Sergei B. Sorochan*, Valerii S. Fliorov**
* Kharkiv National University named after V.N. Karazin, Ukraine (ssoro4an@yandex.ua)
** Institute of Archaeology Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow (valerij-flyorov@yandex.ru)
Key words: North-West Caucasus, Byzantium, Protospatharios, fortress Khumara, the Bulgarians, the Khazar.
 
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-fledged history source; identifying its narrow date; investigation of the circumstances, under which the tape turned out to be in the burial ground.