Pereshchepina Treasure

The Pereshchepina Treasure ( _ru. Перещепинский клад, _bg. Съкровище от Мала Перешчепина) is a major deposit of Byzantine, Bolgar, Sassanian, and Avarian objects from the period of the Volkerwanderung.

The deposit was discovered in 1912 in the village of Mala Pereshchepina (13 km from Poltava, Ukraine) by a boy shepherd who literally stumbled over a golden vessel and fell into the grave of Kuvrat, the founder of Great Bulgaria and father of Asparuh, the founder of the First Bulgarian Empire. The hoard was extracted under the supervision of Count Aleksey Bobrinsky, a renowned archaeologist, who published its description in 1914. [Бобринский А.А. Перещепинский клад. // Материалы по археологии России, №34. Petrograd, 1914.]

The hoard contains more than 800 pieces, now preserved in the Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg. There are 19 silver vessels and 16 gold vessels, including a striking rhyton and remains of another. The [http://hermitagemuseum.org official website] of the museum speaks about

a staff with gold facing, a well-preserved iron sword with an end in the form of a ring and gold facing on the hilt and scabbard… gold jewellery — a torque, an earring, seven bracelets and seven rings with inlays of precious stones (amethysts, sapphires, tiger-eyes, garnets, rock crystal, and emeralds)… and square gold plaques for the facing of a wooden funeral construction". [http://hermitagemuseum.org/html_En/03/hm3_2_13.html Pereshchepina Treasure] at the Hermitage Museum.]

The total weight of gold from the deposit exceeds 25 kilograms, that of silver objects — 50 kilograms.

Among the most interesting finds is a necklace of gold Byzantine coins, dating from the reign of Emperor Maurice (582–602) to that of Constans II (641–668). There is also a Sassanian dish bearing an image of Shapur the Great (309–379), and a Byzantine dish with an inscription of the early 6th-century bishop of Tomis.

Although the "Great Soviet Encyclopaedia" was keen to ascribe the hoard to a "Slavic chieftain" who supposedly pillaged the objects during "a raid against Byzantium", most scholars agree that the hoard marks the grave of Kubrat, the first attested khan of the Bulgars.Andras Rona-Tas. "Hungarians and Europe in the Early Middle Ages". Central European University Press, 1999. Page 217.] This conclusion is based on the discovery in the deposit of Kubrat's signet ring, inscribed "Houvr(a)tou patr(i)k(iou)", indicating the patrician status he enjoyed at the court of Heraclius. The Pereshchepina hoard ranks among the most vivid manifestations of the typical nomadic plunder-based material culture of Old Great Bulgaria.

References

External links

* [http://www.goldensands.bg/cultural/treasure-pres.asp Khan Kuvrat's grave] (with illustrations).