Place

Skadan

Island

According to Paul Diakonus, Skadan is the legendary original home of the Lombards and is usually associated with Scandinavia.

Event

The Origin Myth of the Lombards

Migration of People

166 - 450

The monk and historian Paulus Diaconus passed down the Historia Langobardorum—the History of the Lombards—a six-volume work he wrote in the final decades of the 8th century. Among other things, he recounts the mythological origins of the Lombards on the island of Scadan (modern-day Scandinavia). He describes a battle between a group of Winnili and a group of Vandals. The Winnili were led by the woman Gambara and her two sons, Ajo and Ybor. The Vandals sought victory from Odin, who promised that those he saw first on the day of the battle would win. At the same time, Gambara and her sons prayed to Odin’s wife, Frea. Frea intervened by summoning the Winnili to the battlefield before dawn, instructing even the women to join. She told them to tie their long hair across their faces like beards and stand side by side with the men. On the morning of the battle, Frea woke Odin and directed his gaze toward the battlefield, where he saw the Winnili. Curious, he asked who the "long-beards" were. Frea told him that he had just named them and, as such, should grant them victory. And so it happened. From then on, the Winnili Long-Beards were called Lombards/Longobards. According to Paulus Diaconus, the Lombards continued their southward migration over time. By around 500 AD, they settled in the region of the Weinviertel.

Item

Find 13/71

Comb

Large single-row three-layer comb, bone, eleven toothed center pieces are attached to the two handle plates by iron rivets, nine center pieces have toothlike recesses at the upper ends, the two outer center pieces have tall, double-arched extensions, each of the two outer center pieces have sloping serrations, the two handle plates are decorated with three grooves each at the lower and upper ends and also with a decorative band formed alternately by three short grooves and a flat St. Andrew's cross, L 26,6 cm, W 5,5 cm, Thickness 1,5 cm, positioned in the brass basin (Find 13/70), Inv. No. 81.290.

Item

Find 13/70

Metal Vessel

Beaded rim basin, brass, very poorly preserved, wide base without standing ring, tub-shaped vessel body and horizontally projecting rim section with bosses pressed out from below, the basin has numerous old patches; the semi-circular cracked base is held together by two strips of bronze sheet metal attached to the outside with bronze rivets sitting on the outer rims, on the floor and rising wall, six other cracks are repaired by smaller bronze sheets with bronze rivets, two of which are attached on the outside and four on the inside, the horizontally everted rim is patched in two places by angled bronze sheets and bronze rivets from the outside, in two places also the somewhat repointed rim adjacent to the bosses, D base 15,5 cm, inner D 36,0 cm, D 42,9 cm, H 12,5-13,0 cm, positioned east of the horse bridle fittings, Inv. No. 81.289.

Item

Find 13/02

Bowl

Wide-mouthed bowl, greyish brown to dark grey clay leached with small stones and some mica, almost double conical vessel with rounded break and short, slightly sloping rim, at the top a circumferential groove, below nine short vertical grooves, each accompanied on both sides by three wedge grooves and from the lower ends of each still two wedge grooves; in one case, there were four wedge stitches on one side of the vertical groove, and in another, there was an additional wedge stitch at the lower end of the vertical groove, D base 10,2 cm, D belly 24,7 cm, D mouth 19,3-20,0 cm, H 13,1-13,8 cm, positioned at the west end of the smaller rectangular burial shaft below the oblique femur, Inv. No. 81.224.

Item

Find 08/19

Disk-shaped Bead

Disc-shaped bead, twisted together from a yellow-green, completely weathered glass ribbon, D 3,0 cm, H 1,2 cm, possible components of a pouch (Adler 1967, 88., see Find 08/18, Find 08/20), positioned north of the left femur, Inv. No. 81.197.

Item

Find 08/06

Bowl

Wide-mouthed bowl, greyish-brown to dark grey clay leached with small stones, rounded base, dome-shaped lower part, conical, somewhat indented upper part with a slightly protruding mouth rim, just above the rim are three irregularly drawn grooves, below the rim are eight hanging triangles, the outlines of which are formed by two three-line grooved bands, each with six to seven oval dents in between, in the eighth triangle, one side is formed merely by a trilinear band crossed by another trilinear band, in the upper angle, four dents, D belly 19,2-19,8 cm, D mouth 16,1-17,0 cm, H 11,1-11,8 cm, positioned in the northwest corner of the shaft, Inv. No. 81.184.

Item

Find 10/6

Spindle Whorl

Spindle whorl, clay, frustoconical and beveled at the bottom, with indented underside, D 3,2 cm H 1,9 cm, positioned north of the left knee, Inv. No. 81.215.

Place

Italien

Topographical Entity

Actor

Lombards

The Lombards were a Germanic-speaking group that first appeared historically in the writings of the ancient author Strabo, situated in the area of the lower Elbe. Groups bearing this name are documented in the decades around 500 CE in what is now Austrian territory. After the Avars advanced into the Vienna Basin in 568, the Lombards left the region and moved toward Italy, where they spread across almost the entire peninsula within a few years. Their rule over Italy lasted until Charlemagne's Lombard campaign in 774, after which Charlemagne crowned himself King of the Lombards.

Item

Hauskirchen Bridle

Bridle Components

480 - 530

The horse harness in which the two draught horses were bound is a sign of the craftsmanship at the time of the burial of the Lombard ‘princess’ from Hauskirchen in grave 13. She received these animals in their gear and a chariot as burial gifts. It has finely decorated components made of copper, gilded copper and gilded silver. This is all that remains after the grave was robbed in the first decade after the burial.

Event

Processing of the finds by the bITEM project at the NHM

Research

11/1/2022 - 10/31/2024

The bITEM (Beyond the Item) project aims to provide better access to the entire process of Hauskirchen in the context of Lombard colonisation and emigration to and from Austria. This includes the finds, the people involved and the research carried out to date. In addition, 3D models of these finds were created with a scanner for the first time, which are also available in a public online database called Sketchfab.

Event

Handover of the finds from the Federal Monuments Office to the Natural History Museum Vienna

Donation

3/20/1978

In the spring of 1978, the finds from Hauskirchen were handed over by Dr Horst Adler to HR Dr Wilhelm Angeli and entered into the NHM inventory book by Ms Akgelika Hall. Dr Adler's manuscripts were also handed over.

Event

Burial Grave 13

Burial

490 - 530

From Hauskirchen, 20 graves are known. They rank among the most significant finds from the time of Lombard settlement in Austria. Particularly noteworthy is Grave 13. It contains the burial of a woman approximately 25 to 28 years old. Her grave includes rich grave goods, indicating that her social status was exceptionally high. Although her exact origins or her role within her community remain unknown, she is often referred to as a "princess." Her grave was apparently looted by grave robbers a few years after the burial. However, valuable items have still been preserved, including a golden horse harness for two horses that pulled a wagon. This represents one of the rare wagon burials from the Migration Period.

Actor

Reinhold Engelmayer

Archäologe. Mitunter Bekannt durch Publikation: Reinhold Engelmayer, 1963, Eine frühdynastische Abri-Siedlung mit Felsbildern aus Sayala-Nubien.

Event

Excavation in Hauskirchen by the Federal Monuments Office

Excavation

1967

After the discovery of the burials in Hauskirchen, graves 4-20 were saved in 1967. The Austrian Federal Monuments Office (BDA) was informed and Horst Adler took over the subsequent excavation for the district administration of Gänserndorf. R. Engelmayer also took part on behalf of the Natural History Museum Vienna. The excavation involved Lombard burials from the 6th century.

Event

Discovery of graves in Hauskirchen

Discovery

1966 - 1967

Graves and remains were discovered during building work in 1966. The Austrian Federal Monuments Office (BDA) was informed. Almost 1400 years had passed since the burial. The BDA then took over the excavation of the graves.

Item

Grave 13

Cultural Object

Grave 13 after its burial until the abandonment of the cemetery.

Event

Looting of Grave 13

Damage

530 - 569

Grave 13 was likely looted only a few years after the burial. The findings from the excavation suggest that the grave robbers were aware of the body's position within the grave or that the shape of the grave was still visible above ground, as the looting occurred centrally. The position of the body was altered during this process. However, since some of the bones remained partially connected, the body must still have been in a state of soft tissue decomposition. This indicates a relatively short period between the burial and the looting. The grave goods located on and around the woman were stolen. However, perhaps due to lack of knowledge, the grave pit was not completely plundered. The looting funnel targeted only the central area, leaving the peripheral zones untouched. These areas contained the golden horse harness and a handful of other grave goods, which were thus preserved for posterity.

Event

Lombards move to Italy

Movement of people or goods

567 - 568

In the spring of 568, the Lombards, led by their king Alboin, moved toward Italy. Starting from Friuli, they gradually conquered large parts of the peninsula.

Place

Hauskirchen

Settlement

550

The village of Hauskirchen was probably founded around 1100 by Hugo von Lichtenstein under the name Hugeschirichen. However, there were human exchanges at this location much earlier. The Lombards settled in Lower Austria around 500 AD. Based on grave finds and burials, a Lombard settlement could be established in Hauskirchen.