Italian archaeologists have discovered a perfectly preserved skeleton of a 1400-year-old Lombard warrior, buried with his horse.

The skeleton, which was found in a park at Testona, near Turin, is of a 25-year-old Lombard who died of a fever. Unusually, his horse was buried alongside him.

"This is a very rare find," said Gabriella Pantò, the archaeologist leading the dig. "We have not seen many precedents in Italy. We have seen horses' heads buried with warriors, but this find shows the area is vitally important," she added.

The Lombards were a nomadic tribe of Germans who settled near the Danube and launched an attack on Italy in the sixth century.

Under the leadership of King Alboin, the Lombards stormed across the Alps in the spring of AD568 with an army of around 500,000.

Vicenza, Verona and Brescia were quickly conquered from the Byzantines, who were still suffering from battling the Goths. Lombardy was established across the whole of the north of the country, an empire which lasted for around 100 years.

The dig revealed a Lombard camp had settled at Testona, and the skeleton of a dog was also found nearby. The invaders had built an aqueduct and irrigation system and a series of small wooden huts, without any foundations.

The warrior was also buried with a treasure chest being x-rayed by archaeologists. In addition, a small bag held a pair of pincers, a bronze belt buckle and some armour.

He wore a ring on his left index finger and also had both a knife and a "scramasax", a short sword designed for close combat.
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Hmm...it sounds as if he were an important person,due to the fact that he was found buried with the horse and all of the other objects.This type of burial was normally reserved for chieftans or other important personages in several different cultures.

Good find,Owls.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lombards

It should be noted that they had other tribes travel with them. I wish the article gave more specific information on why the archaeologist has concluded they are Lombards. No pics either how sad.

sounds like a royal burial...and how do they know he died of fever and not a war wound?

War wounds of the era would most likely have been caused by a mellee weapon, although even an arrow could inflict damage upon the bones. Despite this tests are always carried out on bones from Archaeological sites ancient DNA in the form of microbial pathogens can be extracted from bones to determine any illness the indivisual may have had.

It could be because the Lombards got most of the credit for breaking the Western Roman empires back. the were supposedly the most barbaric of the barbarian tribes and the control of Northern Italy was siezed by them, although they had help as you said from the Saxons, Bavarians and others. They were also hired by the Romans for some dirty work before they turned on them. This is just a guess.

seax