel quadro delle iniziative organizzate per l'occasione dalla Parrocchia di Cittaducale -Diocesi di Rieti-, ci sono state le aperture straordinarie di alcune delle chiese cittadine nel corso delle quali la comunità ha accolto e accompagnato i visitatori alla loro scoperta, veri e propri scrigni di arte e di devozione, un'occasione di incontro tra membri della stessa comunità e allo stesso tempo un modo per far conoscere e approfondire la storia e le tradizioni di Cittaducale. La “Lunga Notte delle Chiese” si è presentata così come un’occasione di conoscenza e di riscoperta di un territorio, quello angioino, caratterizzato da piccole entità di straordinaria bellezza, ciascuno custode di un patrimonio unico fatto di arte, di tradizioni e di fede che merita di essere valorizzato a pieno. I luoghi coinvolti nell’iniziativa sono stati:
- cattedrale S.Maria del Popolo;
- Basilica S.Maria di Sesto ( centro d'italia)
- chiesa S.Cecilia ed i suoi affreschi - chiesa Madonna delle Grazie
- portale S.Agostino

In this seminar paper written in english I focus on the interpretation of the ornaments of some archaeological finds from the 6th and 7th century Carpathian Basin in the context of germanic mythology. The discussion is about bird shaped brooches, germanic bracteates and the decoration of one particular find, the belt buckle from the 85th grave of the early 7th cemetery at Kölked-Feketekapu B. By this I am hoping to give a few clues as to how did the mythology look like for the germanic peoples living in the Carpathian basin at this time, compared to the later written sources about nordic mythology.

Schede di alcuni preziosi (Ori di Senise, Ori Bizantini, Reperti metallici da San Vincenzo al Volturno) presenti all'interno del catalogo della mostra: Longobardi. Un popolo che cambia la storia. G.P. Brogiolo, F. Marazzi, C. Giostra (a cura di), Milano 2017, pp. 63-68, 70-76, 131, 142-145 + immagini.

Written sources, in particular the Edict of Rothari and Paul the Deacon, provide a number of points for reflection on the Longobards’ distribution in Italy, regarding “hospitalitas”, and the meaning of certain terms (“fara”, “exercitales”, “arimanni”) that refer to their social composition.
The challenge for the archaeologist is to compare this information with the interpretations derived from independent research agendas, which are increasingly complex if they are the result of systematic investigations. Here a couple of aspects are discussed: the first concerns the physical identification in settlements of what is suggested by written sources; the second the degree of mobility, given the short duration of some sites (residential and funerary) and the success of others

Di fronte ai numerosi problemi che pone la fragilità strutturale della regalità longobarda, evidente alla luce delle numerose usurpazioni e detronizzazioni nel corso della sua storia (569-774), appare centrale il tema della conferma dell’acquisizione del potere da parte di un nuovo sovrano, anche attraverso cerimonie e oggetti di specifico valore simbolico. In tal senso, vale la pena sottolineare come nell’evoluzione delle forme dei vari ‘linguaggi del potere’ adottati dalle espressioni della regalità, non sia mai mancato l’utilizzo di oggetti e rituali che confermassero a livello simbolico l’avvenuta assunzione e la transizione della sovranità.

Archaeological evidence and historical sources allow for further reflections on defensive structures of Media valle del Sele, an important area of the Salernitan principality. Therefore, moving from the most recent data that have come to light, we will attempt to demonstrate the diachronic nature of fortifications systems between Eboli and Campagna, and how it played a central role in the settlement, political and social dynamics during Lombard age and the early years of Norman conquest. In particular, the paper focuses on two complementary castella, strategically placed along via campanina, the medieval road passing through locus Tuscianus and Locus Furanus: the castle of Monte di Eboli and the fortress of Alegisio.
The interdisciplinary methodology shows innovative dating proposals on two castles investigated that, as a consequence, postpone the dynamic strengthening activity in Media valle del Sele between 10th and 11th century, originated by the direct presence of princely authority, which evolved with the society of the late Lombard world and, finally, was transformed by inclusion in the Salernitan context of Normans.

La scoperta di nuove deposizioni equine nei cimiteri italiani d'età longobarda ha ampliato il quadro delle testimonianze archeologiche legate alla tradizione culturale germanica, mostrando una certa articolazione delle forme di seppellimento del cavallo. In assenza di uno studio mirato a inquadrare il fenomeno in un arco spazio-temporale più ampio dell'Italia longobarda, nel saggio si è cercato di dare un preliminare contributo a questo tema di ricerca, mostrando ed esaminando anche le modalità di deposizione riscontrate nei siti longobardi precedenti allo stanziamento in Italia e dislocati in varie regioni dell'Europa centro-orientale. L'analisi dei ritrovamenti suggerisce la rilettura di alcune ipotesi interpretative, mentre le numerose variabili di deposizione rivelano molteplici significati culturali e simbolici, che meriterebbero di essere sondati anche sotto il profilo antropologico-culturale.

The discovery of new horse burials in Italian cemeteries of the Lombard period has increased the framework of the archaeological finds connected to the Germanic tradition, showing articulation of the ways of horse depositions. In the absence of a  study focused on the classification of the phenomenon within a spatial and temporal framework wider than Italian peninsula, with this paper I give the first contribution to this thematic of research, making visible and examining also the ways of deposition noticed in the archaeological sites of the Lombard period dislocated in Italy and various countries of Eastern and Central Europe. The analysis of the finds suggests the reinterpretation of some hypotheses, while the numerous variables reveal several cultural and symbolic meanings that deserve to be analyzed also through the lens of the cultural anthropology.

Several archaeological campaigns were performed between 1987 and 1995 in the Schieppo hamlet of Ponte Lambro. The investigations identified the remains of the pars rustica/fructiaria of a Roman villa, firstly built and inhabited between 1st and mid-3rd century AD. The complex is laid out lengthwise, and includes buildings and facilities for storing and processing agricultural products: a granary, a drying kiln, a calcatorium and a probable winery. The site was firstly abandoned by the second half of the 3rd century. In late antiquity, people settled again in the site and carried out a major reorganization. The villa was still occupied during the 6th century. The essay presents a small hoard of 29 pre-gallienc bronze coins that was hidden between the pilae of the drying kiln; a new fraction of siliqua of Baduila and a finger ring with a devotional medal of saint Giovanni Emiliani.