V/1 – 11 the funeral outfits of the necropolis of Nocera Umbra
Display case 1: TOMBS 3, 42, 69, 85, 95, 100
Display case 2: TOMBS 102, 105, 113, 119, 154, 149

On February 13th, 1897 many “antique objects of great artistic value” are seized; they were causally found in “Il Portone” by Nocera Umbra during agricultural works.
The systematic excavations in the area, directed by the archaeologist Angiolo Pasqui between 1897 and 1898 takes to a necropolis of 165 tombs and the State acquires the finds.
On a first moment, all the material is transferred to Rome, to the “Museo Nazionale Romano”, but in 1915 twenty five outfits are donated to the archaeological collections of the city of Milan; since 1959 the material kept in Rome is exposed in the “Museo dell’Alto Medioevo”.
The constitution of the “Museo Nazionale del Ducato di Spoleto” (National Museum of the Dukedom of Spoleto) has allowed transferring the archaeological collection of this evidence of the Longobard settlement in the region from the Civic Museums of Milan.
The exposed funeral outfits belong to male and female burials; also the items of a tomb shared by a boy and a girl are found.
Male tombs are generally distinguished by an extremely rich military outfit: a spatha (long double-edged sword) and a shield were buried with all adult males, while young men tombs were only provided with arrows.
The prescribed outfit for adult males was enriched with lances, arrows and bows, metallic protections like helmets or armours, in a few cases also a sax (knife) was found.
Among the elements that were not always found, the cavalry equipment (mounting harnesses), bronze items and other custom objects were included in some tombs.
Besides the funeral outfit other costume elements were included in the tomb as clothes accessories (fibulas, pins, belt or shoes elements).
Female tomb outfit varies significantly: clothes accessories and exclusively decorative objects; funeral offers of food and beverages as well as custom objects like combs and frame swords.
Female burials present two types of outfit: on one side with a rich outfit of jewels and luxury objects, on the other tombs with few but precious objects; variation corresponding to the change on funerary customs of Longobards that came into contact with the local Christianised Roman tradition that did not foresee including any funerary outfit, only occasionally some personal objects were placed aside the death person.
The funeral outfits allow detecting the processes of Roman custom assimilation followed by Longobards regarding clothes and burials; a phenomenon that occurs gradually and that is differentiated between men and women.
The analysis of the material from Nocera compared with the material found in Caster Trosino, lets us conclude that the use of the necropolis of Portone had been interrupted before the Roman traditions were completely assimilated by female customs.

 Equestrian harnesses from tomb 42
The dead person – that can be identified as a knight thanks to an equestrian curb found in the tomb (not recovered) – decorated the harnesses with rich silver applications that underlined his social status.
The bridle divisions, the side boss and the tabs are decorated with a complex “punto e virgola” motif; this particular decoration has Byzantine origins as demonstrated by the treasures found in Byzantine territories.
The Longobards introduced these decorative motifs on the bosses of equestrian harnesses and belt applications after their settlement in Italy.
The type of outfit allows dating the tomb within the last four decades of the VI century, which is the immigrating generation.

 A dog at the foot
The skeleton of a large dog with an iron chain as lead was found within a squared grave at the foot of the dead person on the tomb 42; animal burials near human tombs are frequently found, and they can be considered as an “outfit”.
Dog tombs were also found in pre-Italic Longobard settlement areas, where they are interpreted as “pure-bred hunting dog skeletons”; such consideration seem to be justified by their dimensions.

In the sign of the cross: the gold leaf cross from tomb 43
Gold leaf crosses were found in 29 tombs of the necropolis of Nocera.
The crosses are cut on a single piece of a thin gold sheet, or – as in tomb 43 – they are composed by two overlapped gold leaves; small holes at the arm extremities are found in all of them.
They were normally found at the skull or shoulder height of the death person.
The material fragility and the absence of wear marks make us suppose that they are funerary objects that could have been applied on cloths placed on the head or face of the dead person.
This particular type of funerary object is missing on pre-Italic Longobard tomb outfits and on Roman burials but suddenly appears on a great number of tombs of the first immigrants in Italy; the Longobards might have been influenced by the votive crosses of the Italic churches to develop this custom that was rapidly spread to the north of the Alps.
It is not certain if these crosses indicate the dead person’s Christian faith, since the rich funeral outfit seems inconsistent with a complete acceptance of Christian principles; it probably is a form of syncretism on a period where the pagan and the Christian visions coexisted.

Arch fibula from tomb 3
The outfit of the female tomb n. 3 includes an arch fibula with a rich and complex golden silver decoration (stylized human protome surrounded by animal profiles; motif of “animali sdraiati schiena contro schiena” (animals laying back against back); these remarkably large objects, sort of safety pins that were frequently found on female tombs were not only used for decoration purposes but they should have been used to close the clothes hems: since the fibulas, that could be worn singularly or in pairs, have been mainly found near the hips of the dead person, they might have been used to close a wrap-over skirt and they are found among the dresses and not among the jewels.
Sometimes the arch fibulas were fixed to chains or ribbons with custom objects (knives, combs, spindle weight) or amulets (shells, rock crystal spheres or large pearls).
This type of fibula clearly indicates the Longobard origin of the person wearing it, since this dressing accessory is completely unrelated with Roman women; Longobard women abandoned it during the third generation buried in Italy when they adopted the Roman custom of closing the cape with a small fibula at the chest height.
Arc fibulas are particularly useful to achieve an accurate chronological date due to the strong influence of fashion on the decoration motifs; the one found on tomb n. 3 was made during the last years of the VI century, around the year 600.

Cross fibula from tomb 113
A cross shaped bronze fibula, casting decorated with circle punches came from this female tomb (child); this type of buckle is typical of Roman clothes and it is also found in France, Spain, Albania and Dalmazia.
The first samples are dated near the year 1400 while the most recent tombs containing these fibulas can be dated around 1600, the tomb of Nocera Umbra is contemporary to these last ones.
The type of fibula and the reduced outfit indicate that the dead person is a Romanised Longobard.

Symmetric arm arch fibula from tomb 85
A symmetric arm fibula comes from the double burial outfit (male and female children); it is typical of male clothes; Longobard burials include this type of fibula after the immigration in Italy.
The symmetric arm fibula is typical on Roman clothing and it was used to close on several points the cap on the shoulder; but although seven fibulas of this type have been found on male burials in Nocera Umbra, we still cannot suggest a Romanization of men due to the persistence of weapon outfit.
Arch fibulas found here did not show any wear signs, as if they were only used for special occasions.

Complex belt with damascene decorations from tomb 154
Longobard men adopted a new form of belt when they arrived to Italy, typical of Byzantine nomad knights: leather ribbons were decorated by many purely ornamental bosses and tabs without any practical function.
In Nocera Umbra these complex belts were manufactured with different materials, some in gold and silver with “punto e virgola” decorations have been preserved, but also in damascened iron with silver insertions; damascening was performed in copper or brass to obtain a vivid and colourful decoration on iron.
A special type of damascening is “a voluta”, it may be a variation of the “ punto e virgola” decoration that appears after the Longobard immigration.
The belt on tomb 154 is dated on the beginning of the VII century.