Quanto erano ‘longobardi’ i Longobardi meridionali? Sepolcreti e pratiche funerarie nel ducato di Benevento (secoli VI-VII)

Archaeological research on Southern Italian burial grounds from the Lombard period has revealed some major differences when compared to the cemeteries excavated in the central-northern area of the peninsula, namely the limited number of weapons and precious objects among the grave goods and the rare occurrence of cemeteries with graves in rows and earth-cut tomb pits. This paper proposes an overall review of both data and approaches used to analyse the southern burial grounds so far by understanding the funerary practices occurring here not so much as the expression of an ethnic identity, which in the case of the Duchy of Benevento would be qualified by the scarcity of 'Lombard' markers, but rather as the result of local issues linked to the elites' need for social affirmation in a context as politically centralised as the Duchy of Benevento.