Issues, questions and main results of examining osteological remains from the 2016 excavations in the Moscow kremlin

The paper reports on the results of examining the 2016 osteological collection. It brings up issues of selecting chronological samples as well as issues of dividing bones into different categories. The study of kitchen waste demonstrates that starting from the 12th century, the meat diet of the Kremlin Hill population was of urban type. The differences in osteological spectrum of kitchen bone remains indicate the residents with different incomes and specific social status. Bones of hunting birds found in pre-Mongol and premonastery cultural deposits are markers of a high status and special prestige of the population of these periods. That is quite consistent with exceptional pre-Mongol archaeological finds and impressive architectural complexes of the pre-Mongol period which characterize early Moscow as a settlement with the material culture of the urban type.