However, 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 Basil Stepanovich Peredolsky(1833-1907). It was he who, having carried out independent excavations, found out that there is a perfectly preserved cultural layer in Novgorod. Peredolsky exhibited the birch bark letters found or bought from the peasants in the first private museum in the city, built with his own money. The birch bark letters, in his words, were “letters of our ancestors.” However, it was impossible to make out anything on the old scraps of birch bark, so historians spoke of a hoax or considered the “writings of ancestors” to be the scribbles of illiterate peasants. In a word, the search for the “Russian Schliemann” was classified as an eccentricity.
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 half a century late. 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 discovered medieval streets and squares, the towers of the nobility and the houses of ordinary citizens in the thickness of the multi-meter cultural layer. The first birch bark document (late 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 his book “Birch Bark Mail of Centuries” described the circumstances of the find as follows: “It happened on July 26, 1951, when a young worker Nina Fedorovna Akulova I found during excavations on the ancient Kholopya Street of Novgorod, right on the flooring of its pavement of the 14th century, a dense and dirty scroll of birch bark, on the surface of which clear letters were visible through the dirt. If not for these letters, one would think that a fragment of another fishing float had been 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 site, Gaide. Andreevna Avdusina, and she called out Artemia Vladimirovich Artsikhovsky, which provided the main dramatic effect. The call found him standing on an ancient pavement being cleared, which led from the pavement of Kholopya Street into the courtyard of the estate. And standing on this platform, as if on a pedestal, with a raised finger, for a minute, in full view of the entire excavation, he could not, choking, utter a single word, uttering only inarticulate sounds, then, in a voice hoarse with excitement, he shouted: “I was waiting for this find.” twenty years!”
In honor of this find, on July 26, an annual holiday is celebrated in Novgorod - “Birch Bark Letter Day”.
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 dates back to the 10th century (Troitsky excavation), the “youngest” - to the middle of the 15th century.
The wax was leveled with a spatula and letters were written on it. The oldest Russian book, the Psalter of the 11th century (c. 1010, more than half a century older than the Ostromir Gospel), found in July 2000, was just that. A book of three 20x16 cm tablets filled with wax carried the texts of the 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 letters are business correspondence. But among the letters there are love messages, and a threat to summon him to God's judgment - a test by water...
The educational notes and drawings of the seven-year-old boy Onfim, discovered in 1956, became 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.
Birch bark document No. 9 became a real sensation. This is the first letter from a woman in Rus': “What my father gave me and my relatives gave me in addition, then goes to him (meaning, to my ex-husband). And now, having married a new wife, he gives me nothing. Having struck hands as a sign of a new engagement, he drove me away and took the other as his wife.” This is, indeed, a Russian share, a woman’s share...
And here is a love letter written at the beginning of the 12th century. (No. 752): “I sent to you three times. What kind of evil do you have against me that you didn’t come to me this week? And I treated you like a brother! Did I really offend you by sending you? But I see you don’t like it. If you cared, you would have escaped from under human eyes and rushed... do you want me to leave you? Even if I offended you due to my lack of understanding, 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 pieces were tied into a knot and thrown into a pile of manure. The recipient, apparently, has already acquired another sweetheart...
Among the birch bark letters there is also the first marriage proposal in Rus' (late 13th century): “From Mikita to Anna. Follow me. I want you, and you want me. And for this Ignat listened (witness) ...” ( No. 377).
Another surprise came in 2005, when several messages from the 12th-13th centuries with obscene language were found - e... (No. 35, 12th century)., b... (No. 531, early 13th century), p. ..(No. 955, XII century), etc.. Thus, the established myth that we supposedly owe the originality of our “oral Russian” to the Mongol-Tatars was finally buried.
Birch bark letters revealed to us an amazing fact about the almost universal literacy of the urban population of ancient Rus'. Moreover, Russian people in those days wrote practically without errors - according to Zaliznyak’s estimates, 90% of letters were written correctly (sorry for the tautology).
From personal experience: when my wife and I were working as students during the 1986 season at the Trinity excavation site, a letter was found that began with a tattered “...Yanin”. There was a lot of laughter at this message to the academician after a millennium.
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’s better))...
According to archaeologists, the Novgorod land still stores at least 20-30 thousand birch bark documents. But since they are discovered on average 18 per year, it will take about one and a half thousand years to bring this entire invaluable library into the light of day.
A complete set of birch bark documents was published in 2006 on the website "Old Russian Birch Bark Letters" http://gramoty.ru/index.php?id=about_site
Until 1951, there was a strong opinion that only selected social strata received education in Rus'. This myth was dispelled by the discovery of archaeologists, which occurred on July 26, 1951 in Novgorod. Experts discovered a birch bark letter preserved from the 14th century, or rather a scroll of birch bark, which could easily be mistaken for a fishing float, with words scratched on it.
An ancient note, which listed the villages that paid taxes to some Roma, was the first to dispel the opinion that the population of Rus' was universally illiterate. Soon, in Novgorod and other cities, archaeologists began to find more and more new records confirming that merchants, artisans, and peasants knew how to write. AiF.ru tells what our ancestors thought and wrote about.
The first birch bark letter. It is highly fragmented, but consists of long and completely standard phrases: “So much dirt came from such and such a village,” so it is easily restored. Photo: RIA Novosti
From Gavrila to Kondrat
Unlike most traditional monuments of the 11th-15th centuries, people wrote birch bark letters in simple language, because the addressee of the message was most often members of their own family, neighbors or business partners. They resorted to writing on birch bark in case of immediate need, so most often household orders and everyday requests are found on birch bark. For example, a document from the 14th century known as No. 43 contains the most common request to send a servant and a shirt with him:
“From Boris to Nastasya. When this letter arrives, send me a man on a stallion, because I have a lot to do here. Yes, send a shirt - I forgot my shirt.”
Sometimes complaints and threats can be found in monuments found by archaeologists. For example, a birch bark letter from the 12th century known as No. 155 turned out to be a note, the author of which demands compensation for the damage caused to him in the amount of 12 hryvnia:
“From Polochka (or: Polochka) to... [After you (?)] took the girl from Domaslav, Domaslav took 12 hryvnia from me. 12 hryvnia arrived. If you don’t send it, then I will stand (meaning: with you to the court) before the prince and the bishop; then prepare for a greater loss.”
Birch bark document No. 155. Source: Public Domain
With the help of birch bark letters we can learn more about the daily life of our ancestors. For example, charter No. 109 of the 12th century is dedicated to the incident with the purchase of a stolen slave by a warrior:
“Certificate from Zhiznomir to Mikula. You bought a slave in Pskov, and the princess grabbed me for it (implied: convicting me of theft). And then the squad vouched for me. So send a letter to that husband if he has a slave. But I want to, having bought horses and mounted the prince’s husband, [go] to confrontation. And you, if you haven’t taken that money [yet], don’t take anything from him.”
Sometimes notes found by archaeologists contain extremely short and simple text, similar to a modern SMS message (No. 1073): “ From Gavrila to Kondrat. Come here”, - and sometimes they look like advertisements. For example, letter No. 876 contains a warning that repair work will take place on the square in the coming days.
Certificate No. 109. Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org
Love affairs
“From Mikita to Anna. Marry me - I want you, and you want me; and Ignat Moiseev is a witness to this.”
The most amazing thing about this note is that Mikita directly addresses the bride herself, and not her parents, as was customary. One can only guess about the reasons for such an act. Another interesting text has been preserved from the 12th century, in which an upset lady scolds her chosen one (No. 752):
“[I sent (?)] to you three times. What kind of evil do you have against me that this week (or: this Sunday) you did not come to me? And I treated you like a brother! Did I really offend you by sending [to you]? But I see you don’t like it. If you were interested, would you break out from under [human] eyes and rush...? Even if I offended you through my foolishness, if you start to mock me, then God and my badness (that is, me) will judge [you].
It turns out that in Ancient Rus', the relationship between spouses was somewhat similar to modern families. So, for example, in letter No. 931, Semyon’s wife asks to suspend a certain conflict until her return. She’ll come and figure it out herself:
“An order to Semyon from his wife. If only you could calm [everyone] down and wait for me. And I’ll hit you with my forehead.”
Archaeologists have also found fragments of a love plot, possibly included in the draft of a love letter (No. 521): “So let your heart and your body and your soul burn [with passion] for me and for my body and for my face.” And even a note from a sister to her brother, in which she reports that her husband brought home his mistress, and they got drunk and beat her half to death. In the same note, the sister asks her brother to come quickly and intercede for her.
Birch bark document No. 497 (second half of the 14th century). Gavrila Postnya invites her son-in-law Gregory and sister Ulita to visit Novgorod.
Messages scratched on birch bark hundreds of years ago are today a unique source of information about the language, life and culture of ancient Rus'.
The first Novgorod charter was found on July 26, 1951. Today, almost 65 years later, the scientists’ collection includes more than 1,000 birch barks, the lion’s share of which were found in Veliky Novgorod, the smaller part in Staraya Russa, Torzhok, Pskov and other cities. This geography of finds is explained by natural conditions: organic matter is well preserved in moist soil if it does not come into contact with air. Apparently, Novgorod soils are excellent for the “preservation” of medieval written monuments. The first charters known to us date back to the 11th century; one of the earliest, tentatively dated to 1060-1100, looks like this:
Gramoty.ru
Her translation: “Lithuania went to war against the Karelians.” According to the historian and archaeologist V.L. Yanin, this report was written in 1069, during the military campaign of the Polotsk prince Vseslav Borisovich against Novgorod. A birch bark letter can be dated by determining the age of the cultural layer in which it was found. Dendrochronology helps with this: counting the growth rings on the logs from which wooden buildings and road decks were made, the remains of which are at the same level of the cultural layer as the letter. During the Novgorod excavations, dendrochronological tables were compiled, by consulting which it is possible to determine the age of some letters with an accuracy of 10-15 years. Another dating method is paleography: analysis of the linguistic and graphic features of birch bark “letters.” It is thanks to letters that linguists can reconstruct the language spoken by the ancient Novgorodians. The following text, written in the 13th century, presents one of the features of their dialect: “tsokane” - a mixture of C and Ch.
Gramoty.ru
Translation: “From Mikita to Anna. Marry me - I want you [“hotsu” in the original], and you want me; and Ignat Moiseev is a witness to this.” True, as follows from the birch bark of the 12th century, not all residents of ancient Novgorod had a happy family life:
Gramoty.ru
“From Gostyata to Vasil. What my father gave me and what my relatives gave me in addition is his. And now, having married a new wife, he gives me nothing. By hitting hands [i.e. as a sign of a new engagement], he drove me away and took another as his wife. Come and do me a favor.” The author of the following letter is the boy Onfim, who lived seven and a half centuries ago. He depicted a horseman defeating the enemy, and signed the drawing with the autograph: “Onfime.”
Gramoty.ru
The fifth letter in our selection is a conspiracy against fever (XIV – XV centuries)
Gramoty.ru
Translation: “Saint Sisinius and Sikhail were sitting on the mountains of Sinai, looking at the sea. And there was a noise from heaven, great and terrible. And I saw an angel flying from heaven, Saint Sisinius and Sikhail, wearing handcuffs [parts of armor] of ice, and in his hands holding a flaming weapon. And then the sea became agitated, and seven bare-haired women came out, cursed in appearance; they were captured by the power of the invisible king. And Saint Sisinius and Sikhail said..." - alas, the text breaks off further; the lower half of the birch bark leaf is missing. All included in The selection of letters is united by the writing technique. The letters were scratched with a hard rod - a writer - on the inner, soft side of birch bark. We know of only a couple of birch bark written in ink. The last letters were written in the middle of the 15th century: it was then that birch bark was replaced by paper. When compiling the material, scans, drawings and translations of letters published on the website gramoty.ru were used, as well as works by A.A. Zaliznyak, A.A. Gippius and V.L. Ioannina.
Did they know about birch bark letters before the discoveries 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 copy entire books on layered birch bark.
When was the first letter found?
The Novgorod archaeological expedition led by Artemy Artsikhovsky worked in Novgorod since the 1930s and found, among other things, writing - sharp metal or bone rods with which letters were scratched on birch bark. True, at first the writings were mistaken for nails.
During the fascist occupation, archaeological excavations in Novgorod had to be curtailed; they resumed only towards the end of the 1940s.
Who found the first letter?
Novgorodka Nina Okulova, who came to work part-time on an archaeological expedition during maternity leave. She received a prize of one hundred rubles for her find.
Is the discovery of letters a unique event or are they found often?
Relatively often. Already in the summer of 1951, in addition to letter No. 1, nine more letters were found. Then 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. Did Novgorodians know how to write more often than others?
Completely optional. It’s just that in Novgorod the preservation of letters is favored by the peculiarities of life and soil.
In order for fragile birch bark to survive for several centuries, it must be placed in conditions where it would not be destroyed by water and air. It is no coincidence that most of the documents found were private letters or draft documents - bills of sale, 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 garbage.
An important role in the discovery of letters is played by the preservation of the archaeological layer of the XI-XIII centuries in Novgorod. Unfortunately, after numerous reconstructions over the centuries, not many cities have the same feature.
Who is leading the excavations?
Novgorod archaeological expedition of Moscow State University, as well as expeditions of scientific institutes. Students and schoolchildren are widely involved in the excavations.
Who are the most famous scientists involved in literacy?
Academician Artemy Vladimirovich Artsikhovsky(1902-1978) - the first head of the department of archeology restored at Moscow University (1939), subsequently (1952-1957) - dean of the history faculty, founder and head of the Novgorod archaeological expedition (1932-1962), the first publisher of birch bark documents. He introduced a general course in archeology into the university curriculum and 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), specialist in ancient Russian numismatics. For the first time he used birch bark letters as a historical source.
He developed a methodology for comprehensive source study, in which 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, 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 documents at Moscow State University.
What does the excavation look like?
An excavation is a small area of several hundred square meters in which an expedition must study the cultural layer in one summer or over several archaeological seasons.
The main work of the expedition is to gradually, layer by layer, lift the soil from the work site and study everything that is in different layers: the foundations of houses, ancient pavements, various objects lost or thrown away by residents over the years.
The peculiarity of the work of archaeologists is based on the fact that in ancient times large-scale excavation work - excavation or, on the contrary, filling of soil - was not carried out, so all traces of life and activity remained right there, under people’s feet.
For example, a new house could be built on the crowns of a burnt one, dismantling the upper charred logs. Once every thirty to forty years in Novgorod, wooden pavements were rebuilt - right on top of the old boards. Now that the dating of these works is well studied, they can be easily dated by the layer of 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 excavated excavation is a hole of appropriate depth; in it, archaeologists removed, sifted and studied all the upper layers and reached the mainland - a layer in which there are no longer any traces of human life and activity. The Novgorod continent corresponds to the twenties and thirties of the 10th century.
What did they write about in the letters?
Letters are current business and everyday correspondence. Unlike official papers - princely decrees, chronicles, spiritual literature - the authors of which assumed that their works would live for a long time, 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), and to understand the geography of its trade relations (there are bills of sale and receipts). From the letters we learned that women in Ancient Rus' knew how to write and were quite independent (there are letters in which husbands are given orders for housework). Children in Ancient Rus' usually learned to write at the age of ten to thirteen, but sometimes earlier (there are copybooks and just scribbles).
Spiritual writings and prayers occupy a much smaller place in the letters - apparently, it was believed that they had a place in church books, but there were conspiracies.
The most interesting certificates
Certificates 199-210 and 331 are copybooks and drawings of the Novgorod boy Onfim, who lived in the 13th century.
From the letters it is known that Onfim was about seven years old, and he was just learning to write. Part of the letters are the copybooks of Onfim, who studied according to the traditional ancient Russian method - first he wrote out syllables, then small pieces of prayers from the Psalter, and individual formulas of business documents. In his free time during class, Onfim drew - for example, he depicted himself as a warrior.
Certificate 752. Love letter from a girl of the 11th century:
“I sent to you three times. What kind of evil do you have against me that you didn’t come to me this week? And I treated you like a brother! Did I really offend you by sending you? But I see you don’t like it. If you cared, you would have escaped from under human eyes and rushed... do you want me to leave you? Even if I offended you due to my lack of understanding, if you start to mock me, then let God and I judge you.”
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Modern man is interested in how his ancestors lived many centuries ago: what did they think about, what were their relationships, what did they wear, what did they eat, what did they strive for? And the chronicles report only about wars, the construction of new churches, the death of princes, elections of bishops, solar eclipses and epidemics. And here birch bark letters come to the rescue, which historians consider the most mysterious phenomenon in Russian history.
What is birch bark letter
Birch bark writing is notes, letters and documents made on birch bark. Today, historians are confident that birch bark served as a written material in Rus' before the advent of parchment and paper. Traditionally, birch bark letters date back to the period of the 11th-15th centuries, but Artsikhovsky and many of his supporters argued that the first letters appeared in Novgorod back in the 9th-10th centuries. One way or another, this archaeological discovery changed the view of modern scientists on Ancient Rus' and, more importantly, allowed them to look at it from the inside.
The first birch bark charter
It is worth noting that it is the Novgorod letters that scientists consider the most interesting. And this is understandable. Novgorod is one of the largest centers of Ancient Rus', which was neither a monarchy (like Kyiv) nor a principality (like Vladimir). “The Great Russian Republic of the Middle Ages,” that’s what the socialist Marx called Novgorod.The first birch bark letter was found on July 26, 1951 during archaeological excavations on Dmitrovskaya Street in Novgorod. The charter was found in a gap between the planks of a 14th-century pavement. In front of the archaeologists was a thick birch bark scroll, which, if not for the letters, could have been mistaken for a fishing float. Despite the fact that the document was torn up by someone and thrown away on Kholopya Street (that’s what it was called in the Middle Ages), it retained quite large parts of the associated text. The document has 13 lines - only 38 cm. And although time has not been kind to them, the content of the document is not difficult to grasp. The letter listed the villages that paid taxes to some Roma. After the first discovery, others followed.
What did the ancient Novgorodians write about?
Birch bark letters have very different contents. So, for example, letter number 155 is a note about the court, which orders the defendant to compensate the plaintiff for damages in the amount of 12 hryvnia. Certificate number 419 – prayer book. But the letter numbered 497 was an invitation from Gregory’s son-in-law to stay in Novgorod.The birch bark letter sent by the clerk to the master says: “ Bow from Michael to Master Timofy. The earth is ready, we need seeds. They came, sir, a simple man, and we dare to make rye without your word».
Love notes and even an invitation to an intimate date were found among the letters. A note from the sister to her brother was found, in which she writes that her husband brought home his mistress, and they got drunk and beat her half to death. In the same note, the sister asks her brother to come quickly and intercede for her.
Birch bark letters, as it turned out, were used not only as letters, but also as announcements. For example, letter number 876 contains a warning that repair work will take place on the square in the coming days.
The value of birch bark letters, according to historians, lies in the fact that the overwhelming majority are everyday letters, from which one can learn a lot about the life of Novgorodians.
Birch bark language
An interesting discovery regarding birch bark letters was the fact that their language (written Old Church Slavonic) is somewhat different from what historians are used to seeing. The language of birch bark letters contains several cardinal differences in the spelling of some words and letter combinations. There are also differences in the placement of punctuation marks. All this led scientists to the conclusion that the Old Church Slavonic language was very heterogeneous and had many dialects, which sometimes differed greatly from each other. This theory was confirmed by further discoveries in the field of Russian history.
How many diplomas are there in total?
To date, 1050 letters and letters have been found in Novgorod, as well as one birch bark letter-icon. Letters were also found in other ancient Russian cities. 8 letters were discovered in Pskov. In Torzhok - 19. In Smolensk - 16 certificates. In Tver - 3 diplomas, and in Moscow - five. One letter each was found in Staraya Ryazan and Nizhny Novgorod. Letters were also discovered in other Slavic territories. In Belarusian Vitebsk and Mstislavl there is one letter each, and in Ukraine, in Zvenigorod Galitsky, there are three birch bark letters. This fact indicates that birch bark letters were not the prerogative of the Novgorodians and dispels the popular myth of the total illiteracy of the common people.Modern research
The search for birch bark letters continues today. Each of them is subjected to thorough study and decoding. The last found documents did not contain writing, but drawings. In Novgorod alone, archaeologists discovered three letter-drawings, two of them apparently depicted the prince’s warriors, and the third contains an image of female forms.
It remains a mystery to scientists how exactly the Novgorodians exchanged letters and who delivered the letters to the recipients. Unfortunately, so far there are only theories on this matter. It is possible that already in the 11th century Novgorod had its own post office, or at least a “courier delivery service” designed specifically for birch bark letters.
An equally interesting historical topic by which one can judge the traditions of ancient Slavic women's costume.
