The field of Byzantine jewellery (4th-15th centuries) is a rapidly expanding one and a large amount of important research has been conducted within the last ten years, both by scholars on the continent and in America. The intention of the conference, and subsequently the volume, is to draw together the many strands involved in this research and to publish them in accessible form. This volume represents a rare opportunity to make this crucial work available to a much wider specialist and non-specialist audience in Britain (and beyond). In particular the topics to be addressed by foreign speakers are either not well-known in Britain or are published in largely inaccessible journals. Chris Entwistle has been the curator of the Late Roman and Byzantine Collections at the British Museum since 1985. Dr Nöel Adams is an independent scholar who has published widely on the metalwork and jewellery of the Early Middle Ages.