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.
