Sorochan

Valery Flerov

The subject of the research is a silk tape of the Byzantine manufacturing with an inscription with the mentioning of Protospatharios Ivanis. The tape has been found in a burial ground Moschevaya Balka Karachaevo-Cherkessiya, North-West Caucasus and dates back to the 8th–9th cc. AD. A new interpretation of the inscription has been offered. It has been critically considered the following possibilities: using the tape as a full-fl edged history source; identifying its narrow date; investigation of the circumstances, under which the tape turned out to be in the burial ground.