The Pereshchepina treasure: a steppe ruler’s burial or treasure, perhaps Kubrat’s

In 1912 shepherd boys came upon gold and silver vessels in the dunes near the village of Mala Pereshchepyna. Villagers dug over the spot and carried off part of the find, but officials recovered the principal pieces; some 800 objects went to the Imperial Archaeological Commission and then to the Hermitage, and Count A. A. Bobrinsky published them in 1914. Among them are a silver plate of Bishop Paternus of Tomis stamped in the reign of Anastasius I, later Byzantine silver stamped under Maurice and Heraclius, Sasanian vessels of silver and gold, a sword with a ring pommel in gold sheathing, belt sets with pseudo-buckles, harness fittings, jewellery and about 300 small square gold plaques that probably covered a wooden funerary structure, perhaps a coffin or bier. Some seventy gold coins, from Maurice (582–602) to light solidi of Constans II struck in 642–646, had been made into pendants and appliqués; the latest of them give the earliest possible date.

In 1984 the German archaeologist Joachim Werner argued that this was Kubrat’s grave: the Byzantinist Werner Seibt read the monograms on two gold rings as “of Kubrat” and “of Kubrat the patrician”, the rank Heraclius had given him. The Hermitage publication of 1997 added arguments — a warrior’s set closely matched in rich Avar burials, fitting a former vassal of the Avars — but also pointed to vessels and ornaments of Turkic and Sogdian tradition that suggest a later date, and V. N. Zalesskaya read the monogram on a third ring as “of Bat Orkhan the patrician”, perhaps Kubrat’s uncle Organas, although Seibt reads Kubrat’s name there as well. Its authors left open whether Kubrat himself, his heir or a Khazar conqueror who took his treasure was laid here.

Archaeologists use the find to define the horizon “Pereshchepina – Bócsa”, dated to about 620/640 – 660/680, while others place it in the second half or even the last quarter of the 7th century; the interval runs from the latest coins to the end of the 7th century. Whether it was a grave, a cenotaph or a sacrificial deposit is also debated, and the view of Soviet scholars such as Boris Rybakov that it belonged to a Slavic chieftain is now rejected.