The Velestino Hoard: Casting Light on the Byzantine 'Dark Ages'
Feb 2019 · Springer
Ebook
237
Pages
reportRatings and reviews aren’t verified Learn More
About this ebook
This book examines the remarkable Velestino hoard, found in Thessaly in the 1920s, and analyses the light that this collection of artifacts sheds on a poorly studied period of Byzantine history, and on largely neglected aspects of Byzantine civilization. Many collections of Byzantine gold- and silverware, such as Vrap and Seuso, have been surrounded by controversy. None, however, has been under more suspicion than the Velestino hoard, particularly with regards to its authenticity. The hoard contains no gold and no silver, and is in fact a collection of bronze and leaden plaques, some with human, and others with animal or geometric representations. The authors examine three distinct aspects of the hoard: the iconography of its components, the method of its production, and the function of those components. The conclusions that they reached provide valuable new insights into eighth-century Byzantine culture. The book explores the Byzantine cultural and political context of the Velestino hoard and will appeal to historians and art historians of early Byzantium, as well as archaeologists and historians of early medieval technologies.
About the author
Florin Curta is Professor of Medieval History and Archaeology at the University of Florida, USA. He is the author of Southeastern Europe in the Middle Ages, 500-1250 (2006) and The Edinburgh History of the Greeks, c. 500 to 1050: The Early Middle Ages (2011).
Bartłomiej Szymon Szmoniewski is an archaeologist at the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnology of the Polish Academy of Sciences. He is co-author of four monographs and published several papers dedicated to the various topics of early medieval archaeology and history.
Rate this ebook
Tell us what you think.
Reading information
Smartphones and tablets
Install the Google Play Books app for Android and iPad/iPhone. It syncs automatically with your account and allows you to read online or offline wherever you are.
Laptops and computers
You can listen to audiobooks purchased on Google Play using your computer's web browser.
eReaders and other devices
To read on e-ink devices like Kobo eReaders, you'll need to download a file and transfer it to your device. Follow the detailed Help Center instructions to transfer the files to supported eReaders.
