Plaque Fragment with a Sheep

This piece is a part of the gold cover with an image of sheep running from an unknown danger. It was found in the backfill of a north tomb of Haimanova Mohyla barrow, which had been already robbed in ancient times. But thieves left plenty of valuable things untouched: weapons, horse harness, remains of domestic items, gold adornments for garments and different kinds of bronze and silver vessels. Unfortunately, it`s hard to identify the purpose of this plaque fragment. It can be assumed that it was a decoration of some vessel, credibly, a rhyton – a wine vessel in a shape of a horn. Though only a tiny fragment of plaque survived, its craftsmanship is fascinating, and so is a realistic depiction of animals, precise image of their tension and distinguished harmony and proportions.