Leather belt bag

A belt bag is a leather or textile work that could be hung off a belt, and was used to hold objects needed in daily life. Most belt bags in Lithuania have been found as grave goods in early graves dating to the 16th century. Belt bags are usually discovered empty of any contents, or only fragments of them remain. This National Museum – Palace of the Grand Dukes of Lithuania exhibit dating to the late 14th century is not only one of the oldest such items in Lithuania, it is also the only known belt bag to this day with items still inside, which was not part of a grave complex.
The bag contained six nails – three were cylindrical, and three with decorated round heads, as well as a small buckle, a buckle tongue, the mount from the end of the belt, a hafted and a socketed knife, three iron objects of unknown purpose, an arrowhead, three birch sticks bound with copper alloy wire, a whetstone made of sandstone and a tiny carnelian stone bead. The belt bag itself was made from goat hide decorated with an ornate intarsia and was nicely embroidered.
The unique find with the listed objects inside shows that the owner, most likely a craftsman and inhabitant of the Vilnius Lower Castle, kept those tools most needed for his daily work in the belt bag.