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Constructing Identity in Lombard Italy Giulia Vollono

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Constructing Identity in Lombard Italy Giulia Vollono Constructing Identity in Lombard Italy By: Giulia Vollono A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy The University of Sheffield Faculty of Arts and Humanities Department of Archaeology March 2017 Abstract This thesis addresses the process of identity construction in Lombard Italy through an examination of the expression of gender, an aspect often neglected in Lombard archaeology, which has tended to focus on issues surrounding migration and ethnicity. The main evidence considered are the grave good assemblages (1639 objects recorded from 347 furnished graves) found in sixteen Lombard-period cemeteries distributed across northern Italy and Tuscany. Methodologies for studying gender in Early Medieval cemeteries elsewhere in Europe have been adopted and adapted, including multivariate statistics, and the analysis has been also supported by information obtained from the written and iconographic sources. Through an integrated perspective that allows us to observe both the general trends and (as importantly) their variations, I show that beyond the well-known association between masculinity/weapons and femininity/jewellery gender discourse was a complex phenomenon, deeply intertwined with other facets of identity, and with local concerns and traditions. 1 Acknowledgements Many thanks are due to the Arts & Humanities Research Council and the University of Sheffield whose award of a scholarship and their support have allowed me to undertake this PhD research. I am also deeply grateful to my supervisors Professor John Moreland and Professor Dawn Hadley for their guidance, advice, patience and encouragement over these years. I have been very lucky to be part of a vibrant Department and all my thanks go to all the members of staff who have provided help and have exchange ideas with me in the course of this research. Many other people have contributed with their invaluable support to this work and in particular I am grateful to Mark, Sandro, Angela, Laura, Mauro, Lenny, Becky and Fernanda. A special thanks goes also to Dr Vito Mirizio. Finally, this thesis would have not been possible without my family, Giovanna, Enzo, Marianna, Luca, Marcella and Vincenzo, who have constantly believed in me and in this work. 2 Contents CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................................................. 12 1.1 Why the Lombard period? ........................................................................................................................ 13 1.2 Why the funerary record? ......................................................................................................................... 19 1.3 Why gender? .................................................................................................................................................. 20 1.4 Thesis outline ................................................................................................................................................ 22 CHAPTER 2: A HISTORY OF LOMBARD STUDIES ........................................................................................ 25 2.1 Introduction ................................................................................................................................................... 25 2.2 The ‘Lombard question’: a long-lasting debate. ............................................................................... 25 2.3 The second half of the 19th and the first decade of the 20th century: the flourishing of local histories and the first excavations. .................................................................................................... 31 2.4 From the 1920’s to 1960’s: new methods and new ideas towards the birth of Medieval Archaeology. .......................................................................................................................................................... 36 2.5 The 1970’s and the 1980’s: The birth of Medieval archaeology and the eclipse of Lombard studies .................................................................................................................................................. 42 2.6 The 1990s: between tradition and new perspectives. .................................................................. 45 2.7 The last decade and the debate about ethnicity: a new chance for Lombard studies? ..... 48 2.8 Conclusion....................................................................................................................................................... 51 CHAPTER 3: DATASET ........................................................................................................................................... 52 3.1 Introduction ................................................................................................................................................... 52 3.2 Funerary evidence for the Lombard period ...................................................................................... 53 3.2.1 The corpus of Lombard cemeteries and graves: main characteristics and issues ..... 53 3.2.2 The case-study cemeteries ............................................................................................................... 60 3.3 Recording and organising the archaeological data ......................................................................... 69 3.3.1 The database .......................................................................................................................................... 69 3.3.2 The categories of grave goods ........................................................................................................ 69 3.3.3 The age categories ............................................................................................................................... 77 3.4 Chronology ..................................................................................................................................................... 83 3.5 Written sources ............................................................................................................................................ 91 3.5.1 The Origo Gentis Langobardorum................................................................................................. 92 3.5.2 The Lombard Laws.............................................................................................................................. 93 3.5.3 The Historia Langobardorum ......................................................................................................... 95 3.5.4 The use of the written sources in the analysis on gender in the funerary record ...... 98 3.6 Iconography ................................................................................................................................................ 105 3.7 Conclusions ................................................................................................................................................. 109 CHAPTER 4: EVIDENCE AND APPROACHES TO GENDER AND MATERIAL CULTURE .............. 112 4.1 Introduction ................................................................................................................................................ 112 4.2 Research on gender in Lombard Italy ............................................................................................... 114 4.3 Gender in Early Anglo-Saxon England: the methodology of Nick Stoodley and the identification of general patterns in the grave goods assemblages. ............................................. 115 4.4 Gender in Merovingian Gaul: the methodology of Guy Halsall. ............................................... 124 4.5 Written sources, iconography and funerary evidence: a combined methodology as a comparative tool. .............................................................................................................................................. 131 4.5.1 Material culture and gender in the written sources ........................................................... 132 4.5.2 The definition of the object categories ..................................................................................... 158 4.5.3 The attribution of values to the object categories ............................................................... 161 4.5.4 Gender identity in the iconographic sources ......................................................................... 177 4.5.5 Gender identity in the funerary data: the case study of Santo Stefano in Pertica ... 188 4.6 Conclusions: summarising the methodology ................................................................................. 200 3 CHAPTER 5: GENDER OBJECTS AND ENGENDERED GRAVES IN THE CASE-STUDY CEMETERIES ........................................................................................................................................................... 205 5.1 Introduction ................................................................................................................................................ 205 5.2. General trends in the association of grave goods: the application of multivariate analysis to the case-study cemeteries ...................................................................................................... 207 5.3. Cemetery-by-cemetery analysis ........................................................................................................
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