In ancient Babylon they wrote on clay tablets, in Egypt - on papyrus, in Europe - on parchment, and in Ancient Russia - on birch bark. Birch bark was the main material for writing on our lands long before parchment and paper were brought to us.

According to the main version, the appearance of birch-bark letters dates back to the period of the 11th-15th centuries, but the discoverer of Novgorod letters A.V. Artsikhovsky and many of his colleagues believe that the first letters were already in the 9th-10th centuries.

Opening of birch bark letters

Birch bark as a material for writing in Ancient Russia has been used since ancient times. Joseph Volotsky wrote that in the monastery of St. Sergius of Radonezh "the very books are not written on charters, but on birch bark." To this day, many (albeit rather late) documents and even entire books (mostly Old Believers) written on stratified birch bark have survived.

Veliky Novgorod became the place where the birch bark letters were discovered. Favorable natural conditions and peculiarities of the local soil contributed to the preservation of these ancient finds.

In the 1930s, archaeological excavations were carried out in Veliky Novgorod, the expedition was headed by A. V. Artsikhovsky. Then the first edged sheets of birch bark and tools for writing were found. More serious discoveries could not be made at that time, since the Great Patriotic War began. Work continued in the late 1940s.

A.V. Artsikhovsky

On July 26, 1951, birch bark No. 1 was found at one of the excavations. It contained a list of feudal duties in favor of three residents of the city. This charter confirmed the hypothesis of historians about the possibility of such finds. Subsequently, the events of July 26 became the reason for the approval of the annual holiday celebrated in Novgorod - the Day of the birch bark. The discoveries didn't end there. In the same year, archaeologists found nine more birch bark documents.

Subsequently, the discovery of birch bark letters became commonplace. The first charters were found in Smolensk in 1952, in Pskov - in 1958, in Vitebsk - in 1959. In Staraya Russa, the first find appeared in 1966, in Tver - in 1983. In Moscow, the first birch bark was discovered only in 1988, when excavations were carried out on Red Square.

Number of birch bark letters

An archaeological expedition to Veliky Novgorod is already a tradition. Every year since 1951, archaeologists have opened their seasons. Unfortunately, the number of letters found in different years varies greatly. There were seasons when scientists found several hundred copies, and there were zero. Nevertheless, today more than 1000 birch bark letters have already been found.

At the end of 2017, the total number of letters found is distributed as follows:

Velikiy Novgorod	1102 letters and 1 birch bark icon
Staraya Russa
Smolensk
Zvenigorod Galitsky (Ukraine)
Mstislavl (Belarus)
Vitebsk (Belarus)
Old Ryazan

General characteristics of letters

Birch bark as a written material was widely used at the beginning of the 11th century and was used until the middle of the 15th century. With the spread of paper, the use of this material for writing came to naught. Paper was cheaper, and it became not prestigious to write on birch bark. Therefore, the letters discovered by archaeologists are not documents folded in the archives, but thrown out and falling into the ground due to uselessness.

When writing letters, ink was very rarely used, since they were very unstable, and the authors simply scratched out letters on birch bark that were well read.

Most of the letters found are everyday private letters on the subject of debt collection, trade, etc. There are also drafts of official acts on birch bark: these are wills, receipts, bills of sale, court protocols.

Church texts (prayers), school jokes, conspiracies, and riddles were also found. In 1956, archaeologists discovered the study notes of the Novgorod boy Onfim, which later became widely known.

For the most part, letters are concise and pragmatic. They contain only important information, and everything that is already known to the addressee is not mentioned.

The nature of birch bark letters - the messages of ignorant people - is a clear evidence of the spread of literacy among the population of Ancient Russia. The townspeople learned the alphabet from childhood, wrote their own letters, women also knew how to read and write. The fact that family correspondence was widely represented in Novgorod speaks of the high position of a woman who sent orders to her husband and independently entered into monetary relations.

The significance of the found birch bark letters is enormous both for the study of Russian history and for Russian linguistics. They are the most important source for studying the daily life of our ancestors, the development of trade, political and social life of Ancient Russia.

Birch bark letters are documents and private messages of the 11th-15th centuries, the text of which was applied to birch bark. The first such artifacts were discovered by domestic historians in Novgorod in July 1951 during an archaeological expedition led by A.V. Artsikhovsky (1902-1978, historian, corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR). At the Nerevsky excavation, a birch bark document No. 1 was found, which contained a list of some duties (pozem and gift) in favor of a certain Thomas. In honor of this find in Novgorod, annually on July 26, a holiday is celebrated - "The Day of the birch bark letter". That excavation brought 9 more documents on birch bark. By 1970, 464 birch bark letters had already been found in Novgorod. Archaeologists have found birch bark letters in the layers of soil, where plant remains and ancient debris have been preserved.

The bulk of the letters are private letters, which touched upon domestic and economic issues, described everyday conflicts, and gave instructions. Letters of frivolous and semi-joking content were also found. Artsikhovsky pointed to letters of protest from the peasants against the gentlemen who complained about their fate, with lists of lordly duties. Birch bark documents were also applied to monetary documents, some archives, historical records, wills, love letters and other vital information.
The everyday and personal nature of many birch bark letters of Veliky Novgorod (for example, love letters from ignorant young people or housekeeping instructions from a wife to her husband) testify to the high spread of literacy among the population.

The text on the letters was written out using a primitive method - they scratched it out with a sharply sharpened bone or metal pin (writing). The birch bark was pre-treated so that the text came out clear. The text was placed on birch bark in a line, in most letters (as well as medieval Slavic manuscripts) without division into words. When writing letters, fragile ink was almost never used (only three such letters were found out of more than a thousand). As a rule, birch bark letters are extremely brief, pragmatic, contain only the most important information; what is already known to the author and the addressee is, of course, not mentioned in them.

Many later documents written on birch bark in the 17th-19th centuries have been preserved in museums and archives; entire books have been found. Russian writer and ethnographer S.V. Maksimov pointed out that he personally saw in the middle of the 19th century. birch bark book among the Old Believers in Mezen (Arkhangelsk region). In 1930, collective farmers on the banks of the Volga near Saratov, digging a hole, found a birch bark Golden Horde letter of the 14th century.

One of the latest sensations was the discovery in August 2007 of the first birch bark in Moscow. Moreover, the ink letter with an inventory of property found in the Tainitsky Garden of the Moscow Kremlin became the first full-fledged Moscow birch bark document (the previously known letter No. 1 and the found letter No. 2 are small fragments) and the largest of the previously known birch bark documents.

Birch bark, as a material for writing, became widespread in Russia in the 11th century. and lost its role by the 15th century, since then the spread in Russia of affordable paper was noted. And birch bark was used as an improvised, but secondary material for writing, educational records, for short storage reports. It was used mainly by commoners for private correspondence and personal records, while state letters and official documents were recorded on parchment.
Birch bark gradually left the state documentation and private life. In one of the surviving birch bark letters (under the heading No. 831), which is a draft of a complaint to an official, scientists found an instruction to rewrite this text on parchment and only then send it to the address. Only a few letters were kept for a long time: these are two huge birch-bark sheets with a record of literary works (letter from Torzhok No. 17 and letter No. 893), both were found in the ground in expanded form, as well as two birch bark books of small format: prayers are written there No. 419) and with the text of a conspiracy against fever (No. 930).

The main method of dating birch bark writing is stratigraphic dating (based on the archaeological layer from which the writing was taken), in which dendrochronology plays an important role (in Novgorod, with a large number of frequently repaired wooden bridges, dating is more accurate than in other cities - usually within 30-40 years).
A certain number of birch bark letters can be dated due to the mention in them of historical persons or events known from the annals (for example, representatives of six generations of the famous Novgorod family of the Mishinichi boyars - posadniks Bartholomew, Luka, Yuri Ontsiforovich and others) appear in a number of letters.
Recently, with the accumulation of the stock of birch bark letters, the possibility of complex parametric dating of letters has appeared on the basis of a number of extrastratigraphic 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 (in general or a rather narrow) stratigraphic date.

Most birch bark letters are private letters of a business nature. This includes debt lists, master's records, assignments and collective petitions of peasants. Draft copies of official acts were found on birch bark: wills, receipts, bills of sale, court protocols, etc. The following types of birch bark letters are relatively rare, but of particular interest: church texts (prayers, commemoration lists, orders for icons, teachings), literary and folklore works (charms, jokes, riddles, housekeeping instructions), educational records (alphabets, warehouses, school exercises). The study notes and drawings of a Novgorod boy discovered in 1956 gained immense fame.

Artsikhovsky named the birch-bark writings as important historical sources. Large monographic works on this topic belong to Russian academicians L.V. Cherepnin and V.L. Yanin. Birch bark documents are of paramount interest as sources on the history of society and everyday life of medieval people, as well as on the history of the East Slavic languages.
Birch bark letters are considered material and written sources. The places where they were found are no less important for history than their content. The charters contain information about the history of buildings, their owners, their social status, connections with other cities. Instead of the faceless "estate of a venerable Novgorodian" we learn about the estate of the priest-artist Olisey Petrovich, nicknamed Grechin.
Thanks to birch bark letters, the genealogy of the boyar families of Novgorod is studied, the political role of the townspeople, which is not sufficiently covered in the annals, is revealed (Petr-Petrok Mikhalkovich, a prominent figure from the boyars of the 12th century). Documents on birch bark tell about land management in Novgorod, about economic ties with Pskov, Moscow, Polotsk, Suzdal, Kyiv, even Obdorsk land (Siberia). We learn about military conflicts and the foreign policy of Russia, about the collection of tribute from the conquered lands, we discover a lot of everyday details that we would never have learned if it were not for letters. A number of primary data are available on the history of the church; the antiquity of some features of the liturgy is recorded on birch bark. There is information about the relationship of members of the clergy with the inhabitants of neighboring estates, and the mention of Boris and Gleb in the list of saints in the letter of the 11th century almost coincides with the time of their canonization. There are birch-bark letters with records of incantations and other folklore texts, which make it possible to judge the antiquity of folklore monuments.

Birch bark letters are an important source on the history of the Russian language; according to them, more precisely than according to other medieval manuscripts, often preserved only in lists, it is possible to establish the chronology and the degree of prevalence of one or another linguistic phenomenon (for example, the fall of the reduced, the hardening of the hissing, the evolution of the category of animation), as well as the etymology and time of the appearance of one or another the words. Dozens of words found in birch bark letters are unknown from other ancient Russian sources. Mostly this is everyday vocabulary, which had practically no chance of getting into literary works with their focus on high topics and the appropriate selection of words. Thus, the discovery of birch bark constantly fills in the gaps in the existing dictionaries of the Old Russian language. Letters almost directly reflect the living colloquial speech of Ancient Russia and, as a rule, do not bear traces of literary "polishing" of style, bookish influence in morphology and syntax, etc. In this respect, they can hardly be overestimated.

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 ... years." To date, 11 volumes have been published. Here are published Novgorod birch bark letters up to and including No. 915, letters from Staraya Russa and Torzhok, as well as some other Novgorod inscriptions (on wooden tags, cylinders, wax tablets).
In the last few years, newly found letters (except for small fragments) have been preliminary published in the journal "Problems of Linguistics".

The first Novgorod charter was found on July 26, 1951. Today, almost 65 years later, the collection of scientists includes more than 1000 birch bark, the lion's share of which was found in Veliky Novgorod, a smaller part - in Staraya Russa, Torzhok, Pskov and other cities. Such a geography of the finds is explained by natural conditions: organic matter is well preserved in moist soil, if it does not come into contact with the air. Apparently, Novgorod soils are excellent for the “conservation” of medieval written monuments. The first charters known to us date back to the 11th century; one of the earliest, conventionally dated to 1060-1100, looks like this:

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. It is possible to date a birch-bark letter 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, whose remains are at the same level of the cultural layer as the letter. During the Novgorod excavations, dendrochronological tables were compiled, referring to which, it is possible to determine the age of some letters with an accuracy of 10-15 years. Another dating method is paleography: an 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: “clatter” - a mixture of C and Ch.

Translation: “From Mikita to Anna. Marry me - I want you [“hotsu” in the original] and you want me; and that’s the witness Ignat Moiseev.” True, as follows from the birch bark of the 12th century, not all residents of ancient Novgorod had a happy family life:

“From Gostyata to Vasil. What my father gave me and my relatives gave me in addition, then for him. And now, marrying a new wife, he does not give me anything. Striking hands [i.e. as a sign of a new engagement], he drove me away, and took another wife. Come, do me a favor." The author of the next charter is the boy Onfim, who lived seven and a half centuries ago. He depicted a horseman striking the enemy, and signed the drawing: “Onfime”.

The fifth charter in our selection is a conspiracy against fever (XIV - XV centuries)

Translation: “Saint Sisinius and Sichail were sitting on the mountains of Sinai, looking at the sea. And there was a noise from heaven, great and terrible. holding a fiery weapon. And then the sea was agitated, and seven wives came out with simple hair, cursed in appearance; they were seized by the power of the invisible king. And they said holy Sisinius and Sichail ... "- alas, then the text breaks off; the lower half of the birch bark sheet is missing. All included in "The selection of letters is united by the technique of writing. The letters were scratched with a hard core - writing - on the inner, soft side of the birch bark. We know 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 the birch bark was replaced by paper. When compiling the material, scans, drawings and translations of letters published on the website were used.

Birchbark letters- letters, notes, documents of the 11th-15th centuries, written on the inside of a separated layer of birch bark (bark).

The possibility of using birch bark as a material for writing was known to many nations. Ancient historians Cassius Dio and Herodian mentioned notebooks made of birch bark. The American Indians of the Connecticut River Valley, who prepared birch bark for their letters, called the trees that grew in their land "paper birches." The Latin name of this species of birch - Betula papyrifera - includes a distorted Latin lexeme "paper" (papyr). In the famous Song of Hiawatha G. W. Longfellow (1807–1882), translated by I. A. Bunin, also provides data on the use of birch bark for writing by North American Indians:

He took paints out of the bag,
He took out paints of all colors
And on a smooth birch bark
Made a lot of secret signs
Marvelous and figures and signs…

Based on the folklore of the tribes he describes, the American writer James Oliver Carwood spoke about the birch bark letters of the Indians of Canada (his novel Wolf hunters published in Russian in 1926).

The first mention of writing on birch bark in Ancient Russia dates back to the 15th century: in Messages Joseph of Volotsky says that the founder of the Trinity-Sergius Monastery, Sergius of Radonezh, wrote on it because of poverty: parchment was saved for chronicles. On Estonian soil in the 14th century. there were birch bark letters (and one of them in 1570 with a German text was discovered in a museum depository before the Second World War). About birch bark letters in Sweden in the 15th century. wrote an author who lived in the 17th century; it is also known that they were later used by the Swedes in the 17th and 18th centuries. Siberia in the 18th century birch bark "books" were used to record yasak (state tax). Old Believers and in the 19th century. they kept birch bark liturgical books of the “Donikon era” (that is, before the church reform of Patriarch Nikon in the mid-17th century), they were written in ink.

However, until the early 1950s, Russian archaeologists failed to find ancient Russian birch bark writings in the early cultural layers of the 10th–15th centuries they excavated. The first accidental find was a 14th-century Golden Horde birch bark, discovered while digging a silo pit near Saratov in 1930. After that, archaeologists tried to find birch bark letters exactly where there was no moisture access to birch bark, as was the case in the Volga region. However, this path turned out to be a dead end: in most cases, the birch bark turned into dust, and it was not possible to detect traces of letters. Only the deep conviction of the Soviet archaeologist A.V. Artsikhovsky that birch bark writing should be sought in the north-west of Russia made it necessary to organize special excavations in the center of Novgorod. The soils there, in contrast to the Volga region, are very wet, but there is no air access to the deep layers, and therefore it is wood objects that are well preserved in them. Artsikhovsky based his hypotheses both on ancient Russian references in literary texts and on the message of the Arab writer Ibn al-Nedim, who quoted the words of “one Caucasian prince” in 987: “I was told by one, on the veracity of which I rely, that one of the kings of Mount Kabk sent him to the tsar of the Russians; he claimed that they had writing carved into wood. He showed me a piece of white wood on which there were images…” This “piece of white wood” is birch bark, plus information about the prevalence of letters on birch bark among the natives of the New World and forced him to look for birch bark letters in northwestern Russia.

Artsikhovsky's prediction about the inevitability of finds of birch bark letters in the Russian land, first expressed by him in the early 1930s, came true on June 26, 1951. The first Novgorod birch bark document was discovered at the Nerevsky excavation site of Veliky Novgorod by a handyman N. F. Akulova. Since then, the number of birch bark letters found has already exceeded a thousand, of which over 950 were found just in the Novgorod land. In addition to Novgorod, over 50 years of excavations, about 100 birch bark letters were found (one and a half dozen in Pskov, several letters each in Smolensk, Tver, Vitebsk, the only one, folded and laid in a closed vessel, was found in 1994 in Moscow). In total, about 10 cities of Russia are known where birch bark letters were found. Most of them are supposed to be found in Pskov, where soils are similar to those of Novgorod, but the cultural layer in it is located in the built-up city center, where excavations are practically impossible.

Birch bark scrolls were a common household item. Once used, they were not stored; that is why most of them were found on both sides of wooden pavements, in layers saturated with groundwater. Some texts, probably, accidentally fell out of the Novgorod patrimonial archives.

The chronology of letters on birch bark is established in various ways: stratigraphic (according to the tiers of excavations), paleographic (according to the inscription of letters), linguistic, historical (according to known historical facts, personalities, dates indicated in the text). The oldest of the birch bark documents dates back to the first half of the 11th century, the latest to the second half of the 15th century.

Historians suggest that poorly trained townspeople and children wrote mainly on waxed tablets; and those who mastered the graphics and filled their hands were able to squeeze out letters on birch bark with a sharp bone or metal stick (“writing”). Similar sticks in tiny leather cases were found by archaeologists before, but they could not determine their purpose, calling either “pins” or “fragments of jewelry”. Letters on birch bark were usually squeezed out on the inner, softer side, on the exfoliated part, specially soaked, evaporated, unfolded and thus prepared for writing. Letters written in ink or other colors, apparently, cannot be found: the ink has faded and washed out over the centuries. Letters sent to the addressee on birch bark were folded into a tube. When letters are found and deciphered, they are again soaked, unfolded, the upper dark layer is cleaned with a coarse brush, dried under pressure between two glasses. Subsequent photography and drawing (for many years M.N. Kislov was the head of these works, and after his death - V.I. Povetkin) is a special stage of reading, preparation for the hermeneutics (interpretation, interpretation) of the text. A certain percentage of letters remain traced, but not deciphered.

The language of most birch bark letters differs from the literary language of that time, it is rather colloquial, everyday, contains normative vocabulary (which indicates that there was no ban on its use). About a dozen letters were written in Church Slavonic (literary language), a few in Latin. According to the most conservative estimates, in the Novgorod land you can still find at least 20,000 "birch barks" (the Novgorod name for such letters)

The content is dominated by private letters of a domestic or economic nature. They are classified according to the preserved information: about land and landowners, about tribute and feudal rent; about craft, trade and merchants; about military events, etc., private correspondence (including alphabets, copybooks, drawings), literary and folklore texts in excerpts, voting lots, calendars, etc.

As a historical source of the period of early writing, birch bark documents are unique in terms of the information they contain about Russia in the 10th–15th centuries. The data available in them make it possible to judge the size of duties, the relationship of peasants with the patrimonial administration, the “refusals” of peasants from their owner, the life of “owners” (owners of land cultivated by the family and occasionally hiring someone to help). There you can also find information about the sale of peasants with land, their protests (collective petitions), which cannot be found in other sources of such an early time, since the annals preferred to remain silent about this. The certificates characterize the technique of buying and selling land and buildings, land use, collecting tribute to the city treasury.

Valuable information about the legal practice of that time, the activities of the judiciary - the princely and "street" (street) court, about the procedure for legal proceedings (dispute resolution on the "field" - a fist fight). Some of the letters themselves are court documents containing a statement of real incidents in matters of inheritance, guardianship, and credit. The significance of the discovery of birch bark letters lies in the ability to trace the personification of the historical process, the implementation of the legal and legislative norms of Russian Truth and other normative documents of criminal and civil law. The oldest ancient Russian marriage contract - 13th century. - also birch bark: “Come for me. I want you, and you want me. And for that, the rumor (witness) Ignat Moiseev.

Several charters contain new data on political events in the city, the attitude of the townspeople towards them.

The most striking evidence of the everyday life of the townspeople, preserved by birch bark letters, is the everyday correspondence of husbands, wives, children, other relatives, customers of goods and manufacturers, owners of workshops and artisans dependent on them. In them one can find records of jokes (“Ignorant wrote, unthinking [one] showed, and who read it ...” - the record is cut off), insults using abusive vocabulary (the latest finds of 2005). There is also the text of an ancient love note: “I sent to you three times this week. Why didn't you ever respond? I feel like you don't like it. If you were pleasing, you, having escaped from human eyes, would have run headlong to me. But if you [now] laugh at me, then God and my thinness (weakness) of a woman will be your judge.

Of exceptional importance are the evidence of confessional practices, including pre-Christian ones, found in letters. Some of them are associated with the “cattle god Veles” (pagan patron god of cattle breeding), others with the conspiracies of “sorcerers”, others are apocryphal (non-canonical) prayers to the Mother of God. “The sea was indignant, and seven simple-haired wives came out of it, cursed by their appearance ...”, says one of the letters with the text of the conspiracy from these “seven wives - seven fevers” and an appeal to the demon-fighters and “angels flying from heaven” to save from "shake".

In terms of significance, the discovery of birch bark letters is comparable to the deciphering of Egyptian hieroglyphs, the discovery of Troy described by Homer, and the discovery of the mysterious culture of the ancient Maya. The reading of birch-bark letters refuted the existing opinion that in Ancient Russia only noble people and the clergy were literate. Among the authors and addressees of letters there are many representatives of the lower strata of the population, in the texts found there is evidence of the practice of teaching writing - the alphabet (including with the owner's designations, one of them, 13th century, belongs to the boy Onfim), copybooks, numerical tables, "probes of the pen ". A small number of letters with fragments of literary texts is explained by the fact that parchment was used for literary monuments, and from the 14th century. (occasionally) - paper.

Annual excavations in Novgorod after the death of the archaeologist Artsikhovsky are conducted under the guidance of Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences V.L. Yanin. He continued the academic publication of drawings of birch bark letters (the last of the volumes included letters found in 1995–2000). To facilitate the use of texts of diplomas by Internet users, since 2005, re-shooting of diplomas in digital format has been carried out.

Natalya Pushkareva

Literacy

Thus, a literate Russian person of the 11th century. knew a lot of what the writing and book culture of Eastern Europe, Byzantium had. The cadres of the first Russian literateists, scribes, and translators were formed in schools that had been opened at churches since the time of Vladimir I and Yaroslav the Wise, and later at monasteries. There is a lot of evidence of the widespread development of literacy in Russia in the 11th-12th centuries. However, it was distributed mainly only in the urban environment, especially among wealthy citizens, the princely-boyar elite, merchants, and wealthy artisans. In rural areas, in remote, remote places, the population was almost entirely illiterate.

From the 11th century in rich families began to teach literacy not only boys, but also girls. Vladimir Monomakh's sister Yanka, the founder of a convent in Kyiv, created a school for the education of girls in it.

Thanks to the alphabet, the level of literacy in Ancient Russia in the XI-XII centuries. was very high. And not only among the upper strata of society, but also among ordinary citizens. This is evidenced, for example, by numerous birch bark letters found by archaeologists in Novgorod. These are both personal letters and business records: IOUs, contracts, orders from the master to his servants (which means that the servants could read!) And, finally, student exercises in writing.

There remains one more curious evidence of the development of literacy in Russia - the so-called graffiti inscriptions. They were scratched on the walls of churches by lovers to pour out their souls. Among these inscriptions are reflections on life, complaints, and prayers. The famous Vladimir Monomakh, while still a young man, during a church service, lost in a crowd of the same young princes, scrawled “Oh, it’s hard for me” on the wall of St. Sophia Cathedral in Kyiv and signed his Christian name “Vasily”.

Birch bark letters

Of exceptional importance was the discovery in 1951 by Professor A.V. Artsikhovsky in Novgorod birch bark letters of the XI-XV centuries. A whole new world opened up to researchers in the study of these letters. Trade deals, private letters, hurried notes sent by courier, reports on the implementation of household work, reports on a campaign, invitations to a wake, riddles, poems, and much, much more reveal these wonderful documents to us, again confirming the widespread development of literacy among Russian townspeople.

The so-called birch-bark letters are a striking evidence of the wide spread of literacy in cities and suburbs. In 1951, during archaeological excavations in Novgorod, Nina Akulova, a member of the expedition, removed a birch bark from the ground with well-preserved letters on it. “I have been waiting for this find for twenty years!” - exclaimed the head of the expedition, Professor A.V. Artsikhovsky, who had long assumed that the level of literacy of Russia at that time should have been reflected in mass writing, which could have been in the absence of paper in Russia, either on wooden boards, as evidenced by foreign evidence, or on birch bark. Since then, hundreds of birch bark letters have been introduced into scientific circulation, indicating that in Novgorod, Pskov, Smolensk, and other cities of Russia, people loved and knew how to write to each other. Among the letters are business documents, information exchange, invitations to visit and even love correspondence. Someone Mikita wrote to his beloved Ulyana on birch bark “From Mikita to Ulianitsi. Come for me…”

Birch bark is a very convenient material for writing, although it required some preparation. Birch bast was boiled in water to make the bark more elastic, then its rough layers were removed. A sheet of birch bark was cut off on all sides, giving it a rectangular shape. They wrote on the inside of the bark, squeezing out the letters with a special stick - “writing” - made of bone, metal or wood. One end of the writing was pointed, and the other was made in the form of a spatula with a hole and hung from the belt. The technique of writing on birch bark allowed the texts to be preserved in the ground for centuries.

The production of ancient handwritten books was an expensive and laborious affair. The material for them was parchment - the skin of a special dressing. The best parchment was made from the soft, thin skin of lambs and calves. She was cleaned of wool and washed thoroughly. Then they pulled it onto drums, sprinkled it with chalk and cleaned it with pumice. After air-drying, the roughness was cut off from the leather and polished again with a pumice stone. The dressed skin was cut into rectangular pieces and sewn into eight-sheet notebooks. It is noteworthy that this ancient pamphlet order has been preserved to this day.

Stitched notebooks were collected into a book. Depending on the format and number of sheets, one book required from 10 to 30 animal skins - a whole herd! Books were usually written with quill pen and ink. The king had the privilege of writing with a swan and even a peacock feather. Making writing instruments required a certain skill. The feather was certainly removed from the left wing of the bird, so that the bend was convenient for the right, writing hand. The pen was degreased by sticking it into hot sand, then the tip. obliquely cut, split and sharpened with a special penknife. They also scraped out errors in the text.

The ink, unlike the blue and black that we are used to, was brown in color, as it was made on the basis of ferruginous compounds, or, more simply, rust. Pieces of old iron were lowered into the water, which, rusting, painted it brown. Ancient recipes for making ink have been preserved. As components, in addition to iron, they used oak or alder bark, cherry glue, kvass, honey and many other substances that gave the ink the necessary viscosity, color, and stability. Centuries later, this ink has retained the brightness and strength of the color. The scribe blotted the ink with finely ground sand, sprinkling it on a sheet of parchment from a sandbox - a vessel similar to a modern pepper shaker.

Unfortunately, very few ancient books have been preserved. In total, about 130 copies of priceless evidence of the 11th-12th centuries. has come down to us. There were few of them in those days.