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Birch-Brk-Wrt-art - 3/2/02

 

"Old Novgorod Birch-Bark Writings" by Posadnik.

 

NOTE: See also the files: Rus-Handbook-art, Russia-bib, Russia-msg, parchment-msg, scrpt-develop-art, wax-tablets-msg, paper-msg, med-letters-msg.

 

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NOTICE -

 

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Copyright to the contents of this file remains with the author.

 

While the author will likely give permission for this work to be

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                             Thank you,

                                   Mark S. Harris

                                   AKA:  Stefan li Rous

                                        stefan at florilegium.org

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Old Novgorod Birch-Bark Writings

by Posadnik

 

Based on articles & popular books about the history of literacy in Russia.  

 

 

In 2001 Archaeology could celebrate a truly important jubilee: 50 years since the first birch-bark letters were discovered. Now the number of documents found has started its second thousand. Before that, the common belief among the scholars was that Russia was completely illiterate, as most books were written in monasteries or by order of church officials, which made some scientists think that the whole notion of culture in Russia started with Christening in 988. Especially known for such belief was acadamician Dmitri Likhachev, who (at the millenium jubilee of the event in 1988) stated that Christening marked the end of illiterate darkness and opened the history of great Russian culture.

 

So, the common knowledge in 1950s was that northern Russia was illiterate. The only question was where all those bone & metal sticks, found in huge numbers, came from. First they were considered religion-related artifacts: the idea  looks too promising when you don't know what this or that is for.

 

But then about 1950, a humble (at the time) worker of Artemi Artsikhovski's archaeological expedition, Nina Akulova, found a birch-bark roll that looked scratched or something like that. After a closer look, the roll appeared to carry the text of letters, pressed into the bark. The sensation could be compared with finding Troy, or the recovering of the Avesta. A whole city of literate people, who just scratched notes to each other every now and then. Due to these rolls the scientists were able to look into the everyday life of ordinary people of which the chronicles had little to say. Most writings were everyday ones, asking the wife to send clean underwear or the neighbor to lend some money, some love letters, poems or election bulletins where only one name was written. Most known are probably the writings of a Novgorod teenager Onthim. He left us what look like some school exercises if it is such  He wrote some ABCs, also a very well-known text appeared to be his drill in composing a letter. The text started with "From Onthim to Danilo:" There was a "code" letter which was written by a teenager, maybe Onthim himself. It was written and not signed, obviously to make the reader spend time to put that into the correct form until he (she?) understands he was called something unpleasant. The text was written in two lines, but you were to read in vertically, pair of letters by pair of letters. The text went on like this: "an ignoramus wrote this, a fool showed it, and the person who read this…"

 

Besides just describing the life that bustled in the streets, the birch-bark writings were of great use in identifying the owners of the houses. As Russian cities were all of wooden construction, except for the churches in the big cities such as Kiev or Novgorod, every 50 years or so they simply burned down to the ground. As the country was rich with woods (the northern half, of course), and the people were extremely good at woodcraft, the citizens didn't even move away the ashes, and quickly built new houses over them. So everything lost in the fire was buried in coals & ashes. That's why the "cultural layer" in Russian cities gives us great evidence of the material culture at the time of the fire. However, previously they could state only the profession and social position of the owner, like "boyar's manor", "the manor of a rich musician", etc. Now they are able to portray the person from the birch-bark letters that he had read and then dropped to the mud covering the non-sheltered part of the yard (in rich houses the roads to all the household facilities were paved with beams or boards, with a roof above). As a result, they are able to at least to say if the craftsman owning the house was a free man or if he belonged to a boyar.

 

Due to the analysis of the writings, it was established that the Novgorod manor territories were formed according to a clan system, as the excavations in the Nereva end of the city showed that a huge mass of neighboring manors (12-15 ares each) belonged to heirs of the famous personality of 13th early 14th century boyar Yuri Mishinich. Their borders were stable since at least the 10th century, which means that the household and all the production in them were stable too. This in turn, explained why Novgorod, being one of the richest and powerful cities of Northern Europe (only one siege and it was never occupied in about 500 years, until Ivan III put an end to Novgorod's independence), had no guilds or corporations, like in German cities for example. The craftsmen were simply owned or hired by the boyars, so each boyar had the same universal team of craftsmen, who produced everything he/she needed, with all the extras stored or sold at the city market. The idea of guilds in old Novgorod was based mostly on streets' and ends' names like Shield-makers' street, Potters' end, etc.

 

Due to the writings, for the first time, old Russian frescos ceased being anonymous. As the manor of a rich 12th century artist Grechin Petrovich was excavated and linked with his name (by birch-bark sources mainly), it was found that he was the chief of the artists' team that painted the Church of the Saviour at Nereditsa, previously well known to historians.

 

With the help of the birch-bark writings it was stated that the so-called Manor E from the Troitzki excavation wasn't just someone's, but was a local community building. There the united trial by the prince and the city posadnik was held. In the 11th and early 12th century it served as a storehouse, collecting taxes & fares. Since 1126 the manor got the sheltered platform for the trial, which could be held there all year round.  The birch bark documents recovered there, let us say firmly that since then all major decisions could be held by the prince only on condition the posadnik wouldn't say no (an important juridical system reform!).

 

Due to the writings as well, it was at another time proved that the Novgorod and Pskov Slovens spoke a dialect that was very much unlike the Kievan region's mother tongue. So the population of the region was of another origin, and so the whole teritory of Kievan Rus was inhabited by at least two branches of Slavonic people. BTW, academician Rybakov even supposed, bringing some proof, that the Slovens were actually the Western Slavs, and that the name is translated as "messengers of the Veneds"- "Sly Vene" (the Veneds was the general name of the Baltic Slavs even before they moved there from Central Europe).

 

So, lots of information still hides it the earth. Because of this, in 1969 the city administration forbade any unauthorized excavations. In 1970 the same order of things was set in 114 more historic cites. The decision was reasonable; who knows if without it we would have recovered another historical sensation — a book of three wax-filled boards, the middle one double-sided (after first birch bark letters were found, it turned out that the city population was highly literate, and many important inscriptions were made on wax, leaving the cheaper birch bark to routine notes) containing the first ever known Russian book for studying reading and writing. There were psalms 75, 76 and (a part of) 67 of the Holy Bible, and an appendix that indicated that all of this was for those seeking knowledge, not for church services. It was excavated 13 June 2000, and is dated as the end of 10th century. Moreover, it is written not in Old Slavonic (Old Bulgarian) as were all the early religious texts, but in Old Russian, i.e. the language of the eastern Slavs. It caused a sensation comparable with the discovery of the original birch bark rolls in 1951.

 

  

In 2000 the 1001th birch bark note was excavated, and it's far from the end of this story.

 

– – – – – – – -

 

The recent information is from the interviews & articles of acadamician. Valentin Yanin, chair of archaeology, faculty of history of Moscow State University.

 

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Copyright 2002 by Alexey Kiyaikin. Moscow, Russia. <posadnik at mail.ru>. Permission is granted for republication in SCA-related publications,  provided the author is credited and receives a copy.

 

If this article is reprinted in a publication, I would appreciate a notice in

the publication that you found this article in the Florilegium. I would also

appreciate an email to myself, so that I can track which articles are being

reprinted. Thanks. -Stefan.

 

<the end>

 



Formatting copyright © Mark S. Harris (THLord Stefan li Rous).
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Comments to the Editor: stefan at florilegium.org