Clasp [an agraffe] was found in the burial found by peasants in 1884 in the village Romanovskaya, Rostov region, today Ukraine, it is dated to the late 7th – early 8th century.
The clasp [of a coat?] consists of two square plates of 7.2 x 7.2 cm arranged as rhombuses, connected by a hinge, which was probably used for fastening in conjunction with a pin. In the center of each element is a small round sapphire around which birds are depicted in four semi-circular fields. On one of the parts there are four peacocks, on the other – two peacocks and two roosters. Between the fields with birds there are ornaments in the shape of four-leaf flowers arranged in a form resembling a cross. In the double frame of a row of dots, the fake beads, there is an empty strap with soldered rings that were used to fix a row of beads, pearls most likely.
According to I. Zasetskaya [Treasure of Khan Kubrat] the clasp is a part of the Hermitage museum collection, Inv. No 2158/1:
“In 1884 peasants building a mill on a mound came across an ancient burial on the left bank of the Don, south of the village of Romanovskaya. The head was oriented north-west; there was a pot of coal next to the head and a skull and horse bones at the feet. The funerary offerings were scattered in different museums: an agraffe of two plates with gems was acquired by the Hermitage; another agraffe by the State ‘Museum of History in Moskow, together with a gold earring, a clasp, two gold platings and a solidus of Leo II (695-698 AD). The second coin from the set minted under Constantine Pogonatus (681-685 AD) was kept at the Don Museum in Novocherkask. But its present whereabouts are “unknown”. A tumular necropolis from the time of Khazars occupies the field where the burial was discovered in 1884.”
- Treasure of Khan Kubrat, Sofia, 1989; [I. P. Zasetskaya] pp. 51-52, 100
- The Birds on the Braid Ornaments from Rakamaz: a View from the Mediterranean; Ádám Bollók https://www.academia.edu
- Falko Daim – Birgit Bühler, Awaren oder Byzanz? Interpretationsprobleme am Beispiel der goldenen Mantelschließe von Dunapataj. In: Tivadar Vida (Hg.), Thesaurus Avarorum. Archaeological Studies in Honour of Éva Garam (Budapest 2012) 207-224 https://www.academia.edu