Detail of a Belt Set from the Golden Horde Period from South-Western Crimea

The work deals with the publication of a rare bronze plaque discovered during the archaeological surveys of 2012–2013 in the upper reaches of the Kacha river in South-Western Crimea. The item was crafted by means of casting in a rigid die, and represents a four-petal plate with a loop soldered to the lower petal. The front surface features an image of a polymorphic creature – a dragon, and the back surface contains traces of solder with the remains of the bases of pins or stitch loops. It is assumed that the plate is a part of a military belt set of the Golden Horde period. These types of ferrules and plates with a dragon image made of precious metals, as well as bronze, horn and bone, have been found in the territory of the Golden Horde and the neighbouring territories and date back to the period of the 13th – 14th centuries. The stylistics of the mythical animal image on the plate from the vicinity of Verkhorechye accounts for its similarity to the images of dog-headed dragons in the fine art of Russian regions, but the design and construction features of our finding are characteristic of the items discovered in the Volga region.