Lombards

[Ironhand]

A group I'm curious about is the Lombards. While a lot of information is out there about them, I haven't found much about their clothing and equipment. It could be very interesting with their contact with the Mediterranean and the Avar.

[PMBardunias]

This is the best primary source, I just happened to find a translation online the other day:

http://www.northvegr.org/lore/langobard/index.php

There is a line of "osprey-like" books from Italy. One is specifically on the Lombards.

[Ironhand]

Thanks. It looks like I have a bit of reading to do. Oh well, I'm used to staying up nights anyhow.

[Aethelfrith]

Lombards are a rather neglected people, which is a shame as they are interesting and help shape modern Italia.

[kuura]

An excellent first source is a publication called Dawn of the Dark Ages, the Lombards and Gepids in the Carpathian basin. It's a Hungarian publication by Corvinus, I have it at home so can give you the exact title (If I've got it wrong :roll: ) and IBN number etc.
It has details on Lombard and Gepid dress, weapons, armour etc and B&W line drawings and plates of brooches, ceramics etc.

[Carlton Bach]

There were a couple of museum exhibits on the Lopmbards in Germany, and if you read German I recommend as an introduction:

Priester, K.: Die Langobarden. Gesellschaft, Kultur, Alltagsleben (ISBN 3-534-17639-1)

The Hamburg exhibition is published in:

Busch, R. (ed): Die Langobarden. Von der Unterelbe nach Italien (ISBN 3-529-01833-3)

The Theiss Verlag did a book on that occasion but I don't know how good it is:

Menghin,. W.: Die Langobarden. Archäologie und Geschichte (ISBN 3-8062-0364-4)

J. Werner catalogued the archeological finds from Pannonia

Werner. J.: Die Langobarden in Pannonien, Beiträge zur Kenntnis der langobardischen Bodenfunde vor 568 (including an entire volume of illustrations), Munich 1962

There's more stuff, but I think these will be the most interesting ones to you.

[authun]

It might be worth contacting this group:

http://www.langobarden-zethlingen.de

They are a group re-enacting 1st cent Lombards in northern germany, just to the south east of Lüneburg. They have their own village which is impressive if you visit.

best
harry Amphlett

[Ironhand]

That second pic on the horseman: Is that scale over maille or a composite of scale with maille sleeves?

[Duncan Head]

That second pic on the horseman: Is that scale over maille or a composite of scale with maille sleeves?

it has 2 be...also its a Byzan from VI AD, but the helmet is not Byzan.

The horseman is based on the Isola Rizza dish - see http://www.girovagandointrentino.it/pun ... ondone.htm (surprised I can't find a better picture on the web). The armour on the original looks more like lamellar than scale to me. I've seen him identified as Lombard or as Byzantine.

The helmet is from a probably-5th-century burial from Kerch; there are drawings in Russell Robinson's Oriental Armour and one of David Nicolle's Ospreys. It may be Hun or proto-Bulghar; Robinson called it Avar but if it is 5th century then it's too early for the Avar migration. But with this and the similarly-constructed Niederstotzingen example there is probably no good reason why a Byzantine shouldn't have acquired one; the dish does show some sort of segmented helmet, though it may be a more conventional spangenhelm.

One of Gina Barnes' articles on early armour in Korea discusses this general style of helmet, made of narrow splints, and reckons the earliest surviving example is from a Xianbei grave in Manchuria from about the 1st-2nd centuries AD. There's also one from north of the Black Sea somewhere from a probably-Alan grave, maybe 4th century AD - it's drawn in Lebedynsky's Armes et guerriers barbares au temps des grandes invasions, IIRC.

[PMBardunias]

Here Duncan

[Ironhand]

Thanks Paul, couldn't see on the little tiny pic. Yes, the artist really screwed up on his drawing and it does look more like lamellar than scale. Now that I can see it I agree.

[Maiorianus]

I think I lost that book, but save two plates at photobucket...

I have the book: it is in Italian with English translation of the most relevant portions and is called "Lombard Army 568/774". With reference to the picture of the horseman which some were discussing, the English text says: "Inspired to the Isola Rizza's dish, the table shows a Byzantine cavalryman wearing lamellar helmet and armour, and two Lombard warriors".

However, the massive catalogue of the exhibition where the Isola Rizza dish was last shown (the same to which the link indicated by Duncan refers) says:
"The dish shows a cataphract - probably a Byzantine emperor or senior commander - with a 4-piece Spangenhelm and a kontos defeating two warriors (one alive and one dead), dressed as "eastern Barbarians", which are likely to represent simbolically an enemy army, possibly Gothic; as noted by German and British scholars, it is unlikely that any of the characters may be a Lombard. The dish is part of a treasure found in 1872 , which includes personal items and kitchenware, all of Roman-Byzantine tradition. The reason for the burial of the treasure might be either the Greek-Gothic war or the Lombard invasion in 569 AD". The text then goes on to mention different scholars which tried to give a date for the dish and ended up with quite diverging hypotheses, ranging from the early 5th century to the mid-7th century

You can also find interesting pictures of Lombard artifacts here. By the way, the museum at Cividale probably hosts the best collection of Lombard items, at least in Italy, also due to the fact that the city was the capital of the Lombard Duchy of Friuli.

[PMBardunias]

I have the book: it is in Italian with English translation of the most relevant portions and is called "Lombard Army 568/774".

I picked up that book and another good title on the "Etruscan armies". They are pretty high quality, do you know if the publisher. E.M.I. is still around?

[Maiorianus]

I have the book: it is in Italian with English translation of the most relevant portions and is called "Lombard Army 568/774".

I picked up that book and another good title on the "Etruscan armies". They are pretty high quality, do you know if the publisher. E.M.I. is still around?

They seem to have disappeared sometimes around the mid-1990s, but I could not find much further info. By the way, while searching for an answer I found that the book on the Lombards should be available for download here (bur I did not try the link myself)

[SMC]

Slightly off the main topic here but with reagrds to equipment, there is no evidence for the Lombards using artillery or any other siege machines to take cities from the empire or the Franks before they became settled under Agiulf. This does not mean it did not happen, simply that we have no mention of it in our sources. Perhaps even more striking is that there is also no evidence for them having any archers at these sieges. As with the Franks, the Strategikon of Maurice remarks on this fact. Without the covering fire that archers provided, the Lombards would have had no way to clear defenders from the walls before making an assault on them. Storming actions do not appear to have occurred regularly, which is only to be expected if support fire was not available to the besiegers, but could be employed by the defenders. The attack on Monte Cassino c.589 is one clear example of an assault, but there are no details of how it was executed, apart from the notable fact that the operation was executed at night, and was almost certainly a surprise attack. There is also no evidence to imply a widespread use of treachery and deception. This is not all that surprising since the Lombards were relatively new to the area so they would not be accepted by townsfolk and individuals are unlikely to have been in a position to be able to betray a city. Combined operations are not mentioned and it can be assumed that the Lombards did not make use of ships in sieges of coastal or riverside objectives. This could explain the long siege of Brixia since it controlled communication along the Po and hence could be supplied by boat from Ravenna. One telling passage of Paul states that Alboin took all the cities, except for Rome and Ravenna and ‘those that were on the sea shore.’ Thus blockade, by land at least, was the most common Lombard tactic. However we do not even know much about their methods for even this form of taking cities. All we know of Lombard camps is that they consisted of tents. Presumably the objectives were surrounded, but the only cited example of this is Rome, which was too large for anyone to completely ring, and probably Comacina since it was an island anyway. In this vacuum of detail, perhaps the most striking feature of Lombard poliorcetics at this stage is an apparent strategic underpinning of any actions. The invasion of Frankish territory in 579 was a three-pronged affair with simultaneous actions on a broad front for maximum effect. In Italy, Classis was taken, and presumably held, to put sustained pressure on Ravenna itself. Continuous pressure also appears to have been applied to Ticinum for over three years until it fell. The events concerning the ending of the sieges of Rome, Brixia, Aquae Sextiae and Comacina strongly suggest that the Lombards were quite ready to negotiate the fate of a town and its inhabitants if they got some benefit from it, such as cash or control of the objective. They were pragmatists and were not out on an orgy of pointless destruction. However, their raiding tendencies were still evident. Much plundering occurred in these actions and Italy was left in a dreadful state. Yet it must be remembered that this was standard practice for all armies.