Mysteries of the Moscow Kremlin Antiquities. "Archaeological Windows" on Ivanovskaya Square

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

The Moscow Kremlin is a territory that preserves the memory of eight centuries of Russian history, but the material evidence of antiquity today is practically invisible to the visitor in many of its parts.

From the middle of the XX century. The Kremlin attracts close attention of archaeologists. However, it has not been sufficiently studied: the modern functions of the Kremlin as a location for the highest bodies of state power have long held back archaeological work. The dismantling of the 14th building of the Moscow Kremlin, built in 1930-32, opened up unique opportunities not only for the archaeological study of the eastern part of the Kremlin Hill, but also for filling the modern Kremlin ensemble with genuine heritage elements that reveal its historical appearance.

The instructions of the President of the Russian Federation, data on the results of the inspection of the park at the site of the dismantled 14th building, which took place on May 17, 2016, determine the program of actions that should more fully realize the potential of the Kremlin as a historical territory. One of the points of this program is the museumification of archaeological pits with the remains of the foundations of the Small Nicholas Palace, the Church of Metropolitan Alexy and the Annunciation Church of the Chudov Monastery on Ivanovskaya Square in the Moscow Kremlin. The remains of these buildings, which occupied an important place in the ensemble of the Kremlin and are significant for the national historical consciousness, were first discovered by excavations of the Institute of Archeology in the spring of 2016.

Preparations for the museumification of fragments of historical buildings turned out to be a complex museum and engineering project. For this, it turned out to be necessary to preserve them with the use of modern restoration technologies, which should ensure their long-term preservation. Currently, two "windows" are open for inspection in one of which on an area of 44 square meters. m, the foundations and basements of the complex of two churches and the refectory of the Chudov Monastery (1680-1686) are exhibited (Fig. 1, 2), with buttress and tombstones of the monastery necropolis, in the other, on an area of 15 sq. m, - the foundation and part of the basement of the Small Nikolaevsky Palace (1775, 1874-1875) (Fig. 3, 4). The remains of these buildings are not only archaeological objects, but also historical relics associated with outstanding events and personalities of the past (Patriarch Joachim, Peter I, Metropolitan Platon, Nicholas I, Alexander II, A. S. Pushkin). There are no remakes in the exposition: all the remains of historical buildings are presented in their original form.

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The practice of creating "archaeological windows" is one of the modern technologies for the presentation of cultural heritage; it has become widespread in many historical cities of Europe and Asia. In Russia, the construction of such "windows" is complicated by the need to create temperature and humidity regimes that ensure the preservation of antiquities in conditions of seasonal temperature changes. "Archaeological windows" on Ivanovskaya Square are the first in the Moscow Kremlin and in Moscow (Fig. 5).

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New excavations on Ivanovskaya Square, associated with the arrangement of the exposition in the pits, have yielded vivid materials that are significant for the history of the Kremlin.

In a pit on the site of the Small Nikolaevsky Palace, one of the basements and the foundations of the southern wall of the palace was revealed, in which masonry of white stone and brick alternated (Fig. 6). This original masonry system was applied by N. A. Shokhin during the replacement of the foundations of the palace and the arrangement of cellars in it, made by him in 1874-1875. A pit associated with the replacement of foundations was traced, in the backfill of which a redeposited cultural layer with finds of the 13th-19th centuries was studied, among which the Zolotordyn coin and fragments of glass bracelets of the pre-Mongol era are interesting. The bulk of the archaeological material in the filling of the pit belongs to the first half of the 16th century. - these are fragments of stove tiles, children's toys, various household items (Fig. 7). Probably, during the development of the pit, this particular cultural layer was removed from it, which was later used for backfilling. Undoubtedly, earlier (pre-Mongolian) deposits were disturbed, from which the "barrow" ceramics and glass bracelets originated.

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The basements of the palace were covered with compacted crumbs of lime mortar, which could have appeared here for only one reason - if during the dismantling of the monastery buildings in 1929-1930. the stones were cleared of the mortar that held them together. The stone was used for the needs of the construction site, and crumbs of mortar were poured into the basements of the dismantled palace. Thus, the remains of the palace survived because they then became a reservoir for construction waste.

In a pit on the site of the church of St. Alexy Metropolitan and Annunciation, the southern corner of the quadrangle and the paving of the passage between the church and the refectory of the Chudov Monastery were revealed. This entire complex was built in 1680-1686. Foundations of the church of St. Alexia and the Annunciation had a complex structure. An attachment was made to the original rubble stone masonry on a lime mortar on the outside of the foundation, on which white-stone gravestones of the 17th century were used (Fig. 8). The attachment was probably needed to strengthen the foundation, which was placed on a rather loose cultural layer. In addition to the buttstock, a buttress was also made, which supported the eastern wall of the temple.

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Epitaphs have been preserved on three gravestones that were in secondary use. One of them once marked the grave of one of the representatives of the Velyaminov family (the name has been lost), the second - the schema-monk Serapion, whose worldly name is Simeon, the third - Pavel Radionov, who died in 1629, “the servant of the Chudov Monastery”. The last inscription mentioned here is read almost completely, except for the lower part, covered with another masonry stone: “Lѣ [ta] ZRLI (7138) // April 22 [day] in memory of // prep (approved) of our father Fyodor S [and] kiota prest // [a] the [s] servant of God [th] Chudov // m (o) n (a) st (s) servant Pavel Radionov nickname // … "(Fig. 9). Monastic servants are a special social group of the population, well known from documents of the 16th-17th centuries. - these are secular people who were involved in the management of the monastic economy and property. Plate of 1629 is the first inscription with a mention of the Chudov Monastery, found during excavations in the Kremlin. Along with signature tombstones, fragments of gravestones without epitaphs were recorded. Unfortunately, there is no data on the presence of epitaphs on most of the gravestones, since in order to establish their presence or absence, a significant part of the ancient masonry would have to be disassembled.

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In the internal volume of the church, the remains of the 19th century paving of the floor, made of small-sized bricks with a herringbone masonry, have been recorded. The only site where it turned out to be possible to explore the cultural deposits in this place to their entire depth, to the mainland, was located near the southern corner of the quadrangle of the church. The total thickness of the cultural layer here reached 5 m (Fig. 10), and a significant part of it was deposited before the construction of stone monastic buildings in the 1680s. In the lowest (pre-continental) layers, ceramic material and items of clothing from the pre-Mongol era (typical ceramics and glass bracelets) were collected, documenting the time of the initial development of this area (Fig. 11). In the layer of the XIV century, fragments of imported vessels were found - glass, with gold painting (Syrian production), and the Golden Horde kashin bowl with polychrome painting (Fig. 12). These items testify to the wealth of the inhabitants of the estate. The names of the owners of the estates located in this part of the Kremlin in the XIV century. unknown, but it is clear that these were persons of high social status.

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Layers of the XIV-XV centuries. were saturated with charcoal and other traces of severe fires - they are evidenced by numerous non-ferrous metal melts, which were formed, probably due to the melting of copper and bronze objects in fires. A certain surprise (for the site at the top of the Kremlin hill) was the fact that the cultural layer of the 16th-17th centuries that lay above. turned out to be saturated with moisture, it practically did not differ from the "wet" layer of Veliky Novgorod. Thanks to this, organic matter is well preserved in this layer - wood chips, manure, scraps of leather products. In this layer, the remains of wooden structures were cleared: the frame from the cellar (12 crowns high) with the remains of the collapsed floor of the above-ground part of the building, the fence-palisade of the city estate and the flooring of logs. Currently, the remains of wooden structures are undergoing laboratory processing in order to preserve them for future museum display.

From the layers of the XVI-XVII centuries. a variety of household items occurred, indicating that this site fell on the economic zone of estates of that time. Here are collected various objects made of iron, fragments of domestic and imported glass bottles and shtoffs, fragments of relief stove tiles (red and etched). Along with them, fishing weights were found, emphasizing the economic nature of the site.

Museumification of the remains of historical buildings in pits on Ivanovskaya Square does not exhaust the program of archaeological study of the Kremlin and exhibiting the most ancient monuments of its history. In accordance with the instructions of the President, one of the further steps on this path should be the creation of an archaeological museum complex on the basis of the found remains of the foundation of the Church of the Miracle of Archangel Michael in the basements of the 14th building. The issue of further archaeological excavations in those areas where the cultural layer has not been damaged by the construction of the 20th century is being considered. and the most promising for the reconstruction of the culture and historical life of Moscow Russia.