In 2016, archaeologists excavated a plot in Kaunas Old Town, St. Gertrude’s str. 51A. From there one and a half thousand finds were transmitted to the museum. Extremely abundant and valuable material testifies the fact that there was a meat trade point and a bone workshop in the area. It is a meat chopping axe with a master’s mark, other tools, more than three thousand livestock bones and their preforms (148 kilograms!), as well as many coins were found.

Although the plot was separated from the Kaunas castle by two hundred meters, but before it was damp, down to the North towards Neris. In the southern part, on the former slope of the hill, burials were found – sixteen coffins (XVII–XVIII centuries).

Excluding the individual, random finds of the second millennium (fragments of the bracelet and twig, pins), the earliest townspeople’s legacy dates back to the 15th-16th centuries. During intensive building a wooden barn with a masonry basement and other buildings were build. The yard between them was based on stones, with ditches for water to run off. In one of the buildings, meat was sold, and a bone workshop was nearby.

Most likely in 1655-1661 muscovite occupation is evidenced by the traces of huge fire that destroyed the buildings. After that the plot was abandoned for several decades, but soon it was resettled. In one of the new homes a non-ferrous metal workshop was built, as evidenced by the discovery of tools and production waste. At the end of the 18th century, the fire destroyed the buildings again, but in 1798, in the city plans we can see that this place was marked as a Jewish school. From the middle of the 19th century there was a fish market place.

The exhibition was prepared by the collection’s protector Eglė Jesulaitytė and a museum worker Rokas Sinkevičius.

The texts were prepared according to the reports of archaeological investigations of Linas Girlevičius and Olegas Fediajevas.

The exhibition is open at Kaunas Town Hall (Rotušės a. 15) until 15th of November.