Susanne Greiff – författare

Thanks to a fortunate and rare circumstance, throughout the centuries her tomb was never robbed and numerous, precious grave goods survived. In 2001 an unusually rich and filigree assemblage of jewellery was lifted together with the deceased's skeleton in two blocks by a team of Chinese archaeologists in a far-sighted way and brought to the archaeological laboratory in Xi'an. There specialists of the German-Sino co-operation project of the Römisch-Germanisches Zentralmuseum (Mainz) and the Shaanxi Provincial Institute of Archaeology (Xi'an) worked together on the uncovering, documentation and presentation of the finds and contexts. For the first time such a multipartite and fine jewellery assemblage could be analysed and reconstructed within its archaeological context. The result is of impressive singularity. In the publication presented here an interdisciplinary team of academics deal in many individual studies with the complex investigations into the Tang period burial of Li Chui. Apart from archaeology, art and cultural history, as well as sinology, it is not only the scientific restoration and conservation, but also various fields of the natural sciences, which worked together towards one goal: to convey a unique and realistic insight into the world of Li Chui and her times.

The Preslav Treasure is one of the most important jewellery hoards of the Middle Ages and comprises over 180 pieces of jewellery and appliques, coins, and spoons, made from gold, silver, precious stones, pearls and enamels. The treasure was unearthed in 1978 near the town of Preslav in Bulgaria, which was the capital of the First Bulgarian State (681-1018) from the late ninth century to 971. The objects cast a light on the relations between medieval Bulgaria and its neighbour Byzantium: most of the valuable pieces would have come from Constantinople, perhaps on the occasion of the marriage between the Bulgarian Tsar Peter I (927-969) and the Byzantine princess Marie-Irene in 927.For the first time since its excavation, the Preslav Treasure has been subject to scientific analyses, conducted in the Leibniz-Zentrum für Archäologie Mainz, with a restoration and photographic documentation. This book comprises fourteen papers presented during the conference organised in collaboration with Musée du Louvre, Paris, in 2018.