Moscow’s Age

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30880, 13 October 1965, Page 19

Moscow’s Age

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright) MOSCOW, Oct. 12. Archaelogical relics discovered during excavations in the Kremlin have put back the estimated date of the founding of Moscow by about a century. An article today in the Soviet Communist Party newspaper, “Pravda,” said scientists believed scorched timber, found by workmen fortifying the foundations of One of the Kremlin’s cathedrals, was at least 900 years old. Earliest Mention The earliest reliable mention of Moscow in the ancient Russian chronicles is in the year 1147, but the new find long predates that time, “Pravda” said. Moscow did not become

capital of Russia until the fourteenth century, after the sacking of the original first city, Kiev, by the Mongols.

The workmen also discovered the remains of a number of houses and workshops, which showed there was a considerable settlement, with resident tradesmen, on the Kremlin hill overlooking the Moscow river, by 1147. Half-burnt door timbers, floors, and household equipment, all well preserved, had also been dug up, as well as traces of the cultivation of corn.

Many of the relics are now on display in an exhibition in the Ivan the Great belltower in the Kremlin.