The Circulation of Artefacts, Fashions and Styles in Langobard Lombardy and their Interactions with the Contemporary Byzantine Culture

The Langobard sites excavated in both the central-northern and central-southern regions of Italy reveal how the process of sociocultural assimilation had already commenced around 600, by which time the monarchy had overcome its problems of political instability. During this phase, official requirements of state, probably related to the needs of 'international' politics to which the Langobard monarchy aspired, prompted the ruling class to adopt objects and symbols that would make it recognizable to outsiders. On the basis of the existing finds, only rarely did these artefacts display the high technical and stylistic quality of contemporary jewellery made in Constantinople. This article proposes to examine which artefacts were used as 'symbols of power' in Langobard Lombardy to determine whether they were merely a 'provincial production', concentrated in certain urban settlements and in the castra, or whether it is possible to document the circulation of widespread models and goods, which travelled along privileged channels from the Byzantine workshops in central-southern Italy towards Pavia and Milan in the heart of the Regnum Langobardorum Maior.