Armor-piercing arrows — from Genghis Khan era — found hidden in museum. See them

Decades after they were accidentally discovered, a group of rare ancient weapons are being studied for the first time in Russia.

More than 60 years ago near the city of Yeniseisk, known as an ancient Siberian city, metal artifacts were unearthed by a bulldozer working on a construction project, according to an April 18 news release from the Siberian Federal University.

The pieces include broad flat arrowheads called srezni as well as long, armor-piercing arrows with spikes, the university said. There was also a metal Y-shaped fork that was described as unusual.

The weapons had traces of scale, suggesting they had been part of a cremation burial but later removed, archaeologists said.

The discoverers at the time put the weapons in storerooms at the Yenisei Museum-Reserve where they sat untouched — and unstudied — for decades, according to the release.

The weapons were rediscovered when a university project through the Institute of Digital Humanities Research began work on databases for scientific work, according to the release.

Researchers today say the weapons can be dated to the 13th or 14th centuries and the Lesosibirsk culture, a period at the beginning of the Mongol Empire, the university said.

The Mongol Empire was led by Genghis Khan, a conqueror who united the Mongolian tribes across Asia. Khan established a large, disciplined military infamous for its brutal and violent attacks as the empire grew to cover 9 million square miles, according to Britannica.

Genghis Khan was elected to power in 1206, and he oversaw a wide range of attacks and expansions of the empire before his death during a campaign in 1227, Britannica says.

The Mongol Empire included southern Siberia, where the weapons were discovered in the 1960s.

However, researchers said finding the weapons in the Krasnoyarsk region is still very rare, according to the university.

Krasnoyarsk is a federal subject, or krai, of central Russia that spans from the northern border of Mongolia to the northern coast of Russia.

Google Translate was used to translate the news release from Siberian Federal University.

Irene Wright

McClatchy DC

Irene Wright is a McClatchy Real-Time reporter. She earned a B.A. in ecology and an M.A. in health and medical journalism from the University of Georgia and is now based in Atlanta. Irene previously worked as a business reporter at The Dallas Morning News.