The public defense
of the Ph.D. dissertation in Medieval Studies
by
Irene Barbiera
on
Migration and Identity during the Lombard Invasions
will be held on
Tuesday, 14 October 2003, at 14:00
in the
Gellner Room, Monument Building
CEU Budapest (V. Nádor u. 9.)
Examination Committee:
Chair: Francisca de Haan (CEU, Dept. of Gender Studies)
Members: József Laszlovszky (CEU, Dept. of Medieval Studies)
Walter Pohl (University of Vienna)
Miklós Takács (MTA Archaeological Institute)
External readers:
Cristina La Rocca (University of Padova)
Tivadar Vida (MTA Archaeoligical Institute)
The dissertation can be inspected in the
ELTE-CEU Medieval Library
Migration and Identity during the Lombard Invasions
According to the documentary sources, the Lombards rule in the Pannonian part of
the Danube region lasted from the year AD 510. They extended their control up to the
Drava river during the years AD 526-527, and later, from 535 onwards, they expanded
until the Sava. Continuous conflicts with the neighboring Gepids, led the Lombards to
ally themselves with the Avars. When the Avars moved towards Pannonia, the
Lombards left the region and invaded Italy. In the year AD 568 they entered the Friuli
region and occupied it. Their first settlement was Cividale.
Archaeological documentation, dating to the period of the Lombard occupation in
the two areas, Hungary and Italy, has always been used, together with sources, to clarify
some important questions about migration, identity and social construction of this
Germanic group. In particular, starting from the years 20’s of the 19th century, research
was mainly oriented towards matters of ethnic identity, as expressed through grave
goods from cemeteries, which represent the most important archaeological source.
Using categories of grave good types and styles, archaeologists tried to define the ethnic
origins of the buried individuals, and attempted to answer question concerning
integration between German invaders and local communities as well as social changes
within the migrating community.
This approach presupposes that groups were coherent units and that this unity was
express in funerary contexts through the deposition of grave goods, whose style
reflected a precise cultural “entourage”.
Much historical literature has recently been devoted to reviewing the classical
interpretation of migrating groups as coherent ethnic entities. Historians are currently
debating the problem of how these groups perceived themselves and what was meant
by the names ascribed to these peoples such as Avar, Lombard, Gepid and so on. The
general idea which has emerged, is that they were not rigidly defined ethnic groups,
maintaining an intact cohesion while migrating, but rather open micro-societies, whose
identity was fluid and adapted to circumstances. It follows then, that there is a question
about the role of material culture and style in the expression of group identity and
whether the production or use of artifacts was meant to express any kind of inter-group
identity. Since it is mainly artifacts, which have been found in cemeteries, there is also
the question of the particular meaning behind artifact deposition in graves.
Another traditional approach to the archaeological finds from Early Medieval
cemeteries is that of the social interpretation of grave goods. In particular, attempts
have been made to interpret various levels of wealth represented by assemblages and
the different types of artifacts’ deposition in graves as expressions of individual social
status. A very well known example is that of the interpretation of graves with weapons
as the burial of warriors, which has turned out to be over-simplistic.
Only very recently, archaeologists have begun to debate about the meaning of
artifact type deposition in graves, and its relation to the expression of identity in
funerary contexts. What has been pointed out is that traditional interpretations of grave
assemblages, as an expression of ethnic identity or rank, are the result of modern
mental schemes and do not necessarily reflect the way of thinking in the period under
investigation. New attempts have been made to investigate which identities were being
expressed through grave good deposition during the Migration Period with interesting
results. In particular, it appears that gender and age constructions is at the basis of grave
good selection so that in some cases, studies and research in this direction have yielded
very interesting and promising results.
Within this premise, the research questions I raised in my dissertation revolved
around trying to explain the meaning of multiple behaviors in funerary contexts. I
looked at which types of funerary construction can be recorded and to which extent
these data reflect the coeval perception of death and a conscious or unconscious
mediation of social relations. From this a study followed of which identities were
expressed in a funerary context and how gender, age and social status was symbolized
in the graves. Also questions were raised about the relation of cemetery construction
and migration, in particular, whether different funeral behaviors were found in different
areas and if so, how this can be related to migration and integration between
newcomers and natives, first in Pannonia and then in Italy?
For these purposes, the methodology used to answer these research questions has
been to describe and compare cemeteries dated to the Lombard period in two areas
significant to the Lombard question. These are Hungary and the region of Friuli in
Italy. In particular, the Hungarian cemeteries of Hegykő, Szentendre and Tamási,
excavated by Professor Istvan Bóna, and three cemeteries dated from the middle of the
AD 6th – 7th century were investigated in the region of Friuli, S. Stafano in Cividale,
Liariis near Ovaro and Romans d’Isonzo. Similar methods were applied to the analysis
of all the cemeteries.
The starting point of the investigation was whether grave goods’ deposition in
graves reflected gender and if so, what was its relation to age classes, cemetery
organization, and body disposal. For this purpose, I used a method introduced by Guy
Halsall in his analyses of Merovingian cemeteries in the Region of Metz.
Interestingly, but perhaps not surprisingly, different types of cemetery
construction were found in the two investigated areas. However, the model for the Metz
region cemeteries did not work in all the investigated cemeteries.
The three Hungarian cemeteries display a very similar organization,
corresponding to the distribution of artifacts in graves based on the gender and the age
at death of the buried individuals, similarly to the situation in Metz. Women dying
when they could be betrothed or married, or could still bear children were buried with a
complete set of female artifacts. Males could receive a complete set of weapons and
other male artifacts if they died at an adult and/or mature age. Also, individuals of the
same sex and age were often buried in groups of graves. This attitude seems to indicate
an age-based status, reflecting a quite egalitarian funerary community. Thus, interfamiliar social differentiation was not expressed in a funerary context, possibly because
there was no marked differentiation between kin groups. Lack of settlement
documentation did not allow this interpretation to be double checked for other social
contexts.
However, what is particularly interesting is the completely different organization
apparent at the cemetery of S. Stefano in Cividale. There, grave good selection did not
reflect age at death. Graves were instead arranged in clusters possibly corresponding to
family groups. Each group developed around the graves of founder ancestors, mainly a
male buried with weapons. The selection of the grave goods as well as the position of
the graves also seemed to stress the membership of the buried individuals within the kin
groups. In addition, inter-group differentiation was marked, with one of the groups
being particularly wealthy. Here in particular, richly decorated belt elements were
displayed in male graves. It has been hypothesized that as new groups settled down, the
acquisition of power by groups of newcomers, possibly the acquisition of land by the
new ruling families, and the presence of a town like Cividale, might result in the kind of
cemetery construction found at S. Stefano. New research in the area of Cividale is
needed to better clarify this matter.
The cemeteries of Liariis and Romans lack documentation. What could be seen is
that at Liariis there was no gender construction although grave goods were distributed
on the basis of age classes. This cemetery is differentiated from the other two in the
region. In general, the selection of the simple artifacts does not seem to reflect social
competition.
The interpretation of Romans is still open. It seems possible that the cemetery was
organized by groups. Possibly some graves with weapons also come from the first
phases of cemetery use and may have served as the graves of founding ancestors, as at
S. Stefano. However, in this cemetery grave goods were also distributed according to
gender and age classes in the graves of the first generations, at least in the published
part of the cemetery. Later on, graves tended to be neutral in terms of their grave goods.
It might be that Romans represents a sort of intermediate passage from the three
Hungarian cemeteries towards S. Stefano, but in any case, no conclusions can be drawn
without the publication of the complete cemetery.
Not only did cemetery construction change, but also grave goods selection, type of
graves and space concepts between the two areas. Differences were greater than
similarities so that one must ask the question of whether the cemeteries from the two
areas could actually belong to the same group given that new funerary strategies were
adopted in such a short time. It seems more plausible that, as has been pointed out
elsewhere, groups were more fluid and heterogeneous, so the way they reacted and
adapted to new situations was also heterogeneous. Similarly, migration occurred in
waves rather than in a single, sudden movement of people. The cemeteries in the two
investigated areas possibly belonged to different groups, with different strategies for
social differentiation as a response to different realities. It may indeed prove to be the
case that the Lombards were quite a heterogeneous collection of groups and those
communities burying their dead in the three cemeteries we investigated in Hungary
were not the ancestors of those later found at Cividale. In fact, the material is definitely
too limited to follow the great movements and changes which happened at that time.
Pannonia was not empty when the Lombards arrived and did not remain empty when
they left. The phase of Lombard occupation was, in any case, also quite short.
The method, introduced by Halsall and used here, produced very interesting
results from a methodological point of view as well. It confirmed the debated matter
that ethnic identity was not really expressed in funerary contexts. Grave goods were not
displayed in graves to express the ethnic origins of groups, individuals or families. As
we have seen, other kinds of social identities were negotiated in the cemeteries. The
choice of grave goods in different contexts was also variable depending on different
local realities. Therefore the research on ethnic groups based on funerary data really
does not seem to be promising. If these kinds of data really reflected ethnic identity then
a more homogeneous selection of types in the graves would have been found and
differentiation of grave goods would not have been based primarily on the gender, age
or family membership of the dead persons.
The study of grave good chronology shows us that clothing and weapons trends
changed over time. Artifact selection in graves changed quite drastically between
Hungary and Italy. New richly decorated belt fittings appeared in Italy, which are
missing from Hungarian cemeteries. Bow brooches and weapons are much more
common in Hungarian cemeteries, while in the cemeteries investigated from the Friuli
region, they appeared to be the privilege of a few.
From this it follows that material culture was not perceived as a means of
expressing a “conservative status” like ethnic origins, but rather its symbolic meaning
was malleable and adapted to different contexts.
The sample we considered here displayed material culture heterogeneity in
funerary contexts during the last phases of the Lombard migration. This, together with
the fact that identities other than ethnicity, such as gender and kin status, were most
directly displayed in a funerary context, indicates that expressing ethnic identity was not
a goal manifested in the cemeteries. Object selection in graves was not consciously
meant to reflect the ‘Lombardness’ of the dead persons but rather to mediate different
kinds of identity in relation to different realities and needs.
This research has shed new light on and given new impetus to the study of the
Lombard migration and settlement in Italy, from an archaeological perspective.
Research should continue in this direction, including study of more cemeteries and
settlements, to better clarify the steps in this migration, of identity formation and the
ways – at least in a funerary context – of the ways Lombard groups mediated their
identities within ever changing cultural landscapes.
Curriculum Vitae
Personal data
Date and place of birth: 10 May, 1972, Udine, Italy
Education
October 1996
Venice University
AugustNovember 1998
1998-2004
Amsterdam
University
CEU
Degree in letters with specialization in archaeology
and history (110/110 with honors). Title of thesis: “
Cividale in Friuli in the first Lombard period (VIVIII sec.). Civil society on the basis of the
archaeological record”.
Specialized course in funerary archaeology and
physical anthropology
PhD at the Department of Medieval Studies
Working experience
1994 - 1995
Museum of Cividale,
Cividale (Ud), Italy
April – May
Centro Italiano di
1997
Studi Sull’Alto
Medioevo, Spoleto,
Italy
January – Jun
Venice University
1997
Department of
History,
Italy
July – September British Museum
1998
London, UK
24 March 2000
Venice University,
Department of
History,
Italy
27 March 2000
Padova University,
Department of
History,
Italy
Sept 2000 – University of Pécs,
June 2001
Department of Italian
Studies
AprilMay Scuola di
2003
Speciallizzazione di
Archeologia, Padova
From June 2003 University of Padova
Catalogue of excavation finds held in the
Archaeological Museum in Cividale.
Collaboration in the Media Europa Project.
Research on early medieval inscriptions (AD 400 1199).
Researcher with the support of the European
Community (Leonardo da Vinci Program).
Public lecture
Public Lecture
Teaching archeology as a “special seminar”
Course on funerary archaeology
Researcher and assistant lecturer
Scholarships and research
January 1994
Academic year
1995
University of
Leicester, School of
Archaeological
Studies,UK
Venice University,
Department of
History, Italy
ERASMUS exchange student
Research on the late Medieval justice system in
Venice (14th century)
September 1996
University of Vienna,
Austria
March 1997
Centro Italiano di
Studi Sull’Alto
Medioevo, Spoleto,
Italy
Cividale del Friuli
(UD), Italy
May 1999
One month scholarship from the Austrian
Bundesministerium fur Wissenschaft, Verkehr und
Kunst.
Scholarship to attend a congress organized by the
Italian Centre for early medieval Studies, at
Spoleto.
Scholarship from Udine University. Conference:
“Polo Diacono uno scrittore tra tradizione
longobarda e rinnovamento carolingio”
September 1999 Cividale del Friuli
Scholarship by the “Centro Italiano di Studi
(UD), Italy
sull’Altomedioevo”. Conference: “Paolo diacono
e il Friul Alto medievale”
1 October 1999- ELTE University,
Scholarship from the Hungarian Foreign Affairs
31 August 2000 Budapest, Hungary
Ministry. PhD research project at Central
European University in co-operation with the
medieval archaeology department of ELTE
University.
February 2003
SAMI, Societá degli
“Ottone d’Assia” Prize for publishing the
Archeologi Medievisti dissertation
Italiani
Publications
Articles
“Morfologie sociali e culturali in Europa” (Social and cultural morphologies from late
Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages in Europe), report of the XLV Conference organized by
the Centro Italiano di Studi sull’Alto Medioevo and published in “Storia della chiesa in Italia”,
1997.
“ “Ai di’ remoti grande pur egli il Frogiulio appare”, Longobardi, storiografia e miti delle
origini in Cividale del Friuli”.(Lombards, storiography and myths of origin in Cividale of
Friuli), published in “Archeologia Medievale” 1998.
“Un filo sottile di continuità tra Ungheria e Italia. Il problema dell’Interpretazione dei materiali
archeologici databili al periodo della migrazione longobarda” (The Fine Thread of Continuity
between Hungary and Italy. The Problems of Interpretation surrounding the period of
Longobard Migration) in: Nova Corvina, 9 (2001): 96- 105
“Gender, age and social construction in Lombard period cemeteries in Hungary” Anteaus 2003,
in press.
Conference papers:
“Sixth-century cemeteries in Hungary and Italy: a comparative approach” presented in the
Internationales Symposion “Die Langobarden” held in Vienna in 2-4- November 2001.
Book reviews:
Vasco La Salvia. Archaeometallurgy of Lombard Swords, in Questionnes 1999.
Tre squarci di Storia Veneziana (Andrea Berto Testi storici Veneziani) in Nova Corvina
(2000): 184- 185.
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