The permanent exhibition “Relics from the Battle of Kulikovo” presents a fragment of the end of the blade of an edged piercing and cutting weapon of the 12th–17th centuries. The total restorable length of the preserved piece is 20.5 cm, the maximum width is 2 cm. The spine of the blade is straight, and not wide (0.3 cm). In cross section, the blade has a subtriangular shape, with gradually tapering side edges. The blade gradually flares from the tip to the handle.
The item was discovered in 2013 in excavations conducted by the State Historical Museum and the State Museum-Reserve “Kulikovo Field”, in the upper reaches of the Smolka River on the northern outskirts of the Khvorostyanka village, Kurkinsky District, Tula Region, site No. 22, grid 11, square 8. It is currently housed by the State Museum-Reserve “Kulikovo Field”.
The finds made on Kulikovo Field belong to various cultures, so it is rather difficult to determine the origin of the presented tool. Similar large knives were found among the antiquities of the Golden Horde: perhaps this fragment is the upper part of the blade of a slightly curved Horde saber. Such weapons were common in the nomadic antiquities of the southern Russian steppes and the Volga region in the first half of the 11th — second half of the 14th century. With a high degree of probability, the blade belonged to a “kord” — a single-edged bladed weapon of medium size — 30–70 cm long. This type of weapon came from Central Europe. In fact, the “kord” was a big knife. Moreover, as recent studies have shown, these knives were made by cutlers, not weaponsmiths.
The battle on the Kulikovo Field was mostly hand-to-hand combat with warriors making use of melee weapons. We can see the list of these weapons on the pages of the Kulikovo cycle. These are spears “…haraluzhny or gilded, bear spears, Russian or Lithuanian swords, sabers, Fryazhsky konchars, Lyatsky kords, Misyursky or Fryazhsky daggers, light axes, German sulits, iron clubs…”
The item was discovered in 2013 in excavations conducted by the State Historical Museum and the State Museum-Reserve “Kulikovo Field”, in the upper reaches of the Smolka River on the northern outskirts of the Khvorostyanka village, Kurkinsky District, Tula Region, site No. 22, grid 11, square 8. It is currently housed by the State Museum-Reserve “Kulikovo Field”.
The finds made on Kulikovo Field belong to various cultures, so it is rather difficult to determine the origin of the presented tool. Similar large knives were found among the antiquities of the Golden Horde: perhaps this fragment is the upper part of the blade of a slightly curved Horde saber. Such weapons were common in the nomadic antiquities of the southern Russian steppes and the Volga region in the first half of the 11th — second half of the 14th century. With a high degree of probability, the blade belonged to a “kord” — a single-edged bladed weapon of medium size — 30–70 cm long. This type of weapon came from Central Europe. In fact, the “kord” was a big knife. Moreover, as recent studies have shown, these knives were made by cutlers, not weaponsmiths.
The battle on the Kulikovo Field was mostly hand-to-hand combat with warriors making use of melee weapons. We can see the list of these weapons on the pages of the Kulikovo cycle. These are spears “…haraluzhny or gilded, bear spears, Russian or Lithuanian swords, sabers, Fryazhsky konchars, Lyatsky kords, Misyursky or Fryazhsky daggers, light axes, German sulits, iron clubs…”
