Page "Lombards" Paragraph 9

From the combined testimony of Strabo ( AD 20 ) and Tacitus ( AD 117 ), the Lombards dwelt near the mouth of the Elbe shortly after the beginning of the Christian era, next to the Chauci.

Strabo states that the Lombards dwelt on both sides of the Elbe.

The German archaeologist Willi Wegewitz defined several Iron Age burial sites at the lower Elbe as Langobardic.

The burial sites are crematorial and are usually dated from the 6th century BC through the 3rd AD, so that a settlement breakoff seems unlikely.

The lands of the lower Elbe fall into the zone of the Jastorf Culture and became Elbe-Germanic, differing from the lands between Rhine, Weser, and the North Sea.

Archaeological finds show that the Lombards were an agricultural people.