The Archaeology of Power in Lombard Female Burials in central-northern Italy. Marriage, Integration, Grave Goods and Status Symbols

This article highlights several unusual aspects of the socio-political structure of Lombard society in the years following the conquest of Italy, bearing in mind that Germanic society consisted unequivocally of both men and women with complementary roles and the possibility of action, including intervention in the economic sphere, which could be expressed in various ways. As well as the capacity of foreigners to integrate with the local community, traditionally recognised in the two cemeteries of Nocera Umbra and Castel Trosino, the archaeological evidence shows a second form of integration with a process that took place exclusively within individual Germanic communities. The Collegno cemetery reveals the presence of women belonging to the Merovingian culture, probably from transalpine territories and of high social status, who integrated with the Germanic community without losing the prerogatives of their rank during the transitional period. Lastly, the case of the Spilamberto cemetery shows how the formation of grave goods, and thus the investment capacity of individual families, corresponded to needs that exceeded any other necessity including the state of health of female individuals. By placing all these elements on an ideal hypothetical level of reflection, it can be suggested that a funeral, at least until the mid-seventh century, was not just a religious ceremony but the moment when the family of the deceased displayed their economic capacity to absorb the roles, prerogatives and property of the dead person through the permanent loss of material goods, sometimes of significant value, when they were placed in the burial.