Изображение на танц от Велики Преслав

Abstract

The article presents a fragment of a pitcher unearthed in 2010 near the Royal Church of Veliki Preslav. It is made of fine clay fired to gray; the surface is coated with green glaze and decorated with incised ornaments and two plastic representations: a female figure of a dancer and a male figure of a musician with a large wind instru­ment. The latter is difficult to define, but some details of the image allow to eliminate the most popular wind instruments in the Byzantium Empire (flutes, horns, whistles and trumpets) and to suggest that it is a represen­tation of a bagpipe. The sherd is dated back to the late 10th and early 11th century based on the stratigraphic evi­dence of the archaeological excavations and parallels provided by similar pottery found in present-day Bulgaria, Romania and Greece. The sherd belongs to a ceramic vessel related to a specific ceramic style introduced in the late 10th century and distributed from the southern parts of the Balkans northwards to Dobrogea.

Keywords

• Early Middle Ages
• Veliki Preslav
• Ceramics