Archaeological excavations in the eastern part of the Moscow Kremlin in 2014-2016

The paper summarizes preliminary results of archaeological excavationsconducted on the site where building 14 of the Moscow Kremlin had been located beforeit was pulled down. These were the first large-scale excavations in the eastern part ofthe Kremlin hill conducted on the site where the Chudov Monastery, the ResurrectionMonastery and the Small Nikolaevsky Palace had stood before they were torn downin 1929-1930. The 2014-2016 excavations revealed foundation pits of several ChudovMonastery and Small Nikolaevsky Palace buildings dated to the 15th-17th centuries,graves of the monastery necropolis and stratified sections of the occupation layer, withthe earliest strata dated to the pre-Mongol period, which survived despite substantialdemolition works carried out on this spot in the Soviet times. The paper providesa brief description of the stratigraphic conditions of the excavated sections, remainsof the buildings, some of which are now museified at two ‘archaeological windows'in Ivanovskaya Square; burial assemblages of the 14th-17th centuries and medievalcultural deposits including the deposits associated with the earliest period of this part ofthe Kremlin hill occupation.