Archaeology
Wooden log house (five rows). Moscow, 13th century. Wood; chopping, adzing. Height 140 cm. Found during archaeological research of basements of the Patriarch's Palace in the Moscow Kremlin in 1965.
Rattle. Russia, Moscow, 15th-16th centuries. Red clay, engobe; modelling, engobing. Expedition of 2007. Location of finding – Tainitsky Garden.
Toy bear. Rus, Moscow, second half of the 14th century. Red clay; modelling on a circle. Expedition of 2007. Location of finding - Tainitsky Garden.
Cup (fragment). Golden Horde. Second half of the14th century. Red clay; modelling on a circle. Expedition of 2007.Location of finding - Tainitsky Garden.
Plate (fragment). China, 14th-15th centuries. Clay; moulding on a circle, glaze. Expedition of 1976.
Armour (two fragments). Rus, Moscow, 16th century. Steel; forging. Expedition of 1975. Location of finding – Ivanovskaya Square.
The archaeology fund comprises about a thousand exhibits. The things found on the Kremlin’s territory belong to various historical epochs – from the late third millennium B.C. to the early 19th century. The oldest items are stone military axes. The early Iron Age is presented by embossed reticular ceramics typical for settlements of the Dyakovo culture.
The collection of objects from various spheres of material culture of the medieval settlement on the Borovitsky Hill is the largest. The majority of medieval findings belong to the 12th-15th centuries. These are mainly trappings as well as fragments of pottery – slipware produced in Russia, Golden Horde, Central Asia, Persia and China. Typical of a developed medieval town findings, smithery products represent the biggest part of them. These are various instruments, household utensils and military equipment. The military equipment items deserve a special note, as they constitute a rather large part of the archaeological collection. There is no other medieval town that has an occupation layer so saturated with findings of this kind.
The majority of the rest exhibits can be joint in a large section of everyday life objects. Exhibits forming the look of a Moscow house are an interesting part of the collection. Items which are indicative of local crafts, rejects and waste products first of all, are of a special value.
More than a half of archaeological findings of the 12th-19th centuries are articles brought to Moscow. Nearly all of them were created in other Russian towns, and some were delivered from outside Rus. The facts of this kind are evidence of good trade relations between Moscow and other towns. Most of the articles belong to the 12th-15th centuries and only a few items date back to the 17th-18th centuries.
The collection includes seven archaeological complexes – troves found during the archaeological research in the Kremlin. Three of them were hidden during the tragic events of 1238.
Apart from everything mentioned above, the collection has a series of exhibits transferred from other funds. They are first of all, jars and religious objects from burials of Tsarinas and Great Princesses in the Ascension Convent as well as vessels from burials of Ivan the Terrible and his sons.