Land of the Kings

In the period when the Longobards infiltrated the Central European area - the Lands of the Kings - there remain several points that are not well defined (future scientific investigations will focus on them) concerning the exact routes taken and the timing of their “journey”. Unmistakable signs of their transit in various Germanic and European areas are provided by the distribution of archaeological finds attributed to the Longobards which, all together, trace a precise European corridor, the route of the migratory flow.

However, while it is certain that they travelled for a long distance up the Elbe, at least as far as its terrain allowed, it is equally plausible – as has been surmised - that some groups headed towards the course of the river Oder to reach the ancestral route of the “Amber Road”, which, via a pass through the Sudetes (Mährische Pforte), guaranteed easier access to the middle course of the Danube and present-day Moravia.

 Not without further armed clashes and new victories - against the Huns (together with a federation led by the mythical Ardaric, king of the Gepids), then against the Herules and lastly against the same Gepids - the Longobards, led by kings who were real military commanders, finally reached the central area of Europe, settling first between Lower Austria and Southern Moravia, until they at last occupied the Roman regions of Pannonia I and Valeria, where they came into direct contact with the empire of Byzantium and with the Arian form of Christianity. 

Cluster list (those marked in   green   they are active, others in progress)) :