The belt plate was used to decorate a belt. This accessory is made of gold and adorned with an elaborate ornamental pattern featuring fantastic creatures. In a rectangular frame, the ancient artist showed the scene of a fight between two wolf dragons and two griffins. The master carefully worked out the details, embossing the scales and serrated ridges on snake-like dragons’ bodies and highlighting the folds of skin on their faces and thick rows of teeth on their upper jaws. The bodies of griffins and dragons are inlaid with inserts of pink coral, green and blue glass.

The edges of the plates are bent inward. On the back, loops are soldered, to fasten the plate to the belt. The loop on lower right corner of one of the plates is not soldered, but fastened with a rivet that is encrusted with an almandine insert on front side.

A pair of gold belt plates from the collection of Azov Museum-Reserve was found in 1988 on Lower Don, in Sarmatian burial site of Khapra. Scientists attributed the entombment to the 1st century A.D.

In total, archaeologists discovered about five thousand gold items in the crypt. They were apparently used to embroider a sword belt. This richly decorated item of clothing confirmed the decease man’s high rank. Belt jewelry, such as buckles, tips, or plaques were symbols of power, dignity and nobility in the days of Sarmatians. Such items were also valued as amulets. Sarmatians believed in miraculous power of the belt. According to ancient legends, circular shape had magical properties, and the belt served as protection from hostile forces. Scientists suggest that all warriors’ clothes were luxuriously decorated, but the burial site was robbed in ancient times, and the buried man’s appearance cannot be reconstructed.