Abstract
The arrival of the Longobards in Northern Italy in 568 CE marked a period of renewed political stability in the Peninsula after the collapse of the Western Roman Empire. The trajectory of the spread of Longobards in Italy across the Alps and into the South is known from many literary sources. However, their mobility and residence patterns at a population level remain to be fully understood. Here we present a multi-isotopic analysis (87Sr/86Sr and 18O/16O) of 39 humans and 14 animals buried at the Longobard necropolis of Povegliano Veronese (VR, Italy; 6th—8th century CE), to address mode and tempo of the spread of this population in the Peninsula. The geographical location of Povegliano Veronese plays a key role: the site lies along the Via Postumia, which was one of the main ancient Roman roads of Northern Italy, representing an important route in post-classical Italy. The integration of isotopic data with the archaeological evidence allowed us to determine the presence of individuals from at least three different regions of origin, building a diachronic map of the dynamics of mobility of this group in northern Italy.
Highlights
The arrival of the Longobards in Northern Italy in 568 CE marked a period of renewed political stability in the Peninsula after the collapse of the Western Roman Empire
We attempt to integrate archaeological, skeletal, and biomolecular data at the Longobard necropolis of Povegliano Veronese to understand how and to what extent did the Longobard ingression in Italy changed the socio-cultural scenario of the Peninsula
Animal tissues fall in the range of the soil samples and of most humans, whereas 19 humans, 1 Bos taurus and 1 Equus caballus fall outside the range of the analyzed soils
Summary
The arrival of the Longobards in Northern Italy in 568 CE marked a period of renewed political stability in the Peninsula after the collapse of the Western Roman Empire. Between the sixth and eighth centuries CE they gave life to an independent kingdom, subdivided into numerous small dukedoms After their arrival in 568 CE under King Alboin’s leadership, they left many traces of their settlement in Northern Italy and their subsequent diffusion towards the south. With a growing literature on skeletal, isotopic and ancient DNA investigations on Barbaric communities in Central E urope[3,4], little has been done in Italy so far[5,6,7,8,9,10] This represents a void in the literature, especially considering how central is the role of Italy in the transition between the Roman times and the following postclassical phases. Where the historical sources are rich of information (i.e. the agreements between Longobard dignitaries and autochthonous authorities, or the presence of laws on m arriages11), our understanding of the biological background of local and non-local populations with the transition to the Middle Ages is still lacking
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