MOSCOW, October 19 A rare example of a weapon of the end The 16th – early 17th centuries were discovered by archaeologists from the State Museum-Reserve “Kulikovo Field” in the Tula region. In their opinion, a accidentally found steel claw, decorated with silver, could have belonged to a representative of the upper class — a prince or governor of the Time of Troubles. Such finds are extremely rare for Central Russia, the museum’s press service reported.
Klevets is a melee melee weapon with a one-sided beak-like protrusion for delivering a targeted strike. Klevtsy were an indispensable attribute of the weapons of the Polish gentry, were widespread in Hungary, and were found among the Russian nobility.
August 21, 09:00
“According to preliminary data, the klevets date from the end of the 16th – the first half of the 17th centuries. In order to more accurately understand the chronological position of this thing, further work remains to be done to find analogies, that is, similar in type to the klevets,” said the head of the archaeological research department of the State Museum. reserve «Kulikovo Pole» Evgeniy Stolyarov.
The scientist said that this rare specimen was accidentally discovered on the territory of a settlement in the Shchekinsky district of the Tula region during archaeological exploration of one of the monuments of the Romny archaeological culture of the 9th–10th centuries.
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The surface of the bowl is richly decorated with silver (clad). When clearing weapons under a layer of earth and corrosion, numerous patterns in the form of nets and diamonds were discovered.
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«The find, which I currently have under restoration, is made of steel, has a beak-shaped protrusion on one side and a hammer-shaped protrusion on the other. The original weight of the artifact before restoration was 382 grams» , said Vitaly Shmelev, a restorer of the highest category.
Scientists believe that the find from the Tula Zaseki is associated with the era of the Time of Troubles, since individual weapons of that time, for example, a Polish-Hungarian saber from the late 16th to early 17th centuries, had already been found in the forests of the Zasechnaya Line.
Analogs Klevtsa from the Tula notches are kept in the museum collections of the Moscow Armory Chamber, the State Historical Museum, the Hermitage and the Artillery Museum. Basically, these are items that are ceremonial weapons, marking the status of their owners.
“Such a richly decorated klevets could belong to a person of the upper class, for example a prince or a governor,” notes Stolyarov.
As told in the Kulikovo Field museum, klevets were discovered on the borders of the Moscow state at the end of the 16th century — the beginning of the 17th century, where during the Time of Troubles there was an extremely tense situation. By the end of the Time of Troubles, the Cossack troops of Ataman Zarutsky, who took care of the wife of False Dmitry I Marina Mnishek and his young son, settled in Epifani. The then situation in the region is described, for example, in the work of Alexander Lavrentv “Epifan and the Upper Don in the XII-XVII centuries”, where klevtsy, along with sabers, knives and daggers, are presented as an illustration of the edged weapons of the “opponents”.
At the moment Klevets, discovered by archaeologists of the Kulikovo Field Museum-Reserve, are undergoing attribution. Once the dating has been clarified, it will be presented at exhibitions dedicated to the history of the Zasechnaya Line.