Early medieval funerary churches in the central-western Merovingian alpine areas: strategic and ideological choices of the Germanic aristocracy

The aim of this contribution is to focus on the results of archaeological surveys carried out on the early medieval funerary buildings situated on the central-southern Swiss alpine slope, without examining all the post-classical religious contexts within the western alpine areas, in order to reconstruct a systematic and comprehensive scenario of the ideological decisions reached by the Germanic aristocracy to create a 'memory'. While excavation data are useful for identifying some of the recurring factors involved in selecting the sites to host 'privileged funerary groups', the choices made by the founders (family groups or more extensive communities) may also have been based on variables linked to contingent issues and to the traditions of the specific 'family' never fully 'understood' through the material data.