A patera is a sacrificial vessel. The Azov Historical-Archaeological and Paleontological Museum-Reserve’s collection includes a patera with a medallion on the inside of the bottom and a handle capped with a ram’s head. A realistic image of two storks pecking two snakes is inserted in the central part of round relief medallion. The birds’ heads, necks, chests, bellies and partially wings are inlaid with white metal. The snakes are also decorated with white metal. From outside, the medallion is ornamented with several rows of patterns.

However, in the first centuries of Common Era, bloody sacrifices were increasingly replaced by libations of red wine. First ritual vessels or their handles were fashioned into shape of rams. These vessels were made of gold, silver, bronze and clay. When one of them was filled with wine in ceremony, it personified a sacrificial animal. This tradition of ritual replacement has been preserved to this day in the form of the Christian Communion with wine that symbolizes blood. The Russian word for Communion comes from the root that means cup and denotes ritual drinking from a cup. Some ancient beliefs affirmed that human soul departed into afterlife astride of a ram. This is probably the reason why this animal was so often depicted on ritual utensils.