This arrowhead was discovered in 2014 in excavations conducted by the military-historical unit of the Upper-Don archaeological expedition of the State Historical Museum and the State Museum-Reserve “Kulikovo Field”. The archaeological dig was conducted in the upper reaches of the Smolka River to the north of the Khvorostyanka village, Kurkinsky District, Tula Oblast.

The arrowhead that was attached to the shaft with a tang has a wide diamond-shaped asymmetric body, a long neck and a stop flange for the shaft. The last two parts are both made in the swaging technique. The ratio of the neck to the total length of the body is one to three, its diameter is 0.7 cm. The rounded tang is mostly missing, and its diameter is 0.3 cm at the base. This is a common form of arrowheads, used on the territory of Old Rus from the 10th to the end of the 14th century.

The length of the arrows and the bow had to match the body proportions and strength of each archer. In the Middle ages, Russian, Arabic and Persian bows could be from 140 to 180 cm long. The arrows that were most widely used in Old Rus could be from 75 to 90 cm long. This was about half the length of the kibiti bow. In the 13th and 14th centuries, the nomads used arrows of the same length.

According to an Arabic manual of the 15th century, medieval archers estimated the ratio between the length of the arrows and the length of the archer’s limbs. Some believed that the length of the arrow should be equal to either the length of the archer’s arm from the armpit to the tip of the middle finger, or the sum of the lengths of the shoulder and forearm (75–90 cm), or the length of the lower leg and foot (75 cm), or the length of the lower leg and forearm (about 90 cm), or the length of the forearm and the width of the chest (about 85 cm). Others claimed the length of the arrow should reach either 8–12 fist circumference (72–108 cm), or the distance between the ends of the drawn bow, or the distance between the ends of the bow with the string on.

Most Old Russian arrowheads weighed from 8 to 10 grams, but there were also especially large points that weighed up to 40 grams. An Arabic manual of the 15th century informed that the weight of an arrowhead should have been one seventh of the total weight of the arrow.

The permanent exhibition “Relics from the Battle of Kulikovo” features a forged iron piece of horse equipment dating back to the 12th–14th centuries — a buckle with a sub-rectangular frame measuring 3.2×2.6 cm with rounded ends. The part was forged from a cane which was 0.3 cm thick and rectangular in cross section. The sides of the frame are slightly flattened — they are 0.5 cm wide. The length of the prong is 2.8 cm. It is made of a rectangular cane and measures 0.5 cm near the hinge. The end of the prong is pointed.

In 2003, this buckle was discovered in 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” on the watershed of the Verkhodub and Orzhevik ravines, to the south of the Monastyrshchino village, Kimovsky District, Tula Oblast, on site No. 22, grid 1. The buckle is currently housed by the State Museum-Reserve “Kulikovo Field”.

Judging by the size of the frame of the buckle, it connected the ends of the belt that were no more than 2 cm wide. The item could well belong to the bridle set of a military horse or the belt set of a professional warrior. The buckle belongs to the type of multifunctional belt buckles.

In the early Middle Ages, a rider was, first of all, a professional combatant. He possessed considerable combat skills and expensive equipment. From the 10th to the 13th century, a specially trained warhorse was a knight’s “living” weapon, and his equipment — the bridle, the saddle, and other elements — had the same technical characteristics as his weapon. Parts of horse tack, which date back to the period from the second half of the 10th century to the early 12th century, were produced by ordinary blacksmiths and gunsmiths. It was not until the 12th and 13th centuries that special skills were required to manufacture horse accessories for riding, harnessing, saddling and controlling horses. The information from written sources about saddlers dates back to exactly that period.