Shoe heelplates from excavations in the Moscow Kremlin

The excavations conducted by the Institute of Archaeology, RAS, in the Large Garden Square of the Moscow Kremlin in 2019-2021 yielded a representative assemblage of iron shoe heelplates selected from reliably dated layers. This assemblage offers an opportunity to specify the period when various types of this category of archaeological finds appeared in Moscow and clarify the process of their morphological changes. The paper provides a historiographical overview of the heelplate groups and proposes a clarified classification that will help to document frequent finds of such items statistically. The paper also raises an issue regarding the origin of fashion for shoe heelplates in Eastern Europe.