The Kursk Museum of Archaeology houses a tongue-shaped belt tip. Its upper flat part has two holes for attachment to a leather base and one preserved rivet, while the lower part features a decoration. Functionally, the tip is a decorative element of a belt adorned with plates, which is attached to the loose end of the belt to give the item a finished look. The object is dated to the 5th–6th centuries and was found by chance.
It was discovered in 2005 in the village of Kudintsevo in the Lgovsky district of the Kursk region. In December 2006, it was transferred to the museum’s collection. In the Early Middle Ages, such tips, along with other decorations, equipment, and accessories made from precious and colored metals, were mostly affordable to the elite of that time: chieftains, warriors, and nobility. There are few similar finds of belt set details from the Kursk region, representing the attire of the male part of the population during the early stage of the formation of the Kolochin culture.
These include the following finds: a buckle tongue from the village of Kartamyshevo-2 (Oboyansky District) and a buckle from the village of Lukashevka-4 (Kurchatovsky District), and the village of Pena (Belovsky District). All of them are consistent in style. According to archaeologists Anatoly Ambroz and Alexey Furashev, items of this type trace their roots to the Germanic tradition of Central Europe. They are East European adaptations of Western models and are dated to the second half of the 5th century, possibly the late 5th to early 6th centuries.
The artifact on display belongs to the Kolochin archaeological culture of the 5th–7th centuries. Its main area covers the eastern part of the Gomel and Mogilev regions, as well as the adjacent districts of the Vitebsk region of Belarus, the Smolensk and Bryansk regions, and parts of the Kursk and Belgorod regions of Russia. Small enclaves of settlers from the main area were also present in the Lipetsk and Tambov regions of Russia, and the Sumy and Chernihiv regions of Ukraine. Most researchers consider the bearers of this culture to be Slavs.
