Rosamund was a princess of a people known as the Gepids, who lived north of the Danube and east of the Tisza in the early- to mid-6th century. The Gepids were one of the more prominent tribes of the so-called Migration Era, which saw large-scale movements of human populations across Europe. This is the period that saw Ostrogoths and Lombards in Italy, Franks in Gaul, Visigoths in Spain, and Vandals in North Africa, to say nothing of the “smaller” tribes. You might remember it from some very startling (and frankly confusing) maps in your high school history book that involved arrows meandering all over Europe.

The Gepids are a particularly mysterious group. They left no documents, no monuments. Their settlements were built from ephemeral materials and left only subtle traces–the occasional hearth, post holes, and loom weights. They did have a habit of burying their treasure in times of stress, which has led to accidental discoveries of phenomenal quality. Their tombs have been plundered and pillaged for hundreds of years and are often so disturbed that the dead no longer speak to us clearly.

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