Did you know about birch bark letters before the finds of archaeologists?
They knew. Some ancient Russian authors reported about books written “not on haratiyas (pieces of specially dressed sheep skins), but on birch bark”. In addition, the Old Believer tradition of the 17th-19th centuries was known to rewrite entire books on stratified birch bark.
When did you find the first letter?
The Novgorod archaeological expedition under the leadership of Artemiy Artsikhovsky worked in Novgorod since the 1930s and found, among other things, writing - sharp metal or bone rods with which letters were scratched on the birch bark. True, at first the writing was mistaken for nails.
During the Nazi occupation, archaeological excavations in Novgorod had to be curtailed, they were resumed only by the end of the 1940s.
Who found the first letter?
Novgorodok Nina Okulova, who came to earn some money on an archaeological expedition during maternity leave... For her discovery, she received a prize of one hundred rubles.
Is finding a diploma a unique event or are they often found?
Relatively often. Already in the summer of 1951, in addition to certificate number 1, nine more letters were found. Further, their number varied from zero to more than a hundred per year, depending on which archaeological layers were studied.
Is it true that birch bark letters are found only in Veliky Novgorod?
No. In addition to Veliky Novgorod, where 1064 letters have already been found, birch bark letters were found in Staraya Russa (45), Torzhok (19), Smolensk (16), Pskov (8), Tver (5), Moscow (3) and other cities.
There are more letters in Novgorod. Do Novgorodians know how to write more often than others?
Completely optional. It's just that in Novgorod, the preservation of literacy is favored by the peculiarities of life and soil.
In order for the fragile birch to be preserved for several centuries, it must get into conditions where it would not be destroyed by water and air. It is no coincidence that most of the letters found are private letters or drafts of documents - merchants, receipts, wills (sometimes previously destroyed - cut into pieces). Apparently, the records that had become unnecessary were simply thrown out into the street, where they fell under a fresh layer of soil and debris.
The preservation of the archaeological layer of the 11th-13th centuries in Novgorod plays an important role in the discovery of letters. Unfortunately, after numerous reconstructions in different centuries, not many cities have the same feature.
Who is excavating?
Novgorod archaeological expedition of Moscow State University, as well as expeditions of scientific institutes. Students and schoolchildren are widely attracted to participate in the excavations.
What are the most famous scientists engaged in literacy?
Academician Artemy Vladimirovich Artsikhovsky (1902-1978) - the first head of the department of archeology renewed at Moscow University (1939), later (1952-1957) - dean of the Faculty of History, founder and head of the Novgorod archaeological expedition (1932-1962), the first publisher of birch bark letters. Introduced a general course in archeology into the university curriculum, developed a general methodology for analyzing the cultural layer.
Academician Valentin Lavrentievich Yanin (1929) - Head of the Novgorod Archaeological Expedition (since 1963), Head of the Department of Archeology at Moscow State University (since 1978), a specialist in Old Russian numismatics. For the first time he used birch bark letters as a historical source.
He developed a methodology for complex source study, in which the analysis is done simultaneously on the basis of written sources, archaeological finds, found coins and seals, and art monuments.
He developed in detail the topography, the history of veche relations and the monetary system of ancient Novgorod.
Academician Andrey Anatolyevich Zaliznyak (1935) - linguist, since 1982 he has been studying the language of Novgorod letters. He established the features of the Old Novgorod dialect and, in general, the features of the Old Russian language. Known for his lectures on birch bark letters at Moscow State University.
What does the excavation look like?
The excavation is a small area, several hundred square meters, where the expedition is to study the cultural layer in one summer or over several archaeological seasons.
The main work of the expedition is that gradually, layer by layer, they raise the soil from the place of work and study everything that is in different layers: the foundations of houses, ancient pavements, various objects, in different years lost or thrown away by residents.
The peculiarity of the work of archaeologists is based on the fact that in antiquity, large-scale excavation works - excavation or, on the contrary, filling of soil - were not carried out, therefore all traces of life and activity remained right there, under people's feet.
For example, a new house could be built on the crowns from the burnt one by dismantling the upper charred logs. Once every thirty or forty years in Novgorod, wooden pavements were rebuilt - right on top of old boards. Now, when the dating of these works has been well studied, it is easy to date them by the layer of the pavement over which the object or letter was found.
The thickness of the cultural layer in some places in Novgorod reaches seven meters. Therefore, a fully developed excavation is a pit of the appropriate depth; in it, archaeologists removed, sifted and studied all the upper layers and reached the mainland - a layer in which there are no traces of human life and activities. The Novgorod mainland corresponds to the twenties and thirties of the X century.
What did they write about in the letters?
Diplomas are current business and everyday correspondence. Unlike official papers - princely decrees, chronicles, spiritual literature - whose authors assumed that their works would live a long time, the letters tell about the everyday and unofficial life of the ancient Russians.
Thanks to the letters, it was possible to study in detail the genealogy of the boyar families of ancient Novgorod (there are many wills among the documents), to understand the geography of its trade relations (there are deeds of sale and receipts). From the letters, we learned that women in Ancient Russia knew how to write and were quite independent (there are letters in which husbands are given instructions on the household). Children in Ancient Rus usually learned to write at the age of ten or thirteen, but sometimes earlier (there are prescriptions and just scribbles).
Spiritual writings and prayers occupy a much smaller place in the letters - apparently, it was believed that they belong in church books, but there are conspiracies.
The most interesting certificates
Charters 199-210 and 331 - copybooks and drawings of the Novgorod boy Onfim, who lived in the XIII century.
From the letters it is known that Onfim was about seven years old, and he was just learning to write. Some of the letters are the prescriptions of Onfim, who studied according to the traditional Old Russian method - first he wrote out syllables, then small pieces of prayers from the Psalter, separate formulas of business documents. In his free time in the classroom, Onfim drew - for example, he portrayed himself as a warrior.
Letter 752. Love letter of a girl of the XI century:
“I sent to you three times. What evil do you have against me that you did not come to me this week? And I treated you like a brother! Did I hurt you by sending me to you? And you, I see, do not like it. If you were in love, then you would have escaped from under human eyes and rushed ... do you want me to leave you? Even if I offended you through my unreasoning, if you start to mock me, then let God and I judge you. "
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Birch bark letters are records made on birch bark. They are monuments of Old Russian writing of the 11th-15th centuries. Their greatest value lies in the fact that they themselves became sources for studying the history of medieval society, not only of the language, but also of everyday life.
By the way, not only Russians used birch bark as a material for writing. In this capacity, she served for many other peoples of the world. Birch bark, in a word, is one of the most ancient types of writing.
A bit of history
When did birch bark become widespread in Ancient Russia as a material convenient for writing? Apparently, this happened no later than the XI century. However, after five centuries, it began to lose its relevance and went out of use, since during this period in Russia, such material for writing as parchment, a special type of paper, became widespread. Nevertheless, some scribes continued to use the familiar birch bark, but, as you understand, birch bark was extremely rare, because it was much more convenient to write on paper. Gradually, birch bark began to be used mainly for rough notes.
Nowadays, each found birch bark letter is carefully studied by specialists and numbered. Two finds are simply amazing: huge birch bark sheets on which literary works are written. One of them has number 17, it was found in Torzhok. Another, Novgorod, letter is known under number 893.
Scientists found them on the ground in an expanded state. Perhaps they were once thrown out because they lost their relevance, but maybe this place was once an archive or other institution in which they were kept.
Nevertheless, Novgorod birch bark letters were found in such a large number that this clearly indicates that some office was once located at the place of discovery, which was engaged in archiving various documents.
Description of finds
Typically, seekers find writing, imprinted on birch bark, in the form of a rolled up scroll. And the text on them is usually scribbled: either on the inside or on both sides. However, there are times when the letters are located underground in an expanded state. The peculiarity of these letters is that the text in them is placed in a continuous line, that is, without division into separate words.
A typical example of this is the birch bark letter number 3, found in Moscow. Among the finds were scraps of birch bark with scrawled letters. Historians believe that the owners of these letters, in order to keep the information contained in them secret, also tore the birch bark into small pieces.
Opening of birch bark letters
By the way, the fact that such material for writing as birch bark letters existed in Russia was known long before they were discovered by archaeologists. Indeed, in some archives, whole books have been preserved, written on layered birch bark. However, they all belonged to a later period than those found.
The first birch bark letter dates back to the 11th century, and those books that are kept in churches and archives date back to the 17th and even 19th centuries, that is, the period when parchment and paper were already actively used by scribes. So why were these manuscripts made on birch bark? The fact is that they all belong to the Old Believers, that is, conservative. In the Volga region, near Saratov, in 1930, archaeologists found a birch bark Golden Horde letter of the XIV century. Unlike the former, it was written in ink.
The nature of birch bark letters
Most of the records found on birch bark are of both private and public nature. These are IOUs, household instructions, lists, petitions, wills, deeds of sale, court records, etc.
However, among them there are also letters containing church texts, for example, prayers, teachings, etc. Of particular interest are birch bark manuscripts, which are literary works and educational materials, for example, alphabet, school exercises, homework with children's scribbles, etc. etc.
The Novgorod birch bark letters containing drawings of the boy Onfim, discovered in the 50s, are very interesting. They date back to the 13th century. A distinctive feature of all letters, without exception, is brevity and pragmatism. Since they do not need to be large, the scribes wrote down only the most important things here. However, love lyrics were not alien to our ancestors, and among the manuscripts one can find love notes written by the hand of a woman or a man in love. In a word, the discovery of birch bark letters helped to some extent the lovers in expressing their secret feelings.
Where were the birch bark manuscripts found?
The outskirts of Veliky Novgorod are the places where Soviet archaeologists found the birch bark letter. Along with it, metal or bone pointed rods were also discovered, which were primitive writing instruments - a kind of medieval pens. Rather, they were found before the discovery of birch bark letters. Only archaeologists initially believed that the pointed objects they found were either hairpins or nails.
However, their true purpose was established only after the discovery of the letters, that is, after 15-20 years, in the 50s of the last century. After all, because of the Patriotic War, the expedition, begun in the middle of the 30s, was suspended. Thus, the first letter was discovered in July 1951 at the Nerevsky excavation site. It contained "pozyom" and "gift", that is, records of feudal duties in favor of Thomas, Ieva and Timothy. This letter was found by archaeologist Nina Akulova from Novgorod. For which she received an award of 100 rubles, and the day of the discovery, July 26, became the Day of Birch Bark Letter.
After the death of the archaeologist, a monument was erected on her grave with an inscription testifying to this event. During that archaeological season, 9 more birch bark documents were found. And among them is the one that most interested scientists. The story was written on the letter. The birch bark letters of that period were mainly of a business nature, but this one could be attributed to fiction.
As already noted above, the birch bark, adapted for writing, did not have large sizes, therefore everything contained in it was presented briefly and concisely. “About an unlucky fellow” is a real story. Birch bark letters were used as the main material for writing, just as among the mountain peoples, rocks or walls of caves served for this.
List of cities where birch bark letters were found
Until 2014, about 1060 letters on birch bark were found on the territory of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus. We present to your attention a list of cities near which they were found:
- Smolensk;
- Torzhok;
- Nizhny Novgorod;
- Velikiy Novgorod;
- Pskov;
- Moscow;
- Tver;
- Vitebsk;
- Ryazan and others.
This is the history of birch bark letters. They once served as writing material. Since birch grows only in certain areas, it is a real Russian, or rather, a Slavic tree, this type of writing was common among the Slavic peoples, including in Medieval Russia.
The archeology of the twentieth century led to the discovery of a unique historical source - birch bark letters.
True, it should be noted that the first collection of birch bark letters was collected at the end of the 19th century by a Novgorod collector Vasily Stepanovich Peredolsky (1833-1907). It was he who, after conducting independent excavations, found out that there is a perfectly preserved cultural layer in Novgorod. Peredolsky exhibited birch bark letters found or purchased from peasants in the first private museum in the city, built with his own money. Birch bark letters, in his words, were "the letters of our ancestors." However, it was impossible to make out anything on the old scraps of birch bark, so historians talked about a hoax or considered the "ancestral letters" scribbles of illiterate peasants. In short, the search for the "Russian Schliemann" was classified as eccentric.
In the 1920s, the Peredolsky Museum was nationalized and then closed. Director of the State Novgorod Museum Nikolay Grigorievich Porfiridov issued a conclusion that "most of the things were not of particular museum value." As a result, the first collection of birch bark letters was irretrievably lost. Purely Russian history.
The sensation came with a half-century delay. As they say, there was no happiness, but misfortune helped ... During the restoration of the city in the 1950s, large-scale archaeological excavations were carried out, which revealed medieval streets and squares, a tower of the nobility and the houses of ordinary townspeople in the thickness of the multi-meter cultural layer. The first birch bark letter (end of the 14th century) in Novgorod was discovered on July 26, 1951 at the Nerevsky excavation site: it contained a list of feudal duties in favor of a certain Thomas.
Academician Valentin Yanin in the book "Birch bark post of centuries" described the circumstances of the find as follows: "It happened on July 26, 1951, when a young worker Nina Fedorovna Akulova found during excavations on the ancient Kholopia street of Novgorod, right on the flooring of its pavement of the XIV century, a dense and dirty scroll of birch bark, on the surface of which clear letters shone through the dirt. If it were not for these letters, one would think that a fragment of another fishing float was discovered, of which there were already several dozen in the Novgorod collection by that time. Akulova handed over her find to the head of the excavation Gaide Andreevna Avdusina, and she called out Artemy Vladimirovich Artsikhovsky, which got the main dramatic effect. Hail found him standing on an ancient pavement being cleared, which led from the pavement of Kholopya Street to the courtyard of the estate. And standing on this pavement, as on a pedestal, with a raised finger, for a minute, in full view of the entire excavation, he could not, gasping for breath, utter a single word, uttering only inarticulate sounds, then in a hoarse voice with excitement shouted: “I was waiting for this find twenty years! "
In honor of this find, on July 26, Novgorod celebrates an annual holiday - "Day of the birch bark letter".
The same archaeological season brought 9 more documents on birch bark. And today there are already more than 1000 of them. The oldest birch bark letter belongs to the 10th century (Troitsky excavation site), the "youngest" - to the middle of the 15th.
The letters on the letters were scratched out with a sharpened writing.
The writings were 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 20x16 cm, filled with wax, bore the texts of three Psalms of David.
Birch bark letters are unique in that, unlike chronicles and official documents, they gave us the opportunity to “hear” the voices of ordinary Novgorodians. The bulk of the letters is business correspondence. But among the letters there are also love letters, and the threat to be summoned to God's judgment - a test by water ...
The educational notes and drawings of the seven-year-old boy Onfim, discovered in 1956, are widely known. Having scratched the letters of the alphabet, he finally depicted himself as an armed warrior, riding a horse, crushing enemies. Since then, the boys' dreams have not changed much.
The birch bark letter №9 became a real sensation. This is the first female letter in Russia: “What my father and relatives gave me in addition, then for him (meaning - for my ex-husband). And now, by marrying a new wife, he gives me nothing. Shaking my hands as a sign of a new engagement, he chased me away, and took the other as his wife. That's really, really, a Russian share, a woman's share ...
And here is a love letter written at the beginning of the XII century. (No. 752): “I sent to you three times. What evil do you have against me that you did not come to me this week? And I treated you like a brother! Did I hurt you by sending me to you? And you, I see, do not like it. If you were in love, then you would have escaped from under human eyes and rushed ... do you want me to leave you? Even if I offended you through my unreasoning, if you start to mock me, then let God and I judge you. "
It is interesting that this letter was cut with a knife, the scraps were tied in a knot and thrown into a heap of manure. The addressee, apparently, has already started up another sweetheart ...
Among the birch bark letters, there is also the first marriage proposal in Russia (end of the 13th century): "From Mikita to Anna. Go for me. I want you, and you want me. And then Ignat (witness) hearsay ..." ( No. 377). This is so casual, but straightforward.
Another surprise was presented in 2005, when several messages of the XII-XIII centuries with obscene language were found - e ... (No. 35, XII century)., B ... (No. 531, early XIII century), p. .. (No. 955, XII century), etc. This is how the well-established myth was finally buried that we owe the originality of our "Russian oral" to the Mongol-Tatars.
Birch bark letters revealed to us the amazing fact of almost universal literacy of the urban population ancient Russia... Moreover, the Russian people in those days wrote practically without errors - according to Zaliznyak's estimates, 90% of the letters were written correctly (sorry for the tautology).
While wandering around the Novgorod Museum, I came across a letter that can serve as a good alternative to the title of Yanin's famous book "I sent you birch bark" - "I sent you a bucket of sturgeon", by God, it sounds better, more tempting)) ...
According to archeologists, the Novgorod land keeps at least 20-30 thousand birch bark letters. But since they are discovered an average of 18 a year, it will take over a thousand years to bring this priceless library into the world.
The complete set of birch bark letters was posted in 2006 on the website
Birch bark letters - letters and records on birch bark, written monuments of Ancient Russia of the XI-XV centuries. Birch bark letters are of primary interest as sources on the history of society and the everyday life of medieval people, as well as on 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.
Encyclopedic YouTube
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✪ The language of birch bark letters (says linguist Andrey Zaliznyak)
✪ A.A. Zaliznyak. About birch bark letters from the excavations of the 2017 season.
✪ The first letters in Russia. The myth of the illiterate Russians.
✪ A.A. Zaliznyak. Birch bark letters 1
✪ ACADEMIA. Andrey Zaliznyak. Birch bark letters. Lecture 2. Channel Culture
Subtitles
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). Many late, mainly Old Believer documents, even whole books written on specially processed (layered) birch bark (XVII-XIX 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.
The place where the birch-bark letters of medieval Russia were first discovered was Veliky Novgorod, where natural conditions, namely the nature of the soil cover, favored their preservation. Here at the end of the 19th century, fragments of birch bark letters were discovered, which were kept in the museum of Novgorod antiquities, discovered by the local historian and amateur archaeologist V.S.Pedolsky (1833-1907). Unfortunately, Vasily Peredolsky himself, not possessing the necessary knowledge of sources, was unable to read the texts on these fragments, and most of his collection was lost in the 1920s.
The Novgorod archaeological expedition, which had worked since the 1930s under the leadership of A.V. Artsikhovsky, repeatedly found cut sheets of birch bark, and also wrote - pointed metal or bone rods, known as a tool for writing on wax (however, before the discovery of birch bark letters, the version what it was written about was not predominant, and they were often described as nails, hairpins, or "unknown objects"). The oldest writing styles 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. 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.
The discovery showed that, despite fears, fragile ink was almost never used when writing letters (during excavations, only three such letters out of a thousand odd ones were found, including a large Moscow letter in 2007); the text was simply scratched into the bark and was easily read.
In Smolensk, the first birch bark letter was discovered in 1952 by an expedition from Moscow University under the leadership of D.A. Avdusin, in Pskov - by G.P. Grozdilov's expedition in 1958, in Vitebsk - during construction work in 1959. In Staraya Russa, the first discovery of a birch bark letter was made in 1966 by an expedition of the Institute of Archeology led by A.F. Medvedev. In Mstislavl (Belarus), the first birch bark letter was discovered by archaeologist L.V. Alekseev in 1980, in Tver the first letter was discovered in 1983. The geography of finds expanded in 1988, when the first birch bark letter was found during the excavations of S.R. Chernov on Red Square in Moscow, and in Zvenigorod Galitsky (Ukraine) during the excavations of I.K.Sveshnikov, two letters were found (next year another one).
In August 2007, the second and third letters were found in Moscow. Moreover, found in the Taynitsky Garden of the Moscow Kremlin, letter No. 3 with an inventory of property became in fact the first full-fledged Moscow birch bark document (the previously known letter No. 1 and letter No. 2 found in the same season are small fragments) and the largest known birch bark letter. In Mstislavl (Belarus) in 2014, a second letter was found containing two letters and a princely sign (trident). In Smolensk in 2009 they found the 16th letter (the last letters were found before that in the 1980s). It represents the bottom line of the letter, in which the phrase “the boat has gone” has been preserved.
On July 21, 2015, the expedition of I.P. Kukushkin found the first birch bark letter in Vologda. In October 2015, an expedition of the Institute of Archeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences led by L. A. Belyaev discovered Moscow birch bark letter No. 4 during excavations in Zaryadye.
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. Sometimes in the media they are also called "birch bark letters". Such a birch bark leaf of the turn of the XI and XII centuries was found in 2010 in Kiev on Podil (Khoriva street); the text on it has not yet been identified. In 2007, it was also reported about the "birch bark letter and writing" found in Nizhny Novgorod, no details about this find subsequently appeared. In 2008, it was reported that a birch bark letter and a bone letter had been found in Busk in the Lviv region. In 2005, a birch bark letter or blank was found on the island of Vezhi in the Kostroma region.
amount
Birch bark letters have now been discovered during excavations of the following Old Russian cities (the number is indicated as of October 11, 2017):
| Velikiy Novgorod | 1102 certificates and 1 birch bark letter-icon |
| Staraya Russa | 48 |
| Torzhok | 19 |
| Smolensk | 16 |
| Pskov | 8 |
| Tver | 5 |
| Moscow | 4 |
| Zvenigorod Galitsky (Ukraine) | 3 |
| Mstislavl (Belarus) | 2 |
| Vitebsk (Belarus) | 1 |
| Old Ryazan | 1 |
| Vologda | 1 |
general characteristics
Birch bark as a material for writing became widespread in Russia no later than the first quarter of the 11th century and went out of wide use in the middle of the 15th century due to the spread of paper, which became cheap around that time; ink birch bark manuscripts are also known in a later era (see above). Birch bark was considered as an ephemeral, not prestigious material for writing, unsuitable for long 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). Charter No. 831, which is a draft of a complaint to an official, contains a direct instruction to rewrite it on parchment and only then send it to the addressee. Only a few letters, apparently, were kept for a long time: these are two huge birch bark leaves with a record of literary works (the whole letter from Torzhok No. 17 and Novgorod letter No. 893 that has come down to us in fragments), found in the ground in an expanded form, as well as two birch-bark books: with the record of prayers (Novgorod letter No. 419) and with the text of the fever conspiracy (No. 930, sheet from such a book).
Due to the indicated circumstances, the birch bark letters discovered by archaeologists are, as a rule, thrown away documents that fell into the ground at that place and at the moment when their practical need disappeared. Thus, the finds of archaeologists are not associated with any ancient archive (even in the case when the high concentration of letters is due to the presence of some institution or office in a given place - as, for example, on one of the estates of the Trinity excavation site, the so-called estate E, where in the XII century there was a "displaced" [joint] court of the prince and the mayor).
The Old Russian scribes knew the functional equivalence between birch bark and Middle Eastern papyrus: for example, in the translation of the Explanatory Apostle, made by Maxim the Greek and his Russian collaborators in the 16th century, the expressions were used birch wall messages and birch bark epistols according to ἐπιστολὰς βυβλίνας ‘epistles on papyrus’.
Whole birch bark letters at the time of discovery are usually a rolled birch bark scroll with scratched text on the inner side of the bark (less often on both sides). The smallest part of the whole documents is in the ground unfolded. The text is placed on birch bark in a line, in the vast majority of letters (as well as medieval Slavic manuscripts in general) without division into words.
A significant proportion of finds are fragments birch bark letters, often damaged after hitting the ground, but even more often destroyed (torn or cut) before they were thrown away. This practice is mentioned in the "Questioning" by Kirik Novgorodets of the 12th century, where it is asked whether there is a sin in "walking with their feet" according to the cut letters. The purpose of destroying the letters is clear: the addressees of the letters made sure that the letter that had become unnecessary was not read by an outsider. It is in the role of such an "outsider" that modern researchers find themselves. Although considerable experience has been accumulated in interpreting fragments of letters, and the general character of the document can be captured in most cases (only very tiny fragments cannot be interpreted), the presence of broken letters and gaps often complicates the interpretation of individual passages.
Dating
The main method of dating birch bark letters is stratigraphic dating (based on the archaeological layer from which the letter was extracted), in which dendrochronology plays an important role (in Novgorod, with a large number of frequently repaired wooden pavements, dating is more accurate than in other cities - usually within 30-40 years old).
A certain number of birch bark letters can be dated due to the mention of historical figures or events known from the chronicles (for example, representatives of six generations of the famous Novgorod clan of the boyars Mishinich - mayor Bartholomew, Luka, Ontsifor Lukinich, Yuri Ontsiforovich and others) speak in a number of letters. This method is commonly used in conjunction with stratigraphic dating and independently supports it.
Recently, with the accumulation of a fund of birch bark letters, it became possible for a complex parametric dating of letters on the basis of a number of extra-stratigraphic features - primarily paleography, as well as linguistic features and etiquette formulas that have chronological significance. This method, developed by A.A.Zaliznyak, is successfully used for letters that do not have (generally or rather narrow) stratigraphic date.
Most of the birch bark letters are private letters of a business nature (debt collection, trade, household instructions). Debt lists (which could serve not only as records for themselves, but also as instructions “to take from such-and-such”) and collective petitions of peasants to the feudal lord (XIV-XV centuries) closely adjoin this category.
In addition, there are drafts of official acts on birch bark: wills, receipts, deeds of sale, court records, etc.
Relatively rare, but of particular interest are the following types of birch bark letters: 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.
Birch bark letters, as a rule, are extremely short, pragmatic, contain only the most important information; what the author and the addressee already know is, naturally, not mentioned in them. The difficulties of interpretation that modern researchers constantly face due to the lack of context are the price to pay for reading "other people's letters."
The everyday and personal character 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 a high spread of literacy among the population.
Diplomas as a historical source
As the most important historical source, birch bark letters were already assessed by their discoverer A.V. Artsikhovsky. The main monographic works on this topic belong to L. V. Cherepnin and V. L. Yanin.
Specificity of sources
Birch bark letters are both material (archaeological) and written sources; their location is just as important a parameter for history as their content. The diplomas "give names" to the silent finds of archaeologists: instead of the faceless "estate of a noble Novgorodian" or "traces of a wooden canopy" we can talk about "the estate of the priest-artist Olisey Petrovich nicknamed Grechin" and "traces of a canopy over the premises of the local court of the prince and mayor ... One and the same name in the letters found on neighboring estates, mentions of princes and other statesmen, mentions of significant sums of money, geographical names - all this says a lot about the history of buildings, their owners, their social status, about their connections with other cities and regions.
Political and social history
Thanks to the birch bark letters, the genealogy of the boyar families of ancient Novgorod was studied (compare, in particular, the studies of V.L. Yanin), the political role of some figures, insufficiently illuminated in the annals, was revealed (such is Peter-Petrok Mikhalkovich, known to us thanks to the works of A.A. Gippius, a prominent figure boyar oligarchy of the XII century). The diplomas tell about land ownership in the Novgorod land, about the economic ties of Novgorodians with Pskov, Rostov, Yaroslavl, Uglich, Suzdal, Kuchkov (future Moscow), Polotsk, Kiev, Pereyaslavl, Chernigov, even Siberia (Obdorskaya land). The petty peasants, deeds of sale and wills of the XIV-XV centuries testify to the consolidation of serfdom, the development of judicial bureaucracy and office work (this area in the pre-Mongol period was still practically not delimited from private correspondence). We learn about military conflicts and the foreign policy of Novgorod, about collecting tribute from the conquered lands - we learn from the mass of everyday details that do not appear in official documents. A number of primary data are available on the history of the church - the antiquity of some features of the liturgy is attested, there is information about the relationship of the members of the clergy with the inhabitants of the estates they take care of, and the mention of Boris and Gleb in the list of saints in the letter of the 3rd quarter of the 11th century almost coincides with the time of their canonization () ...
Everyday history
This source is unique for studying the everyday life of Ancient Rus - a subject so popular in medieval studies of the 20th century. Birch bark letters testify to the wide spread of literacy in Ancient Rus, that the townspeople learned the alphabet from childhood and wrote their own letters, that women were literate too; at the same time, in a number of situations (especially in the correspondence of high-ranking officials), the figure of a scribe was also appropriate, who recorded under dictation and then served as a messenger. The family correspondence of Novgorodians testifies to the high position of a woman who sent instructions to her husband ("orders"), entered into monetary relations on her own, etc.
There is information in the birch bark letters about the diet of the ancient Novgorodians, their clothes, their crafts, as well as about the sphere of human relationships, kindred and friendly care, hospitality, and conflicts. So, in the letter No. 842 it says: “Here we sent 16 baskets of honey, and three pots of butter. And on Wednesday, two pigs and a sausage ”(the first mention of sausage in the entire Slavic world).
The love letter of a girl of the XI century (letter № 752) is of absolutely exceptional interest: “I sent you three times. What evil do you have against me that you did not come to me? And I treated you like a brother! And you, I see, do not like it. If you were in love, then you would have escaped from under human eyes and come. Maybe I hurt you out of my folly, but if you start mocking me, then God judge you and I am unworthy. "
There are birch bark letters with records of conspiracies and other folklore texts, which make it possible to judge the antiquity of folklore monuments.
The language of birch bark letters
Dialectisms
Most of the birch bark documents from the territory of the Novgorod feudal republic (from Novgorod, Staraya Russa and Torzhok) are written in old Novgorod dialect, which differs from the Old Russian language known from traditional monuments at various levels: in phonetics, morphology, and partly also in vocabulary. In a broad sense, the dialect of ancient Pskov (which has a number of its own phonetic features) can also be attributed to the Old Novgorod dialect. Certain dialectal Novgorod and Pskov phenomena were known to historians of the Russian language before, but only from episodic inclusions in manuscripts, against the background of the scribe's general attitude towards a more prestigious language (Church Slavonic, supra-dialectic Old Russian). In birch bark letters, these phenomena are presented either completely consistently, or (less often) with an insignificant influence of the book norm.
Other letters (from Smolensk, Zvenigorod Galitsky, Tver, Vitebsk, Moscow, Vologda) also carry information about the ancient dialects of these regions, however, due to the small amount of material, their linguistic value is still less than that of Novgorod letters.
Spelling and alphabet history
In birch bark letters (from all cities), the so-called. home graphics system, where, in particular, pairs of letters b-o, b-e and e-ѣ can be used interchangeably (for example, the word horse can be written as k'ne); according to this system, the overwhelming majority of letters of the middle of the XII - the end of the XIV century were written. Before the discovery of birch bark letters, such spelling was known only from some parchment letters and inscriptions, as well as from individual errors in book texts.
Birch bark letters are an important source in the study of the origin and development of the Russian Cyrillic alphabet. So, the alphabet (abesedarium) is already represented on one of the oldest among the found birch bark letters - birch bark letter number 591 (XI century), discovered in 1981, as well as on birch bark letter number 460 (XII century), found in 1969. birch bark alphabet belonging to the late ancient Russian period. Abesedarii from birch bark letters reflect various stages in the formation of the composition of the Cyrillic alphabet, and they do not directly correspond to the repertoire of letters actually used in the texts of the same era.
Literacy of scribes
Due to the specific spelling and dialectal features of birch bark letters in the 1970s, despite the fact that already during this period a significant fund of valuable observations of the vocabulary, grammar, spelling, paleography of birch bark letters was accumulated (N.A. Meshchersky, R. O. Yakobson, V.I.Borkovsky, L.P. Zhukovskaya), researchers of birch bark letters often interpreted incomprehensible passages as arbitrary mistakes of illiterate scribes (or even foreigners) against the "correct" Old Russian language: this made it possible to interpret disputable sections of the text almost as desired ...
The diploma has no signs of the Old Novgorod dialect; some not very vivid characteristics may indicate that the writer could have been a native of South-Western RussiaDiploma ꙍt Zhiznomir to Mikoulъ. Copeill єsi [ you bought; "Esi" - a bunch] robo [ slave] Plskovє [ in Pskov], and now in tom томla [ grabbed for it] кънѧгыни. And now with ѧ drouzhin on mѧ taught [ vouched]. And now they have sent to tomou mozhuvi [ man] gramotou, єli [ if a] oh nєgo roba. And sє ti hochou konє kupiv, and knѧzh mouzh set in, she on the pulls [ confrontation]. And you atchє [ if a] єsi nє vizal koun [ of money] тєхъ, and nє єmli [ take] nothing zhє ou nєgo.
Birch bark letters are an important source on the history of the Russian language; according to them, more accurately than according to other medieval manuscripts, often preserved only in lists, it is possible to establish the chronology and the degree of prevalence of a particular linguistic phenomenon (for example, the fall of the reduced, hardening of hissing, evolution of the category of animateness), as well as the etymology and time of appearance of one or another the words. The diplomas almost directly reflect the lively spoken language of Ancient Rus and, as a rule, do not bear traces of literary "polishing" of style and book influence in morphology and syntax. There is no material comparable to them in this respect among the traditional book monuments of the Old Russian language.
Of great interest in terms of the history of the language is Charter No. 247, the content of which, along with some other charters, can support the hypothesis of S.M. Gluskina about the absence of a second palatalization in the Old Novgorod dialect, in contrast to all other languages \u200b\u200band dialects of the Slavic world. This assumption is important for the history of the Old Russian language and the entire Slavic language family as a whole.
Vocabulary
Thus, the discovery of birch bark letters constantly fills in the gaps in the existing dictionaries of the Old Russian language.
Foreign language material
There are several letters written in Church Slavonic, as well as five texts in non-Slavic languages: one each in Karelian (the famous birch bark letter number 292 with a spell against lightning), Latin, Greek, German - Novgorod letters; in runic Old Scandinavian - Smolensk letter. The latter are important as a source of information about the international relations of ancient Novgorod and Smolensk. In addition to the Old Russian text, Charter No. 403 contains a small Russian-Karelian dictionary; it is intended for the tribute collector who already knew a little bit of Karelian communication. Several letters contain foreign proper names (people and places) and rare foreign language borrowings, primarily Baltic-Finnish, as well as Germanic, Baltic and Turkic.
Publications
Birch bark letters from Novgorod have been published since 1953 in a special series with the general title "Novgorod letters on birch bark from excavations ...". To date, 11 volumes have been published. Here are published Novgorod birch bark letters up to No. 915 inclusive, letters from Staraya Russa and Torzhok, as well as some other Novgorod inscriptions (on wooden tags, cylinders, cerah-wax tablets).
In the last few years, the newly found letters (except for small fragments) are preliminary published in the journal Voprosy linguistics.
The text and interpretations of the letters were later repeatedly refined by various researchers: the readings and translations proposed in the first volumes of "Novgorod letters on birch bark ..." are often completely outdated. Therefore, it is also necessary to refer to the book by A. A. Zaliznyak "Drevnenovgorod dialect" (M., 1995; 2nd ed., M., 2004), where the text of Novgorod and Nenovgorod birch bark letters is given (except for small fragments and non-Slavic texts) in in accordance with the modern state of ancient Russian studies. Some other texts are also included in the editions of the NGB (and partly also in the book by A. A. Zaliznyak): 1) inscriptions on wooden "lock cylinders" for tribute collectors' bags; 2) inscriptions on wooden tags, usually debt; 3) analysis of ancient Russian graffiti inscriptions; 4) Novgorod lead letters. All this, within the framework of Old Russian culture, reveals certain similarities with birch bark letters (or is used as additional linguistic material).
Similar writing in other cultures
The bark of trees, most likely, was used for many millennia by different peoples as a writing material, on which initially some important signs for people were left in the Mesolithic and Neolithic [ ]. The use of bark as a convenient and cheap writing material was widespread in antiquity.
In Latin, the concepts of "book" and "bast" are expressed in one word: liber .
A Roman-British analogue of birch bark letters is known - letters on thin wooden tablets (not bark or bast) of the 1st-2nd centuries, found during excavations of the Roman fort of Vindoland in the north of England, the so-called tablets from Vindoland.
During World War II, partisan newspapers and leaflets were sometimes printed on birch bark for lack of paper.
see also
Notes
- Poppe N. N. The Golden Horde manuscript on birch bark // Soviet oriental studies, 1941, vol. 2. - S. 81-134.
- Konstantin Shurygin Birch bark literacy
- Yanin V.L.Birch bark mail of centuries
- Kolchin S.A., Yanin V.L. Archeology of Novgorod 50 years // Novgorod collection. 50 years of excavations in Novgorod. - M., 1982 .-- P. 94.
- The monument was created on the initiative of NF Akulova's relatives with the support of the Administration of Veliky Novgorod and the Novgorod archaeological expedition. The new monument depicts the very same letter No 1 and a short inscription: “On July 26, 1951, the first birch bark letter was found by her hands”.
- Kudryashov K. The shadow of a birch bark // Arguments and facts. - 2011. - No. 31 for August 3. - S. 37.
- A. L. Khoroshkevich The discovery of Novgorod birch bark letters in the historiographic context of the early 50s of the XX century. // Birch bark letters: 50 years of discovery and study. - M.: Indrik, 2003 .-- S. 24-38. In particular, A. V. Artsikhovsky was previously the object of “
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, the church leader Joseph Volotskiy wrote about Sergius of Radonezh: "In the monastery of Blessed Sergius, the books themselves are not written on charters, but on birch bark."
On July 26, during excavations at a depth of 2.4 meters, a participant in the expedition, Nina Akulova, noticed 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. Blank scrolls did not differ in appearance or anything from letters, apparently served as floats or were simply thrown away when decorating logs."
The scroll was carefully washed in hot water and soda, straightened and clamped between the glasses. Subsequently, 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 - issues of land and gift (income and quitrent).
From a 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 (editor's note: the author's spelling) is well preserved in the ground, but they wrote on it only in ink " ...
Artsikhovsky's expedition opened a new page in the study of Russian history. According to experts, the Novgorod cultural layers keep about 20 thousand more ancient Russian birch bark letters.