Dress ornament ca. 5th century B.C. Scythian When the nomads of the Eurasian steppes entered the region bordering on the ancient Near East, they brought with them a highly mobile lifestyle, including a sophisticated horse-riding military and a tradition of wealth display in the form of gold ornaments for their clothing, equipment, and animal trappings. By the fifth century B.C., when this gold plaque was probably made, the art of the nomads was influenced by arts from nearby settled populations, including the Greeks and the Achaemenid Persians.This ornament, with a small loop on the back meant for attachment to clothing, is from a large group of gold plaques acquired by Western museums, including The Metropolitan Museum of Art, in the first decades of the twentieth century. They are thought to come from the area in the northern part of the Black Sea, reportedly from the site of Maikop in the Northern Caucasus. The plaques from this group include images of stags, floral and geometric de