It is not for nothing that Moscow is called the city of treasures. After all, wealthy people lived here at all times, who, in case of danger, preferred to entrust their goods to the most reliable bank - Mother Earth.
The finds in Zaryadye, the historical district of the capital, are absolutely staggering. Almost every day over the past three years, archaeologists have reported newly discovered artifacts. We asked the historian, researcher and numismatist Viktor Anokhov to tell about them.
- Viktor Sergeevich, archaeologists find a lot of curious artifacts in Zaryadye: ceramics, spinning wheels, coins, arrowheads, jewelry … What time period do they relate to?
- Some of the 16th century, such as a wooden bow that belonged to a hunter or militia. Some of the XVIII, like, for example, two English trade seals made of lead. There are finds of the 15th century - the well-known pub press. But, of course, most of the artifacts are from the 17th century, when this district of Moscow flourished. Indeed, it was at the beginning of the 17th century that many rich private houses, trade shops and craft workshops appeared on the banks of the Moskva River, the traces of which are still preserved in the unique swampy ground.
- Thanks to him, archaeologists were even lucky to find one of the first Moscow streets, which bore the proud name Velikaya …
- Yes, the street, founded under Yuri Dolgoruk, was located on the site of the former hotel "Russia". In other words, it led from the Kremlin to the embankment. In May 2015, when the hotel was finally demolished, scientists had the opportunity to explore the ancient archaeological layers of the times of Yuri Dolgoruky and the Vladimir princes. First, they found the pavement logs laid in the times of Alexei Mikhailovich and Peter the Great, and under them - traces of the street of previous eras.
And one of the most incredible "monetary" finds was found in the basement of a wooden log house of the 18th century …
- Yes, it was a unique find. At a depth of about two meters, archaeologists discovered a jug smeared with gray clay, in which several thousand ancient coins - the so-called kopecks - were hidden. Interestingly, it was the money of all the rulers, starting with Ivan the Terrible and ending with Mikhail Romanov. The most recent kopecks are dated 1614-1615.
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A little later it turned out that this was only part of the medieval treasure. Soon, two more vessels with silver coins were found in the same house. But they were all prudently hidden not in one, but in different places. Just counting the content took the specialists several days. As a result, scientists received an amazing figure - 43 thousand old coins, with a total weight of more than 20 kilograms. As for the amount of the find, it corresponded to 380 rubles.
Wow! At the time, it must have been a lot of money?
- Some more. They could buy a small estate in Moscow or several villages. But the most incredible thing was that after a while archaeologists discovered in the same house another jug of money, the fourth in a row. True, there was not much money in it, apparently, the owner of the treasure himself spent his savings.
- It turns out that some wealthy person did not just bury his property until better times, but built something like his own bank?
- Yes. And he himself used it when there was a need, without fear of bankruptcy or dishonest partners.
Can you establish the name of this person today? To understand, at least approximately, who he was - a medieval oligarch, a bandit, a representative of the Moscow nobility, or just a lucky one who inherited? Perhaps the answers to these questions would help experts understand why no one used the treasure. Did not have time? Or decided to leave it for posterity?
- Alas, it is not easy to find answers to these questions. Indeed, in Moscow at that time there were practically no written sources. And only in the 17th century did scribal, census and pepper books appear, from which today we can get some information about the population of a particular city, about the economic description of households, about the number of palace, black, monastic and other categories of peasants, about the results the poll census. But it is not a fact that the surviving books will contain specific information of interest to us, because the manuscripts often perished during numerous fires, raids and troubles.
So there is no hope?
- There is always hope. Have to search. I will give you an example.
In 1996, during the reconstruction of Gostiny Dvor, archaeologists made a sensational find - the most famous and largest of all Moscow treasures of the late 20th century. At a depth of five meters, in the basement of a burnt house, two jugs were found, filled to the brim with our kopecks and Western European thalers. The first were 95 thousand, the second 335. Nearby, silverware of the 17th century was discovered, and of a very high quality. According to experts, it was made by the best craftsmen in London or Hamburg, although some of these luxury items were mercilessly crushed. The specialists immediately came up with two versions - either the owner was in a hurry when hiding the treasures, or he was interested only in silver as a metal for melting, since we did not have silver in Russia at that time. And before the discovery of Siberian deposits, all the money was made from imported raw materials.
It turns out that the found thalers were just raw materials?
- Looks like that. One European thaler produced 40 silver kopecks.
So, the coins found simply did not reach the sovereign of the monetary court, they were pocketed by some merchant?
- Yes. Naturally, the researchers had a question - what was his name? After all, few were allowed to trade in international trade at that time. Among the chosen few were the so-called merchants of the silver row, who could be counted on one hand. So, after long historical research, the name of the head of the Pushkarsky order, Peter Tikhonovich Trakhaniotov, surfaced, who, among other things, was a member of the inner circle of boyar Boris Morozov, the head of the country's main financial department.
It turns out, like this, gradually, step by step, the researchers proved that the found treasure belonged to Pyotr Tikhonovich?
- There is no evidence. There are only versions and historical facts that allow us to assume that it was exactly the Trakhaniots.
What are these facts?
- The latest coin found was minted in the middle of the 17th century. Namely in 1648 Moscow was shaken by a salt revolt. The reason for the uprising of the townspeople was a sharp increase in taxes, including on salt. However, the main enemy was not the tsar, but representatives of the order bureaucracy, merchants and all those who were associated with the coin business and with the supply of silver. So, one of the victims of the salt riot was Pyotr Trakhaniotov. Under pressure from the crowd, the king was forced to send a rich official to the chopping block, and the house of the hated courtier was destroyed by the rebels, leaving no stone unturned.
Interesting story. This means that someday, if they are lucky, the researchers will be able to name the owner of the treasure in Zaryadye
- It is too early to talk about it, because today the coins are at the initial stage of study. Nevertheless, numismatists have already managed to find out that this unique deposit covers a period of as much as two hundred years - from the 15th to the 17th century. Everything suggests that the owner of the underground bank was an intelligent, far-sighted person, and besides, he was versed in money. Indeed, he included only coins of the highest standard in his treasure.
Interviewed by Sergey BORODIN