Romani e Ostrogoti fra integrazione e separazione. Il contributo dell’archeologia a un dibattito storiografico

Abstract

The paper deals with issues of integration between the Roman population and new immigrants, known from the sources with the collective name of “Ostrogoths”, in the Italian kingdom of Theoderic. Earlier scholarship has focused mostly on the written sources, leading to conflicting conclusions. In this study the material evidence takes the forefront as main data to reconstruct trends of contacts and acculturation among natives and immigrants. The survey of the extant sites showing the possible presence of Ostrogothic groups around the end of the fifth century CE is here limited to modern Piedmont and Valle d'Aosta. The emerging picture is quite complex: while it is possible to identify interrelations and exchanges between the two groups at different levels of the social life, there are also clear signs of exclusions and separation attesting to a social and economic milieu in rapid transformation.