Birch bark document
A
Birch bark document is a document written on pieces of
birch bark. Such documents existed in several cultures.
 |
Birch-bark letter no. 497, c. 1340-90, Novgorod; photograph |
Russian birch bark writings (,
berestyanáya grámota) are dated to
11th —
15th centuries.
The first one was found on
July 26,
1951 by an expedition led by
Artemiy Artsikhovsky during excavations in
Novgorod in a layer dated to the 14th-15th century junction. Since then the number of finds is close to 1,000 in several other historical
Russian and other East Slavic towns:
Staraya Russa,
Smolensk,
Torzhok,
Pskov,
Tver,
Moscow,
Ryazan,
Zvenigorod Volynsky (
Ukraine),
Vitsebsk (
Belarus),
Mstislavl (Belarus). These findings considerably changed the understanding of the cultural level of
East Slavs of these times.
About a hundred
styluses have also been found, mostly made of
iron, some of bone or
bronze.
Most of the birch bark documents are ordinary letters by various people written in what is called
Old Novgorod dialect, most probably the
vernacular. The letters are of a personal or business character. A few documents are written in
Old Church Slavonic. In 2003 it was announced that a birch bark with a part of a known work of
Cyril of Turaw had been found in Torzhok.
The late discovery, as well as the state of preservation, of the bark is explained by deep culture layer in Novgorod (down to 8 meters (25 feet)) and heavy waterlogged
clay soil which prevented the access of
oxygen. Serious excavations in Novgorod started only in 1932, although some attempts had been made in the
19th century.
The existence of birch bark books was mentioned in some old East Slavic
manuscripts.
Oldest Finnic language text
Document number
292 from the Novgorod excavations found in 1957 is the oldest known document in any
Finnic language. The document is dated to the beginning of the 13th century.
The language used in the document is thought to be an archaic form of the language spoken in
Olonets Karelia, a dialect of the
Karelian language. [
1]
* For full text see
Birch bark letter no. 292Some
Gandharan Buddhist texts have been found written on birch bark and preserved in clay jars.
* See the
Old Novgorod dialect article for samples of some texts
*
Bryggen inscriptions, documents of the same age found in Bergen, Norway
*Yanin, Valentin L. (Feb 1990). "The Archaeology of Novgorod".
Scientific American, p.84. Covers,
History, "Kremlin of Novgorod", "Novgorod Museum of History", preservation dynamics, and the production of 'Birch bark documents'. Article contains,
examples of Birch bark documents, styluses, and photographs.The University of Chicago
Slavic Department has a
page with a number of photographs of Birch bark documents and Old Novgorodian artifacts.
