Comune di Spilamberto

The cemetery of Spilamberto, excavated in 2003, chronicles the history of a group of Langobards, who lived and died on the banks of the Panaro River fifteen centuries ago, at the dawn of the Middle Ages. While not very familiar with the dwellings of this noble clan – assigned to monitor the uncertain border with the Byzantine dominions and that lasted no more than one generation – we do know something about the small cemetery, containing about thirty graves datable to the early invasion phase.

The funerary customs and grave goods, including some very high quality artefacts of undeniable symbolic value, provide us with a glimpse of their culture, a part of their daily life as well as their relationships with the Roman populations. The warriors were buried with personal weapons that according to Germanic tradition denoted a free and fighting man. 

Instead, the grave goods of the female graves are much richer and more elaborate and provide evidence of an assiduous interaction with the Byzantine world and a cultural association with other Germanic nations. Along with everyday objects and typical Langobard style jewellery, there are also some precious and “exotic” artefacts.

The most distinctive are a gilded silver brooch with antique cameo, a magnificent glass drinking horn and a rare forged iron folding stool covered with damascened decorations.      

The familiar and social lineage of these women is further enhanced by the burial, next to the graves, of three Nordic ponies, perhaps descendents of the strong horses ridden by the Winnili-Langobards, six centuries earlier, during their first migration from Scandinavia.

The cemetery is to date the most important evidence of the Langobard presence in the area of Modena. Such a discovery makes Spilamberto a crucial site in the early medieval history of Emilia-Romagna.