The Monomachos Crown

Live Science has a short article about the Monomachos Crown, apparently made in the years 1042-1050, and which features the Byzantine Emperor Constantine IX Monomachos and his two co-Empresses, his wife Zoë and her sister Theodora.

The crown was found in what was then northern Hungary, and is now Slovakia, in 1860 it is displayed in the National Museum in Budapest.

The article describes the crown and links to discussions as to its authenticity- which it appears to favour - or otherwise. It also discusses how the gold plaques may have been mounted originally.

Although it is short the article does serve as a useful introduction to what appears to be a precious survival from the eleventh century.

The article, with its illustration and relevant  links  can be seen at Monomachos Crown: The 1,000-year-old crown honoring 'the one who fights alone' found by a farmer in a field

A portrait of Emperor Constantine XI is discovered

Mediaevalists.net reports the discovery and identification of a wall painting in a Greek monastery of the last reigning Byzantine Emperor Constantine XI. Although there are portraits of his predecessor. Emperor John VIII from the time of his visit to the Council of Ferrara-Florence, they has not hitherto been a  recognised portrait, as opposed to a conventionalised image, of the Emperor whose body was never adequately identified after the fighting on the dreadful occasion of the Fall of Constantinople on May 29th 1453. 

The discovery is a wall painting that shows western influences, rather than those of icons in its depiction of a Byzantine Emperor, and is in an area that he had ruled as Despot of Morea before his accession to the Imperial throne. It does suggest a family resemblance to his elder brother the Emperor John.

The article about the painting can be seen at Portrait of the Last Byzantine Emperor Discovered

The Wikipedia account, already updated with the portrait, of the of life and legend of the Emperor can be seen at Constantine XI Palaiologos