Метални украси от Велики Преслав

Metal decorations from Veliki Preslav

Abstract

A field survey aided by a metal-detector and conducted within the Inner and Outer city walls (mainly along the low river terrace ‘Selishte’) of Veliki Preslav in the period 2002 – 2004 has revealed a fair number of metal objects (44 in total). They consist of mostly belt-fittings but also jewellery and some single finds. Due to the lack of clear archaeological context, the attempt of their identification offered in the present paper, rests solely on their stylistic, morphological and technological characteristics and their similarity to securely dated artefacts. Hence, the newly found examples of medieval metalworking cannot improve the precision of the absolute dates and the chronology of these types of artefacts but can contribute to the archaeological map of the site, as well as can serve for diversification of already known types and variants. The examples presented here generally date to 9th – 14th c. AD.