The permanent exhibition “Relics from the Battle of Kulikovo” presents a detail of horse tack, a belt set or a costume of the 14th century. The overall dimensions of the belt plate are 1.8×2.0 cm. The object has not been completely preserved: part of the bezel and two of the sides are lost. The belt plate is cast, convex, and hollow inside. The bezel has a sub-rectangular shape (1.1×1.1 cm) with an embossed image of a blossoming flower. The quality of casting is high. In cross section, the plate has the shape of a truncated pyramid 1.8 cm high. On its inner side, two rivets which are rounded in cross section (the diameter is 0.1 cm) have been preserved — they were used to attach the plate to the base. The rivet was fastened in round sockets located in the corners of the inner surface of the bezel.

This plate was discovered in 2014 during excavations conducted by the military-historical unit of the Upper-Don archaeological expedition of the State Historical Museum and the State Military-Historical and Natural Museum-Reserve “Kulikovo Field” in the upper reaches of the Smolka River, on the territory of the Kulikovo Field.

Similar plates were widespread among the nomadic antiquities from the 13th to the 14th centuries. For example, similar plates were found among the finds of the Golden Horde barrow necropolis near the village of Ust-Kurdyum in the middle Volga region. There, during the excavation of mound number eight, a burial was discovered, in which not only a metal belt set was preserved, but also fragments of a leather belt along with metal fittings attached to it.

On the reverse, the belt plate that is on display in the museum was fastened with rounded pins, which were riveted into washers of irregular rounded shape, cut from a thin bronze plate. Such hollow plates with pins in the corners originated in Askiz territory during medieval Khakass culture. The plates fixed the ends of the belts threaded into the belt divider. The floral pattern, including images of blossoming flowers, was one of the most popular motifs in the ornamental compositions of the Golden Horde.

Name: Belt plate
Date of creation: the 14th–17th centuries
Technique: non-ferrous metal, casting
Dimensions: 1,8×2 cm

The permanent exhibition features an iron plate of the 14th century in the form of a flat bezel measuring 2.1×3.4 cm, trefoil in shape, with three round holes (0.2 cm in diameter) and a fragment of a rivet in one of them. On the reverse side of the plate, in the center, there are the remains of a flat sub-rectangular loop with a round through hole which is 0.3 cm in diameter.

In 2011, this plate was discovered by a joint archaeological expedition of the State Historical Museum and the State Military Historical and Natural Museum-Reserve “Kulikovo Field” on the watershed of the Rybiy Verkh and Prudovaya ravines. The archaeological dig was conducted to the north of the Khvorostyanka village, Kurkinsky District, Tula Oblast, site No. 22, grid 11, square 10.

The plate turned out to be a clasp for a waist bag or a purse with a back plaque and a locking pin, which were widely used in the 13th and 14th centuries from the northern Russian principalities to Lithuania and the Cis-Azov region. Iron plates of similar shape were attached to the flaps of quadrangular leather bags known among the medieval nomads of Eastern Europe. A similar trefoil clasp on a leather bag was discovered during excavations of Barrow No. 1 of the Mordovian Atkar burial ground of the 13th–14th century.

A “kalita” was the so-called money bag. It was borrowed by the Russians from the Turkic nomads, as was its name (“kalta”). A kalita was first mentioned in the 14th century and was used in everyday life until the 18th century. At first, it was a leather sack, then it acquired a trapezoidal shape. It was carried on the belt. Such bags were used to store and carry both individual items as well as sets of items, including tinderboxes (flint, a fire striker, tinder, and a tinder tube), accessories used for trade and money. Kalitas were made mainly from leather and decorated with slits, metal overlays made of copper or tin, and appliqués. The most valuable kalitas were the ones made of morocco leather. These purses featured the images of animals embroidered with gold and were decorated with precious stones.

Name: Plate
Date of creation: the 14th century
Technique: iron, forging
Dimensions: 2,1×3,4 cm