How did new societies emerge after the end of antiquity in the regions that were once Roman and were now ruled by “foreigners”? This question is shed light on a genetic study of the inhabitants of northern Italy after the conquest by the Lombards in the middle of the 6th century. The genetic makeup of the people reflects the fact that members of the local population were soon accepted into the elites of the new rulers and served to ensure the stability of the new kingdom of the Lombards.
It was a turbulent era that changed the course of European history forever: During the so-called migration period and the end of antiquity, Germanic ethnic groups conquered parts of the former Western Roman Empire and established new political systems there. A particularly important turning point was the invasion of the Lombards from what is now western Hungary and eastern Austria into Italy in 568 AD. They eventually founded a kingdom there that lasted for almost 200 years. The name of the northern Italian region of Lombardy dates back to this time.
Occupation – and then?
The Lombards’ seizure of power and immigration is well documented in surviving texts. It is fundamentally clear that the conquerors filled the key positions of power in Italy with their leaders. In rural areas, this was done by establishing a warlike upper class to replace the previous landowners. But the exact processes involved remain unclear: were locals also integrated into the Lombard ruling class and to what extent did the foreigners adapt to the Christian late Roman society of northern Italy? An international research team has now investigated this question using the example of the community of Collegno in northwest Italy, which was founded in the early phase of the Lombard occupation at the end of the 6th century.
“In this relatively small community, which probably guarded a highway in the service of the Lombard king, we can trace the consequences of a campaign of conquest in late antique Italy,” explains Pohl. The results of the study are based on a combination of traditional historical and archaeological finds with paleogenetic analysis results: The team examined the genomes from the remains of a total of 52 members of the local upper class who were buried in the Collegno cemetery between the 6th and 8th centuries. This enabled the researchers to shed light on family relationships and the genetic heritage of the dead.
Early integration process
As the team reports, the genetic tests showed that the majority of the people buried in Collegno did indeed carry Lombard genetic heritage. But it also appears that one of the founding families was of Mediterranean, i.e. Roman, origin. This group, whose graves were also equipped with valuable weapons, was apparently integrated into the Lombard military leadership. As a result, marriages and gradual genetic mixing then occurred, the researchers report. “The archaeogenetic findings suggest that members of the local population were soon incorporated into the new elite and even helped to protect and administer the Lombard kingdom,” says co-author Walter Pohl from the Institute for Medieval Research at the Austrian Academy of Sciences in Vienna.
As far as the reverse influence of the local culture on the Lombards is concerned, special finds in some graves provided evidence, the researchers report: so-called gold leaf crosses prove the Christian faith of those buried from the Lombard-influenced upper class. According to the team, this is a sign of the religious integration of the foreigners from the north into the late antique or early medieval society of northern Italy. Ultimately, a picture of the development of the community emerges that is characterized by social and cultural integration. “It was obviously not simply the case that a troop of conquerors from the north subjugated the resident majority of the population and kept them dependent,” Pohl concludes.
Source: Austrian Academy of Sciences