Moscow appeared to belong to the circle of town centers of Russia quite early. As a result of international transit trading, items of luxury were brought to such centers, i.e. precious fabrics and dishes from the East and cultic objects, including wine for the Sacrament in large figulines - amphoras, produced in Byzantine centers. On the place of the Patriarch's Palace there have been found two pectoral crosses of blue spar and marble, executed in Byzantium and framed in Rus. One of them has engraved nielloed inscriptions: ИС - ХЪ and НI - КА.
