The crossbow arrowhead (bolt) on display at the exhibition is a part of crossbow ammunition from the 13th to 15th centuries. It was forged from a solid piece of metal, the bottom of which was rolled into a sleeve and the edges were fused together by forging.
This discovery was made in 1982 at the site of Izborsk in Pechorsky District (Pskov Oblast) by an archaeological expedition of the USSR Institute of Archeology led by Valentin Vasilyevich Sedov.
A crossbow is a weapon that combines the features of a bow and a handheld ballista, or catapult. The first handheld ballistas were introduced into service with the Roman army in the early centuries CE. However, after the fall of Rome, these weapons were largely forgotten. They saw a rebirth at the start of the Crusades, when European military forces lacked archers, but almost every Muslim cavalryman was an expert archer.
The crossbow played a cruel trick on the Europeans. When European rulers began to fight among themselves, the main victims of the crossbow were representatives of the nobility — mounted warriors protected by heavy armor. The popes even issued numerous bulls prohibiting the use of the crossbow for military purposes.
The crossbow fired short, thick arrows — bolts. The arrowhead of the bolt was relatively heavy, weighing from 15 to 30 grams, while a regular arrowhead was only 9 grams at most. The socket at the arrowhead of the bolt was also larger. The bolt arrowhead was attached to the shaft using different methods. In Ancient Rus, socket arrowheads were preferred.
In Rus, the crossbow was known as “samostrel” and had limited use. Typically, such crossbows were only used for defense during sieges. Ancient Russian chronicles mention a vivid instance of Russian warriors using this weapon during a siege. This occurred in 1382, two years after the Battle of Kulikovo, when the Golden Horde leader Khan Tokhtamysh laid siege to Moscow. One Muscovite, Adam by name, a clothworker, noticed a noble Horde commander from Tokhtamysh’s entourage from Frolovskiye Gate and shot an arrow from his crossbow, killing the enemy commander.
