It is customary to call birch bark letters the texts inscribed (scratched) with a pointed bone rod on a birch bark - birch.
Birch bark as a writing material is found among many peoples of Eurasia and North America. Some Russian Old Believer books are written on specially processed birch bark. However, all the texts on birch bark known until recently were written in ink (sometimes in charcoal) and do not differ in anything other than writing material from manuscripts written in ink on parchment or paper. And they are all of a relatively late origin (no older than the 15th century).
The opening of Novgorod birch bark letters introduced learned world with unexpected and amazing phenomenon ancient Russian culture... Although the traditions of birch bark writing in Ancient Rus(until the XIV-XV centuries) it was known for a long time, the first ancient Russian birch bark letter was found only on July 26, 1951 during excavations in Novgorod under the leadership of a prominent Soviet archaeologist A.V. Artsikhovsky. It is no coincidence that birch bark letters were discovered precisely in Novgorod, one of the most important cultural centers of our Middle Ages: the composition of the local soil favors the long-term preservation of wood materials in it.
With the expansion of archaeological excavations, systematic finds of letters on birch bark followed: in the early 80s. their number exceeded 600. Birch bark letters were also found in Smolensk (10 letters), in Staraya Russa near Novgorod (13 letters), Pskov (3 letters), in Vitebsk (one well-preserved letter). It is easy to see that all the places of finds are geographically close to Novgorod and had, if not identical, then similar conditions for the preservation of these monuments of ancient writing. Their preservation, of course, was facilitated by the fact that they were scratched, and not written with ink, which, after hundreds of years in the damp earth, had to dissolve.
Novgorod birch bark letters are presented from the XI century. For the most part, they are single-use texts: these are private letters sent with an opportunity to close people - family members, friends, neighbors or business partners (for example, with a request to send something as soon as possible, come or somehow help in business ); there are drafts of business papers (which were then, apparently, copied on paper or parchment), memorable notes “for oneself” (about debts, about the need to do something); there are texts that belong to students and represent a kind of rough writing exercises. Found, for example, a whole series of exercises in the alphabet and drawings of the boy Onfim and his comrade, who lived in Novgorod in the 13th century. Naturally, after some time, such notes or read letters were thrown away.
Most of the birch bark letters have been damaged by time, so only fragments are often read ancient text, but there are also those where the text has been completely preserved. These charters are the most valuable material for historians: they characterize the private, economic and cultural life of ancient Novgorod, as it were, from the inside, significantly enriching our information about ancient Novgorod.
Their historical and cultural significance is also very great: birch bark letters confirm the long-standing assumption about the widespread spread of literacy in Russia, especially in medieval Novgorod, where the ability to read and write was the property of various strata of the urban population (including women who were authors or addressees of some birch bark letters), and not only the clergy and professional scribes. Medieval Western Europe I did not know such a wide spread of literacy.
For linguists, as well as for historians, birch bark letters are a fundamentally new source. Created by people who were not involved in the correspondence of ancient books or the compilation of official documents, they only partially reflect the norms of church-book spelling and are more closely related to the peculiarities of local pronunciation. At first, however, it seemed that the birch bark letters could only confirm the correctness of previous assumptions about the peculiarities of the Old Novgorod dialect, made on the basis of an analysis of "opisies" in books and official documents, and would not provide fundamentally new information that would be unexpected for historians of the Russian language ... So, for example, birch bark letters broadly reflect such a striking feature of the ancient Novgorod dialect as "clatter" - the presence in the speech of Novgorodians of only one affricate c (which in other Old Russian dialects corresponded to two affricates - c and h) (see Clack): wheat, martens and hottsu, celibacy, Gorislavitsa (genus), etc. But this feature of the ancient Novgorod dialect is also reflected in previously known books written in Novgorod (for example, in the Menaia of the XI century, in the Novgorod chronicle of the late XIII-XIV and others), although, of course, not as consistently as in birch bark letters. This is understandable: they learned to read and write from church books, memorizing prayers and psalms in which the letters t and h were used "correctly", so the ancient scribes, regardless of the peculiarities of their native dialect, tried to write ts and h "according to the rules." And among the birch bark letters there are those where the rules for the use of these letters are not violated (the same boy Onfim in his exercises writes letters and syllables with these letters in the sequence in which they are located in the Slavic alphabet: - what). But most of the authors of birch bark letters, making notes "for themselves" or in a hurry to send a note to a loved one, unwittingly violated these rules, using only the letter c or mixing c and h. This confirms the assumption that there are no two affricates in the local dialect (which corresponds to its current state).
With further, deeper study of the language of birch bark letters, it began to be discovered that they reflect such features of ancient Novgorod speech, which eventually disappeared and are not reflected in traditional sources or are represented in them by involuntary census of scribes, which did not allow making more or less definite conclusions.
An example is the spellings representing the fate of the consonants k, r, x, which in the Slavic (including Old Russian) languages were at that time impossible before the vowels and and e (ђ). They spoke and wrote with help (and not help), by bђltsђ (and not by bђlkђ), grђsi (and not grђhi).
In Novgorod texts, rare examples with spellings that contradict traditional ones have been known for a long time. Thus, a Novgorodian, who was rewriting the text of the service Menaion in 1096, wrote in the margins his local (non-Christian, absent in church books) name Domka in a form that does not correspond to what is known from other texts of the 11th-12th centuries: Lord, help the slave his D'mkb, while according to the laws of the then pronunciation (as historians of the language always imagined it) and according to the rules of spelling, it would follow: Dom'tsђ. Single spelling Дъмъкђ on the background general rule was interpreted as a special case of early generalization of the basis (under the influence of Domk-a, Domk-u, etc.).
However, upon a careful study of the oldest birch bark letters (up to the XIV century), it turned out that in them such a transfer of purely local words (personal names, names of settlements, terms) that are not found in church books is common: k Kulotk, on Mestiatka, on Tusk ( type of tax), by blki (local unit of calculation), etc.
Such spellings mean that the ancient Novgorod dialect did not know the changes k, r, x in the usual for Slavic languages c, z, s (Kulotshch, in Pudoz, etc., would be expected). This is reflected in other positions, including the beginning of the roots, which is found only in birch bark letters: kђli (= tsђly, that is, whole) хђро (= sђro, that is, gray), as well as inђho, inђkomu (= all, everything). All these cases show that combinations of kђ, xђ and others in the speech of Novgorodians did not change combinations with consonants c, s. It turns out, therefore, that tsђlyi, sђryi, which are common in parchment and in later Novgorodian texts, all - in fact, etc. - are the result of the loss of the original Novgorod dialectal features and the assimilation of all-Russian pronunciation norms in the process of forming a single language of the ancient Russian people.
By themselves, such facts suggest that further study of birch bark letters, the collection of which continues to grow, promises the historians of the Russian language a lot of new interesting discoveries.
At the same time, the birch bark letters contained materials that made it possible to judge what texts and how the ancient Novgorodians were taught to read and write (see the drawings of the boy Onfim, who was doing his “homework” on birch bark).
Literacy
Thus, a literate Russian person of the XI century. knew a lot of what writing and book culture had of Eastern Europe, Byzantium. The cadres of the first Russian literati, scribes, and translators were formed in schools that were opened at churches from the time of Vladimir I and Yaroslav the Wise, and later at monasteries. There is a lot of evidence of the widespread development of literacy in Russia in the 11th-12th centuries. However, it was mainly distributed only in the urban environment, especially among the rich townspeople, the princely-boyar elite, merchants, wealthy artisans. In rural areas, in remote, remote places, the population was almost entirely illiterate.
Since the XI century. rich families began to teach not only boys but also girls to read and write. Sister of Vladimir Monomakh Yanka, founder nunnery in Kiev, created a school there for the education of girls.
Thanks to the alphabet, the level of literacy in Ancient Rus XI-XII centuries. was very high. And not only among the upper strata of society, but also among ordinary citizens. This is evidenced, for example, by numerous birch bark letters found by archaeologists in Novgorod. These are both personal letters and business records: IOUs, contracts, orders from the master to his servants (which means that the servants knew how to read!) And, finally, student exercises in writing.
There is also one more curious evidence of the development of literacy in Russia, the so-called graffiti inscriptions. They were scratched out on the walls of churches by lovers to pour out their souls. Among these inscriptions are reflections on life, complaints, prayers. The famous Vladimir Monomakh, while still a young man, during church service, lost in the crowd of the same young princes, scribbled on the wall of St. Sophia Cathedral in Kiev "Oh, it's hard for me" and signed his Christian name"Basil".
Birch bark letters
The discovery in 1951 by Professor A.V. Artsikhovsky in Novgorod birch bark letters of the XI-XV centuries. Whole new world opened to researchers when studying these letters. Trade deals, private letters, hasty notes sent by courier, reports on the performance of chores, reports of the campaign, invitations to commemoration, riddles, poems and much, much more are revealed to us by these wonderful documents, again confirming the wide development of literacy among the Russian townspeople.
The so-called birch bark letters are striking evidence of the wide spread of literacy in cities and suburbs. In 1951, during archaeological excavations in Novgorod, a member of the expedition, Nina Akulova, removed a birch bark from the ground with well-preserved letters on it. "I've been waiting for this find for twenty years!" - exclaimed the head of the expedition, Professor A.V. Artsikhovsky, who had long assumed that the level of literacy in Russia at that time should have been reflected in mass writing, which could be in the absence of paper writing in Russia either on wooden plates, as indicated by foreign evidence, or on birch bark. Since then, hundreds of birch bark letters have been introduced into scientific circulation, saying that in Novgorod, Pskov, Smolensk and other cities of Russia people loved and knew how to write to each other. Among the letters business documents, exchange of information, invitation to visit and even love correspondence. A certain Mikita wrote to his beloved Ulyana on birch bark “From Mikita to Ulianitsi. Come for me ... ".
Birch bark is a very convenient material for writing, although it required some preparation. Birch bark was boiled in water to make the bark more elastic, then its coarse layers were removed. A leaf of birch bark was cut from all sides, giving it rectangular shape... They wrote on inside bark, squeezing letters with a special stick - "writing" - made of bone, metal or wood. One end of the writing was sharpened, and the other was made in the form of a spatula with a hole and hung from a belt. The technique of writing on birch bark allowed the texts to be preserved in the earth for centuries.
The production of ancient handwritten books was expensive and laborious. The material for them was parchment - special leather. The best parchment was obtained from the soft, thin skins of lambs and calves. She was cleaned of wool and washed thoroughly. Then they were pulled on drums, sprinkled with chalk and cleaned with a pumice stone. After air drying, irregularities were cut from the skin and re-sanded with a pumice stone. The finished leather was cut into rectangular pieces and sewn together in a notebook of eight sheets. It is noteworthy that this ancient order of stitching has survived to this day.
The stitched notebooks were collected into a book. Depending on the format and the number of sheets per book, it took from 10 to 30 animal skins - a whole herd! Books were usually written with a quill pen and ink. The tsar had the privilege of writing with a swan and even a peacock feather. Writing instruments required a certain skill. The feather was certainly removed from the left wing of the bird so that the bend was convenient for the right, writing hand... The pen was degreased by sticking it into hot sand, then the tip. cut obliquely, split and sharpened with a special, penknife. They also scraped out errors in the text.
The ink, in contrast to the usual blue and black for us, was brown in color, since it was made on the basis of iron compounds, or, more simply, rust. Pieces of old iron were dipped into the water, which, rusting, painted it brown. Ancient recipes for making ink have been preserved. As components, in addition to iron, they used oak or alder bark, cherry glue, kvass, honey and many other substances that gave the ink the necessary viscosity, color, stability. Centuries later, this ink retains the brightness and strength of the color. The scribe blotted the ink with finely ground sand, sprinkling it on a sheet of parchment from a sandbox - a vessel similar to a modern pepper shaker.
Unfortunately, very few of the oldest books have survived. In total, there are about 130 copies of invaluable testimonies of the 11th-12th centuries. came down to us. There were few of them in those days.
We learned about birch bark letters only half a century ago. Thanks to these monuments of Russian writing, we have the opportunity to recognize the way of life and the train of thought of a Russian person who lived a thousand years before us.
Birch bark letters - documents and private messages of the XI-XV centuries, where the text was applied to the birch bark. The first such artifacts were discovered by a Russian historian in Novgorod in 1951 during an archaeological expedition led by A.V. Artsikhovsky (1902-1978, historian, corresponding member of the USSR Academy of Sciences).
By 1970, 464 birch bark letters were found in Novgorod. The text on them was taken out by a primitive method - they scratched out with a sharply sharpened bone or metal pin (writing). The birch bark was pre-processed to make the text clear.
Archaeologists discovered birch bark letters in soil layers where plant remains and ancient debris were preserved. The main part of the letters is private letters, in which everyday and economic issues were touched upon, everyday conflicts were described, instructions were passed. Also found letters of frivolous and half-joking content.
Artsikhovsky pointed to letters with peasants' protests against gentlemen who complained about their fate, with lists of lordly duties. Monetary documents, some archives, historical records, wills, love messages and other vital information.
Artsikhovsky discovered birch bark letters that were addressed to famous people from Novgorod posadniks, as well as their private correspondence with relatives. These documents revealed to our contemporaries the fact that in ancient Russia literacy was more high level than we previously thought. It was studied not only by the boyars and clergy, but also by the lower strata of society. The authors of some of the birch bark letters were ordinary women.
Many late documents written on birch bark in the 17th century have been preserved in museums and archives. XIX centuries, whole books were found. Russian writer and ethnographer S.V. Maksimov pointed out that he personally saw a birch bark book among the Old Believers in Mezen (Arkhangelsk region) in the middle of the 19th century. In 1930, collective farmers on the banks of the Volga not far from Saratov, digging a hole, found a 14th century birch bark Golden Horde letter.
Joseph Volotsky (1440-1515, founder and abbot of the Joseph-Volokolamsk Monastery) wrote that he personally saw in the monastery of St. Sergius of Radonezh “the books themselves are not written on charters, but on birch barks”.
In July 1951, a birch bark letter No. 1 was found at the Nerevsky excavation site. It contained a list of some labor duties (pozema and gifts) in favor of a certain Thomas. The find indicated to us that ink was almost never used in writing the letters. On it, the text was just scratched on the bark, but it was easy to read. In honor of this find in Novgorod, on July 26, a holiday is celebrated - "Day of the birch bark letter". The same excavation yielded 9 more documents on birch bark, published in our country only in 1953 (the discovery of birch bark letters did not receive wide coverage).
WHERE AND HOW MUCH
One of the latest sensations was the discovery in August 2007 of the first birch bark letter in Nizhny Novgorod and Moscow. Moreover, an ink letter with an inventory of property found in the Tainitsky Garden of the Moscow Kremlin became the first full-fledged Moscow birch bark document (the previously known letter No. 1 and the found letter No. 2 are small fragments) and the largest of the previously known birch bark letters.
Birch bark, as a material for writing, became widespread in Russia in the 11th century and lost its role by the 15th century, since then the spread of affordable paper in Russia was noted. And birch bark was used as an improvised, but secondary material for writing, educational records, for brief storage reports. It was used mainly by commoners as material for private correspondence and personal records, and government letters and official documents were recorded on parchment.
Beresta gradually left the state documentation and private life. In one of the surviving birch bark letters (under stamp No. 831), which is a draft of a complaint to an official, scientists found instructions to rewrite this text on parchment and only then send it to the address. Only a few letters were kept for a long time: these are two huge birch bark leaves with a note literary works(letter from Torzhok number 17 and letter number 893), both were found in the ground in an expanded form, as well as two small birch bark books: there are written prayers (Novgorod letter number 419) and with the text of the fever conspiracy (number 930).
The found birch bark letters ended up in the trash heap, they fell into the ground when they were no longer practically needed. This means that the finds of archaeologists are not associated with ancient state and personal archives. At the moment of discovery, whole birch bark letters are a rolled birch bark scroll with scrawled text on the inner side of the bark (sometimes on both sides). The smallest part of the whole documents is in the ground in an expanded form. The text was placed on birch bark in a line, in most letters (as well as medieval Slavic manuscripts) without division into words.
A significant proportion of the finds are fragments of birch bark letters, damaged after falling into the ground, but even more often destroyed (torn or cut) before their disposal. This practice is mentioned in the "Questioning" of Kirik, a Novgorodian of the 12th century, where he asks if there is a sin in "walking with their feet" according to the letters. The purpose of destroying letters is simple: secrecy. Modern researchers are now playing the role of "outsider". Despite the fact that considerable experience has been accumulated in the interpretation of fragmented letters and general character document can be caught in most cases, the presence of dangling letters and gaps often complicates the interpretation of individual fragments (both from the linguistic and content-historical sides).
WHAT OUR ANCESTORS WRITTEN ABOUT
Most of the birch bark letters are private letters of a business nature. This includes lists of debts, landlord records, assignments and collective petitions of peasants. Drafts of official acts were found on birch bark: wills, receipts, deeds of sale, court records, etc.
Relatively rare, but of particular interest the following types birch bark letters: church texts (prayers, lists of commemorations, orders for icons, teachings), literary and folklore works (conspiracies, jokes, riddles, instructions on household), records educational nature(alphabets, warehouses, school exercises). The educational notes and drawings of a Novgorod boy discovered in 1956 have gained immense fame.
Artsikhovsky named birch bark letters as important historical sources. Large monographic works on this topic belong to the Russian academicians L.V. Cherepnin and V.L. Ioannina.
Birch bark letters are considered material and written sources. The places where they were found are no less important to history than their content. Instead of the faceless "estate of the venerable Novgorodian" we learn about the estate of the priest-artist Olisey Petrovich, nicknamed Grechin, and about the traces of the canopy over the premises of the court of the prince and the mayor. One and the same name in letters found on neighboring estates, mentions of princes and other statesmen, indication of amounts, geographical names. They talk about the history of buildings, about their owners, their social status, connections with other cities.
Thanks to birch bark letters, the genealogy of the boyar families of Novgorod is being studied. Are detected political role townspeople, insufficiently illuminated in the annals (Pyotr-Petrok Mikhalkovich, a prominent figure from the boyars of the XII century). Documents on birch bark tell about land management in Novgorod, about their economic ties with Pskov, Moscow, Polotsk, Suzdal, Kiev, even Obdorskaya land (Siberia). The petty peasants, deeds of sale and wills of the XIV-XV centuries testify to the establishment of serfdom there, to the development of the judicial bureaucracy. We learn about military conflicts and foreign policy Russia, about collecting tribute from the conquered lands, we open a lot of everyday details that we would never know. A number of primary data are available on the history of the church, the antiquity of some features of the liturgy is recorded on birch bark, there is information about the relationship of clergy members with residents of neighboring estates, and the mention of Boris and Gleb in the list of saints in the 11th century letter almost coincides with the time of their canonization.
On July 26, 1951, a unique birch bark letter was discovered at the Nerevsky excavation site in Veliky Novgorod. It was a welcome find! The head of the expedition, Artemy Vladimirovich Artsikhovsky, dreamed about it for almost 20 years (excavations have been carried out since 1932). We had not yet met the messages on birch bark, but they knew for sure what they wrote on birch bark in Russia.
In particular, church leader Joseph Volotsky wrote about Sergius of Radonezh: "In the monastery of Blessed Sergius, the books themselves are not on charters, but on birch bark."
On July 26, during excavations at a depth of 2.4 meters, a member of the expedition, Nina Akulova, drew attention to a piece of birch bark measuring 13 by 38 centimeters. Observation helped the girl to find a needle in a haystack - she looked closely and made out the scribbled letters on the scroll!
Expedition leader A.V. Artsikhovsky: “During excavations, for several hundred empty birch bark scrolls, there was one filled with writing. appearance did not differ from letters, served, obviously, as floats or were simply thrown out when finishing the logs. "
The scroll was carefully washed in hot water with soda, straightened and clamped between the glasses. Later, historians began to decipher the text. The record consisted of 13 lines. Scientists analyzed every word and fragment of the phrase and found out that the speech in the manuscript (it is assumed that the XIV century) was about feudal duties - questions of land and gift (income and quitrent).
From birch bark letter No. 1, found by Artsikhovsky's expedition: "From Shadrin (a) the village went 20 bel dar (y)", "Mokhova village went dara 20 bel".
The very next day, archaeologists will be lucky to find two more certificates - on the fur trade and the brewing of beer. In total, during the 1951 expeditionary season, scientists discovered nine letters. In addition, a writing instrument was found - a curved and pointed bone rod.
It is the scribbled letters that are of outstanding historical value. Expedition leader A.V. Artsikhovsky: "Before these excavations, only Russian birch bark manuscripts of the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries were known. But during this period they wrote on birch bark with ink. Meanwhile, birch bark ... is preserved in the ground in two cases: if it is very dry and if it is very damp. It is damp in Novgorod. , and ink should be stored there poorly. That is why, by the way, discoveries during excavation of parchment letters, also widespread in ancient Russia, are unlikely. Although parchment (ed. ...
Artsikhovsky's expedition opened a new page in the study national history... According to experts, the Novgorod cultural layers keep about 20 thousand more ancient Russian birch bark letters.
On this day, everyone gathers at the monument erected to a simple Novgorod woman, Nina Akulova. Students of the history faculties of NovSU and other universities of the country, schoolchildren, Novgorodians of various professions, who are constant participants in archaeological seasons, come.
But this holiday is dear not only to archaeologists. It is more and more celebrated by everyone who is somehow connected with this wonderful and irreplaceable natural material.
What the certificates "speak" about
The finds at the Nerevsky archaeological site speak not only of the existence of writing. Birch bark has long been used for a wide variety of purposes. Among the latest finds by archaeologists on the territory of Novgorod, pieces of birch bark with painting, embossing and figured carving, dating back to the 11th-14th centuries, were also found.
Leonid Dzhepko, CC BY-SA 3.0These findings indicate that artistic products made of birch bark have been widespread in the life of the Russian people since very ancient times. However, the legends, written sources and things that have come down to us make it possible to form a far from complete idea of how this peculiar art developed.
The material from the excavations at Beloozero, stored in the Vologda Museum of Local Lore, testifies to the existence of birch bark embossing in XII-XIII centuries... It can be assumed that from the Novgorod lands, through the Rostov-Suzdal, due to a number of historical reasons Shemogodskaya birch bark carving turned into a craft.
An illustrated manuscript is kept in the Vologda Museum late XVIII century, written in the Spaso-Kamenny Monastery. The illustrations of this most curious document represent a combination of iconographic and folklore motives, with a clear predominance of the latter.
Secretary of Turabey, CC BY-SA 3.0 Three leaves of the manuscript have images of birch bark objects decorated with carving and embossing. On one of them - death with a scythe, behind her shoulders - a box of arrows. A birch bark box, judging by the drawing, embossed.
Also a craft
Writing on birch bark letters is a special skill that can perhaps be considered a craft.
Of course, you need to know the literacy, but this is not enough. The letters were squeezed out (scratched out) on birch bark with the tip of a metal or bone instrument specially designed for this purpose - writing (stylus). Only a few letters are written in ink.
B222, CC BY-SA 3.0 The writing was found in archaeological excavations on a regular basis, but it was not clear why their reverse side was made in the form of a spatula. The answer was soon found: archaeologists began to find in the excavations well-preserved boards with a depression filled with wax - tsera, which were also used for teaching literacy.
The wax was leveled with a spatula and letters were written on it.
The oldest Russian book, the Psalter of the XI century (c. 1010, more than half a century older than the Ostromir Gospel), found in July 2000, was just that. The book of three tablets 20 × 16 cm, filled with wax, bore the texts of the three Psalms of David.
Opening of birch bark letters
The existence of birch bark writing in Russia was known even before the discovery of letters by archaeologists. In the monastery of St. Sergius of Radonezh "the books themselves are not on charters, but on birch bark" (Joseph Volotsky).
Dmitry Nikishin, CC BY-SA 3.0 The place where birch bark letters were first discovered medieval Russia, became Veliky Novgorod. The Novgorod archaeological expedition, which had been working since the 1930s under the leadership of A.V. Artsikhovsky, repeatedly found cut sheets of birch bark.
However, the Great Patriotic War(during which Novgorod was occupied by the Germans) interrupted the work of archaeologists, and they resumed only in the late 1940s.
Significant find
On July 26, 1951, birch bark letter No. 1 was discovered at the Nerevsky excavation site. It contained a list of feudal duties - "pozyom" and "gift", in favor of three landowners: Thomas, Ieva and the third, whose name was probably Timofey.
unknown, CC BY-SA 3.0 This letter was found by Nina Akulova from Novgorod, who came to the excavation site to earn extra money during her maternity leave. Noticing the letters on the dirty birch bark scroll, she called the head of the section, Gaida Avdusina.
Realizing what was the matter, she was speechless. Artsikhovsky, who ran up, also could not utter anything for several minutes, and then exclaimed: “The prize is one hundred rubles! I have been waiting for this find for twenty years! "
The same archaeological season brought 9 more birch bark documents, published only in 1953. At first, the discovery of birch bark letters did not receive proper coverage in the press, which was associated with ideological control in Soviet science.
Mitrius, CC BY-SA 3.0 The discovery showed that, contrary to fears, ink was almost never used when writing letters: during excavations, only three such letters out of a thousand odd ones were found. The text was simply scratched into the bark and was easy to read.
During the excavations, they also found blank sheets of birch bark - blanks for writing, showing the possibility of finding birch bark letters with text in the future.
In different cities
Since 1951, birch bark letters have been discovered by archaeological expeditions in Novgorod, and then in a number of other ancient Russian cities.
The largest expedition - the Novgorod one - works annually, but the number of letters in different seasons varies greatly - from more than a hundred to zero, depending on which layers are excavated.
Most of the birch bark letters are private letters of a business nature. Debt lists are closely related to this category, which could serve not only as records for themselves, but also as instructions “to take from so-and-so” and collective petitions of peasants to the feudal lord (XIV-XV centuries).
In addition, there are drafts of official acts on birch bark: wills, receipts, deeds of sale, court records, etc.
The following types of birch bark letters are relatively rare, but of particular interest: church texts (prayers, memorial lists, orders for icons, teachings), literary and folklore works (conspiracies, school jokes, riddles, instructions on household chores), educational records (alphabet , warehouses, school exercises, children's drawings and doodles). The educational notes and drawings of the Novgorod boy Onfim, discovered in 1956, gained immense fame.
The everyday and personal nature of many birch bark letters of Veliky Novgorod, for example, love letters from ordinary young people or housekeeping instructions from wife to husband, testify to the high spread of literacy among the population.
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Useful information
Birch bark letters
Writing
Letters on birch bark
Letters and records on birch bark are written monuments of Ancient Russia of the 11th-15th centuries. Birch bark letters are of primary interest as sources for the history of society and Everyday life medieval people, as well as the history of the East Slavic languages. Birch bark writing is also known to a number of other cultures of the peoples of the world.
Many
Many late, mainly Old Believer documents, even whole books written on specially processed (layered) birch bark (17th-19th centuries) have been preserved in museums and archives. On the banks of the Volga near Saratov, peasants, digging a silo pit, in 1930 found a birch bark Golden Horde letter of the XIV century. All of these manuscripts are in ink.
Writing
Scribes are sharpened metal or bone rods known as wax writing instruments. However, before the discovery of birch bark letters, the version that it was written was not prevalent, and they were often described as nails, hairpins or "unknown objects."
The oldest stylos-wrote in Novgorod come from the layers of 953-989. Even then, Artsikhovsky had a hypothesis about the possibility of finding letters scratched on birch bark.
Monument to Nina Akulova
Nina Fedorovna Akulova is a resident of Veliky Novgorod. On July 26, 1951, at the Nerevsky archaeological site in Novgorod, in the layers of the 14-15 centuries, she was the first to find a birch bark letter.
This finding has become very important for all future research. The family of Nina Fedorovna put forward an initiative to immortalize this event in the monument. The initiative was supported by the Novgorodians.
On the monument to Nina Akulova, there is the image of the very birch bark letter No. 1, which made Novgorod famous for centuries. In 13 lines on Old Church Slavonic the villages from which there were duties in favor of a certain Thomas were listed. This letter from the distant past became a loud sensation for historians in the late 50s of the last century.
Every year all comers gather at this monument and this is where the celebration of the Day of Birch Bark begins.
Random but important
Many letters were discovered during archaeological control over earthworks- construction, laying of communications, and also found just by accident.
Among the accidental finds, in particular, there is a letter number 463, found by a student of the Novgorod Pedagogical Institute in the village of Pankovka in a heap of waste soil taken from the excavation, which was supposed to be used for the improvement of the local park and a small fragment number 612, found by a resident of Novgorod Chelnokov at his home in flower pot when transplanting flowers.
Perhaps birch bark is just a rough draft
There are suggestions that birch bark was considered as an ephemeral, non-prestigious material for writing, unsuitable for long-term storage.
It was used mainly as material for private correspondence and personal records, and more important letters and official documents were written, as a rule, on parchment, only their drafts were entrusted to birch bark.
So, for example, in Charter No. 831, which is a draft of a complaint to an official, there is a direct instruction to rewrite it on parchment and only then send it to the addressee.