Kazan – the millenium city

The centuries-old history of Kazan set numerous questions before the researchers. The question about the age of the city appeared to be the most interesting, but extremely difficult, owing to small number of sources.
Since XVII century many scientists wrote that Kazan has the centuries-old history ascending to Bulgar times. Different versions of its origin were offered. But any of them, not having reasonable facts, were not approved by the science.
Not having original Bulgar-Tatar written monuments, for the long time scientists studied medieval history of Kazan mainly by the foreign language sources made mainly in Russian princedoms. It is common knowledge, that there are no exact data on the city origin in Russian annals. Established facts about the existing city refer only to the end of XIV century.
Thanks to archaeological discoveries of the last years we can raise the veil of secrecy over the most ancient past of Kazan and see, how it looked like thousand years ago.
The territory of the Kremlin to the south of the Blagoveshchensky cathedral was studied in 1994-1997. The remains of the most ancient fortifications of the city in the form of the earth mound made not later than X-XI centuries were revealed during the excavation. This date ¬ was confirmed by the results of the radiocarbon analysis. On the excavation site, adjoining to the northern slope of the Tezitsky ditch, the remains of the large stone building of the khan time were cleared. Under the foundation of the other building of XVI century completely disassembled in XIX century, there were found two treasures of the Old Russian coins of the second half of XV - first half of XVI centuries. The traces of the street arisen in the end of the pre-Mongolian time and mentioned in Cadastres of 1565-1568 were settled.
By these observations, important for the historical reconstruction of the Kremlin, there were established the approximate borders of the pre-Mongolian time cultural layer distribution.
Among the numerous findings of the most ancient layer it is necessary to note clay pottery (pots, jugs, bowls, cups, plates), decorated wide glossing and linearly-wavy patterns. It was made by the Bulgars in Х - the beginning of XIII century. Archeologists found such ceramics and outside the Kremlin, in particular, in a court yard of the Kazan State University’s main building, in territory of the Bogoroditsky monastery, near the “Pyramid” entertainment center and "Mirage" hotel.

The archaic tableware made manually, but, as a rule, improved on a potter's wheel, is of great interest. Very interesting group — pots of rough chamotte paste, decorated with multilane wavy pattern on arm, grooving and notches on the collar edge are distinguished among the archaic tableware. These pots have direct analogies with the kitchen ware of the Alan-bulgars Khazarian empire and are dated basically IX-X centuries. In the beginning of XI century such tableware almost goes out of use. Its presence in the territory of the Kremlin, certainly, proves the existence of the Bulgar settlement here, at least, in the beginning of XI century.
A bronze strip on the horse harness belt is of special interest. The strip is found out in the decomposed condition near the tanner’s workshop of the khan time, but its connection with the most ancient layer is undoubted. This strip is cast, gilt and has the round form of 3 cm diameter. There is a semispherical ledge in the centre of the front, and on the edge there is a border with symmetrical bulges in the form of chains. These two elements are connected by four petals.
It is a unique finding for the archeology of Kazan. Two similar strips were found earlier in the burials of the Tankeev burial grounds of the early Bulgars. We are obliged to professor Ishtvan Fodor from the National Museum of Hungary (Budapest) for the definition of the Kazan finding. According to the conclusion of the scientist, such work pieces are found in the burials of rich Hungarian women, but they can be met only till the middle of X century.
The Czech coin which was found near the Blagoveshchensky cathedral of the Kremlin became a sensational finding. It was found between the buildings of the Golden Horde time, but almost on the level of the ancient ground surface where the pre-Mongolian layer with 15 cm thickness was based in the undisturbed condition. The integrity of the coin is bad. Inscription VACLAV CNIZ on the face of the coin and PRAGA CIVITA on its reverse can be read, that means prince Vaclav and the city of Prague. Preliminary studying of this unique finding was made by A.S.Belyakov (Moscow, Russian Historical Museum), professor V.M.Potin (The State Hermitage), and also some experts from Germany. They unanimously attributed the coin as a Czech one and also defined the time of its coining - XI—XIII centuries.

Sensational nature of the finding is in the fact that it is the unique and the earliest Czech coin in the world. It is curious, that for some period of time it was used as an element of the female decoration, as it has an aperture at its edge.
X—XI centuries are considered to be the most probable time of the coin appearance in the layer of the ancient Kazan.
Thus, in the course of long-term archeological excavations there was accumulated the big scientifically documentary material, allowing to specify the date of the city origin and in many respects to add our views on the initial city.

Source: Kermen.ru - an official site of the Kazan Kremlin - history, architecture, archeology