The history of the Moscow Kremlin
Antiquities of the Kremlin hill (2nd millenium – 3rd century b.c.)

Man of the Bronze Age. Reconstruction by M.M.Gerasimov
The Moscow Kremlin is located on the Borovitsky hill, on the left bank of the Moscow River, in the place where the Neglinnaya River meets the Moscow River. The modern  district of the Kremlin had been entirely covered with a forest in antiquity. The ancient name of the Kremlin hill "Borovitsky” (from the Russian bor meaning forest)  might have been connected to it.


Archeologists date the first data on stay of a human being on the Borovitsky hill by the  end of the IInd millenium B.C. The later history of the Borovitsky hill’s settling has a long break. The following archeologically investigated stage is dated by the VIIIth-IIIrd centuries B.C. The settlement on the Borovitsky hill might have already head fortifications. From the northeast as means of additional protection, two deep ravines were used. One ravine met the Neglinnaya to the north of  the present Trinity Gate.

Figuline of the Fatianovo archaeological culture. II millenium b.c.
Fragments of ceramics of the Dyakovo type. 2nd half of the Ist millenium b.c.
The other ravine cut the southern slope of the hill between the Peter and the 2-nd Nameless Towers of the present-day Kremlin. The both ravines were connected gradually with a gully, artificially profound with the first residents of the Kremlin mountain. One can get an idea of life and activity of people of that far epoch at the permanent exhibition "Archeology of the Moscow Kremlin" in the Anninciation Cathedral’s podklet.