This book presents a reconstruction of the religious world outlook of the population of the Khazar kaganate and describes the methods applied during the course of the investigation. The author reveals the encoded semantics of images depicted on amulets, drawings, potter's stamps, and toreutics. Their ideas on the structure of the universe and calendrical cycles are reconstructed; the symbolism of supreme power is considered in connection to the "kagan-bek" opposition. Considerable attention is paid to amulets - the most widespread attribute of Khazarian paganism, as well as to the scenes depicted on vessels from the sites of Kip, Kotsky Gorodok, and Nagyszentmiklos.

Valentina Flyorova is also the author of the book "Graffiti Khazarii" (1997) and numerous scholarly articles about Khazar religion, arts, sign systems, and crafts. She currently works for the Institute of Archaeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences.