The Pereshchepina Treasure (russian: Перещепинский клад, uk, Перещепинський скарб) is a major deposit of
Bulgar
Bulgar may refer to:
*Bulgars, extinct people of Central Asia
*Bulgar language, the extinct language of the Bulgars
* Oghur languages
Bulgar may also refer to:
*Bolghar, the capital city of Volga Bulgaria
*Bulgur, a wheat product
* Bulgar, an Ash ...
,
Sassanian
The Sasanian () or Sassanid Empire, officially known as the Empire of Iranians (, ) and also referred to by historians as the Neo-Persian Empire, was the last Iranian empire before the early Muslim conquests of the 7th-8th centuries AD. Named ...
,
Sogdian,
Turkic and
Avarian objects from the
Migration Period
The Migration Period was a period in European history marked by large-scale migrations that saw the fall of the Western Roman Empire and subsequent settlement of its former territories by various tribes, and the establishment of the post-Roman ...
.
The most valuable items are the ''sword of Kubrat'', a gift from Emperor
Heraclius
Heraclius ( grc-gre, Ἡράκλειος, Hērákleios; c. 575 – 11 February 641), was List of Byzantine emperors, Eastern Roman emperor from 610 to 641. His rise to power began in 608, when he and his father, Heraclius the Elder, the Exa ...
and the ring with the monogram of the ruler, as a "
patrician
Patrician may refer to:
* Patrician (ancient Rome), the original aristocratic families of ancient Rome, and a synonym for "aristocratic" in modern English usage
* Patrician (post-Roman Europe), the governing elites of cities in parts of medieval ...
", that is, as the savior of the New (Christian) Rome. The sword is valuable as an artifact № 1 of the Hermitage and for the first time leaves the borders of Russia on May 24, 2019. It is presented in
Sofia
Sofia ( ; bg, София, Sofiya, ) is the capital and largest city of Bulgaria. It is situated in the Sofia Valley at the foot of the Vitosha mountain in the western parts of the country. The city is built west of the Iskar river, and ha ...
by
Boyko Borisov to
Audrey Azoulay
Audrey Azoulay (; born 4 August 1972) is a French civil servant and politician who has been serving as the Director-General of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) since 2017, becoming the second female le ...
.
The deposit was discovered in 1912 in the village of Mala Pereshchepina (20 km from
Poltava
Poltava (, ; uk, Полтава ) is a city located on the Vorskla River in central Ukraine. It is the capital city of the Poltava Oblast (province) and of the surrounding Poltava Raion (district) of the oblast. Poltava is administratively ...
,
Ukraine
Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...
) by a shepherd boy who stumbled over a golden vessel and fell into what is sometimes believed to be the grave of
Kubrat
Kubrat ( el, Κοβρᾶτος, Kούβρατος; bg, Кубрат ) was the ruler of the Onogur–Bulgars, credited with establishing the confederation of Old Great Bulgaria in ca. 632. His name derived from the Turkic words ''qobrat'' — ...
, the founder of
Great Bulgaria
Old Great Bulgaria or Great Bulgaria (Medieval Greek: Παλαιά Μεγάλη Βουλγαρία, ''Palaiá Megálē Voulgaría''), also often known by the Latin names ''Magna Bulgaria'' and ''Patria Onoguria'' ("Onoğurs, Onogur land"), w ...
and father of
Asparuh
Asparuh (also ''Ispor''; bg, Аспарух, Asparuh or (rarely) bg, Исперих, Isperih) was а ruler of Bulgars in the second half of the 7th century and is credited with the establishment of the First Bulgarian Empire in 681.
Early life
...
, the founder of the
First Bulgarian Empire
The First Bulgarian Empire ( cu, блъгарьско цѣсарьствиѥ, blagarysko tsesarystviye; bg, Първо българско царство) was a medieval Bulgar- Slavic and later Bulgarian state that existed in Southeastern Europ ...
. The hoard, first described by Makarenko, was extracted under the supervision of Count
Aleksey Bobrinsky
The Counts Bobrinsky or Bobrinskoy (''Бобринские'') are a Russian noble family descending from Count Aleksey Grigorievich Bobrinsky (1762–1813), who was Catherine the Great's natural son by Count Grigory Orlov.
The first Count Bo ...
, a renowned
archaeologist
Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscap ...
, 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
The State Hermitage Museum ( rus, Государственный Эрмитаж, r=Gosudarstvennyj Ermitaž, p=ɡəsʊˈdarstvʲɪn(ː)ɨj ɪrmʲɪˈtaʂ, links=no) is a museum of art and culture in Saint Petersburg, Russia. It is the list of ...
,
Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...
. There are 19 silver vessels and 16 gold vessels, including a striking
rhyton
A rhyton (plural rhytons or, following the Greek plural, rhyta) is a roughly conical container from which fluids were intended to be drunk or to be poured in some ceremony such as libation, or merely at table. A rhyton is typically formed in t ...
and remains of another. Th
official websiteof 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
In physics and mechanics, torque is the rotational equivalent of linear force. It is also referred to as the moment of force (also abbreviated to moment). It represents the capability of a force to produce change in the rotational motion of th ...
, 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".[Pereshchepina Treasure](_blank)
at the Hermitage Museum.
The total weight of gold from the deposit exceeds 21 kilograms, that of silver objects 50 kilograms.
Among the most interesting finds is a necklace of gold Byzantine
gold coins
A gold coin is a coin that is made mostly or entirely of gold. Most gold coins minted since 1800 are 90–92% gold (22 karat), while most of today's gold bullion coins are pure gold, such as the Britannia, Canadian Maple Leaf, and American Bu ...
, dating from the reign of
Emperor Maurice
Maurice ( la, Mauricius or ''Mauritius''; ; 539 – 27 November 602) was Eastern Roman emperor from 582 to 602 and the last member of the Justinian dynasty. A successful general, Maurice was chosen as heir and son-in-law by his predecessor Tib ...
(582–602 AD) to that of
Constans II
Constans II ( grc-gre, Κώνστας, Kōnstas; 7 November 630 – 15 July 668), nicknamed "the Bearded" ( la, Pogonatus; grc-gre, ὁ Πωγωνᾶτος, ho Pōgōnãtos), was the Eastern Roman emperor from 641 to 668. Constans was the last ...
(641–668 AD), precisely down to 646 AD, which have often been taken to set the ''
terminus post quem
''Terminus post quem'' ("limit after which", sometimes abbreviated to TPQ) and ''terminus ante quem'' ("limit before which", abbreviated to TAQ) specify the known limits of dating for events or items..
A ''terminus post quem'' is the earliest da ...
'' for the site. There is also a Sassanian dish bearing an image of
Shapur the Great
Shapur II ( pal, 𐭱𐭧𐭯𐭥𐭧𐭥𐭩 ; New Persian: , ''Šāpur'', 309 – 379), also known as Shapur the Great, was the tenth Sasanian King of Kings (Shahanshah) of Iran. The longest-reigning monarch in Iranian history, he reigned f ...
(309–379 AD), and a Byzantine dish with an inscription of the early 6th-century bishop of
Tomis. Other finds must probably be dated to as late as the 670s.
File:Mala-Pereshchepina-treasure-1.jpg ,
File:Mala-Pereshchepina-treasure-2.jpg , Golden jug
File:Mala-Pereshchepina-treasure-3.jpg , Golden cup
File:Mala-Pereshchepina-treasure-4.jpg , One of the rings with monogram
File:Mala-Pereshchepina-treasure-5.jpg , One of the small belt buckles
Although the ''
Great Soviet Encyclopaedia
The ''Great Soviet Encyclopedia'' (GSE; ) is one of the largest Russian-language encyclopedias, published in the Soviet Union from 1926 to 1990. After 2002, the encyclopedia's data was partially included into the later ''Bolshaya rossiyskaya en ...
'' was keen to ascribe the hoard to a "Slavic chieftain" who supposedly pillaged the objects during "a raid against Byzantium," and while, more recently, some scholars attempt to attribute it to the
Khazars
The Khazars ; he, כּוּזָרִים, Kūzārīm; la, Gazari, or ; zh, 突厥曷薩 ; 突厥可薩 ''Tūjué Kěsà'', () were a semi-nomadic Turkic people that in the late 6th-century CE established a major commercial empire coverin ...
, many agree that the hoard represents, at least in its earlier phase, the treasure of Kubrat, the first attested khan of the
Bulgars
The Bulgars (also Bulghars, Bulgari, Bolgars, Bolghars, Bolgari, Proto-Bulgarians) were Turkic semi-nomadic warrior tribes that flourished in the Pontic–Caspian steppe and the Volga region during the 7th century. They became known as nomad ...
.
[Andras Rona-Tas. ''Hungarians and Europe in the Early Middle Ages''. Central European University Press, 1999. Page 217.][Alexander Aibabin, Early Khazar Archaeological Monuments in Crimea and to the North of the Black Sea, in : C. ZUCKERMANN (ed.), La Crimée entre Byzance et le Khaganat Khazar. CHCB, Monographies, 25. Paris 2006, 31–65, at 53 f.] The treasure would have fallen to the hands of later,
Khazar
The Khazars ; he, כּוּזָרִים, Kūzārīm; la, Gazari, or ; zh, 突厥曷薩 ; 突厥可薩 ''Tūjué Kěsà'', () were a semi-nomadic Turkic people that in the late 6th-century CE established a major commercial empire coverin ...
or
Turkic rulers as Bulgars left the region. The Pereshchepina hoard ranks among the most vivid manifestations of the typical ancient material culture of
Old Great Bulgaria
Old Great Bulgaria or Great Bulgaria (Medieval Greek: Παλαιά Μεγάλη Βουλγαρία, ''Palaiá Megálē Voulgaría''), also often known by the Latin names ''Magna Bulgaria'' and ''Patria Onoguria'' (" Onogur land"), was a 7th- ...
.
See also
*
Martynivka Treasure
*
Kul-Oba
Kul-Oba (; , crh, Kül Oba; meaning "hill of ash" in Crimean Tatar) is an ancient archaeological site, a Scythian burial tumulus (kurgan), located near Kerch in eastern Crimea, on the right side of the M25 road to Feodosiya.
Kul-Oba was the ...
*
Treasure of Nagyszentmiklós
The Treasure of Nagyszentmiklós ( hu, Nagyszentmiklósi kincs; german: Schatz von Nagyszentmiklós; ro, Tezaurul de la Sânnicolau Mare) is an important hoard of 23 Early Middle Ages, early medieval gold vessels, in total weighing 9.945 k ...
*
Preslav Treasure
The Preslav Treasure was found in autumn of 1978 at the vineyard in Castana, 3 km to the north - west of the second Bulgarian capital – Veliki Preslav. The excavations that followed revealed more than 170 golden, silver and bronze objects ...
*
Avar Treasure
The Avar Treasure, called sometimes Vrap Treasure, is an ensemble currently in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The various vessel making up the ensemble were found in Vrap, Albania, and have been attributed to the Avars. On the ...
References
External links
Khan Kuvrat's grave(with illustrations).
{{Authority control
Treasure troves in Ukraine
Treasure troves of late antiquity
Treasure troves of Medieval Europe
Bulgars
History of Poltava Oblast
Archaeological sites in Ukraine
Archaeological collections of the Hermitage Museum
7th century in Europe
Byzantine Empire-related inscriptions
Gold objects
Russia–Ukraine relations