Why Novgorod letters are one of the main discoveries of the twentieth century

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

Everyone has heard about birch bark letters, but they know much less about the extent to which they have changed our ideas about Russian history. But it was thanks to the letters that scientists were not only able to imagine in detail the economic life of the ancient city, but also learned how the Novgorodians spoke, and at the same time found out that literacy was not the lot of the social upper classes, as it seemed before, but was widespread among the townspeople.

July 26, the day when the very first letter was found, is celebrated in Novgorod as the Day of birch bark, and a monument was erected to Nina Akulova, who in 1951 saw scratched letters on a piece of birch bark. They say that the first words of the head of the expedition, Artemy Artsikhovsky, who received from Akulova a letter that had not yet been developed and read, were: “I have been waiting for this find for 20 years. 100 rubles bonus!"

It was known for a long time that birch bark could be used as a cheap writing material. For example, Joseph Volotsky, speaking of the poverty in which Sergius of Radonezh lived, mentions that the Monk Sergei wrote on birch bark. In museum collections there are quite a few birch bark manuscripts of the 17th-19th centuries. A Siberian birch bark book has survived to this day, in which information about the payment of taxes was recorded.

However, all the documents that have come down to us were written in ink, and it never occurred to anyone that one could write on birch bark in some other way. Therefore, archaeologists did not have much incentive to look for these birch bark letters. Obviously, the ink text cannot survive in the ground! There remained, of course, the hope for a miracle, that, by a happy coincidence, some letter would remain dry and be read. But no one hoped for massive finds.

It simply never occurred to anyone that they wrote on birch bark not with pen and ink, but scratched letters with a sharp stick made of metal, bone or wood.

By the way, it soon became clear that the incomprehensible sharp objects that archaeologists came across, which they, for lack of a better explanation, described as fishhooks, were just "writing" - devices for writing on birch bark.

On pieces of birch bark they did not write with ink, but squeezed out or scratched letters with special writing

Photo: Novgorod Museum-Reserve

The day after the discovery of the first letter, another one was discovered, then another. Now birch bark letters have been found in 12 cities (most of them are in Novgorod), and their total number has reached 1208.

Time and place

Here you need to distract from the letters and tell a little about how the excavations generally take place. The Novgorod archaeological expedition began its work in 1932, then there was a break, but soon after the end of the Great Patriotic War, excavations were resumed.

An archaeological expedition has been working in Novgorod since 1932, but so far only a relatively small part of the ancient city has been explored

Photo: Novgorod Museum-Reserve

The expedition was conceived as a multi-generational project designed for the work of several generations. Novgorod is a paradise for archaeologists. Firstly, because it is one of the main cities of Ancient Rus, which in modern times has lost its significance, which means that there was no particularly intensive construction in it and it was dug up much less than Kiev or Moscow. Secondly, wood and other organic substances are very well preserved in the Novgorod soil. The abundance of moisture protects underground objects from exposure to air, so they hardly rot.

The good preservation of the old tree made it possible to develop a method for the precise dating of the finds. As a scale, archaeologists used old wooden pavements, of which a great many have survived underground. In the muddy roads, the streets of ancient Novgorod sank in mud and became difficult to pass, so they had to build pavements from thick pine logs. Such a pavement rose above the ground, so dirt did not fall on it.

But the pavement did not function for a particularly long time. The fact is that garbage collection did not exist in the medieval city. Shards of broken dishes, old branches and ash from ovens, shavings and other construction waste remained on the street, gradually raising the level of the ground (in Novgorod - on average by 1 cm per year). When the ground rose above the level of the wooden pavement, another one had to be laid on top of it. This happened about once every 20-25 years.

The ground level rose, the wooden pavements found themselves underground, and a new layer of logs had to be laid. On old pavements, archaeologists discover up to 28 layers of logs lying on top of each other

Photo: Novgorod Museum-Reserve

As a result, during the excavation of the old streets of Novgorod, a kind of layered cake was revealed to the eyes of archaeologists, consisting of 28 layers of logs, which were once pavements. And since the tree hardly rots in wet soil, the logs were well preserved and the annual rings of old trees were perfectly visible. Each year of a tree's life is marked with one ring, and since it is hot in one year, cold in another, humid in one, and dry in another, the width of these rings is different.

Thanks to the giant woodpile, in which each layer was 20–25 years younger than the previous one, it became possible to create a dendrochronological scale for this region. Now, about any Novgorod log, you can say for sure in what year it ceased to be a tree. Thus, it is possible to date any ancient building, even if it was destroyed long ago and only a few wooden fragments remain of it.

The study of annual rings of logs from Novgorod pavements made it possible to construct a dendrochronological scale that allows you to accurately determine the age of any log

Photo: Anatoly Morkovkin, TASS newsreel

These methods make it possible to date with exceptional accuracy the layers in which letters and other objects are found. The situation when archaeologists excavate a medieval dwelling and find birch bark letters near the house gives researchers a lot of opportunities for searches and comparisons.

It is clear that the person who lived in this house, most likely, was the addressee of the letters. If there are several letters nearby addressed to the same person, then there is no longer any doubt that we know the name of the owner of the estate. If this person was notable enough, then there is a chance to find this name in chronicles and other sources. Thus, the work of a historian turns into the work of a criminalist, who, on the basis of several random objects and a crumpled note, reconstructs the picture of the past.

Novgorod everyday life

Before the advent of birch bark letters, very little was known about the everyday life of Russian cities. Of course, there were household items excavated by archaeologists, on the basis of which one can understand how the dwelling was arranged, how the food was prepared, what clothes and jewelry they wore. But there was nowhere to learn about the human relations that arose in connection with these objects. After all, the chronicles were written at the court of the prince or the metropolitan. And the texts, accordingly, reflected big politics, and not the everyday problems that city dwellers had to deal with.

Imagine what interests you, for example, how in Ancient Russia they taught to read and write. Where do you find out about this? The very fact of teaching literacy is mentioned in many sources. For example, "The Tale of Bygone Years" says that Yaroslav the Wise organized teaching children to read and write. Some Lives also tell about it.

The boy Onfim, who began to write letters of the alphabet on a piece of birch bark, soon got tired of this occupation, and he drew a rider defeating the enemy

Photo: DIOMEDIA

Everyone remembers perfectly how difficult the book wisdom was given to the youth Bartholomew, the future Sergius of Radonezh. But there are no details, no information about how exactly the learning process looked like in the Lives and Chronicles. Now we have more than 20 birch bark sheets containing various student records. Here and the alphabet, and lists of syllables ("warehouses"), and exercises, and drawings. And one can easily imagine what and how children were taught in ancient Novgorod.

Business correspondence of one family

Discipleship exercises constitute only a small part of the birch bark library collected by archaeologists. The main, most of the letters are devoted to various aspects of economic life. Birch bark letters were used to tell the employee what to do, ask for help or advice, summon him to court, etc.

In the areas where the houses of noble Novgorodians once stood, whole archives of business letters are found. More precisely, not archives, but garbage heaps, where the read letters were thrown. For example, here are 26 letters related to six generations of one Posadnici family. Judging from this correspondence, the family owned vast lands and ruled over the peasants who lived on these lands. What are these letters about?

First of all, this is business correspondence.

Ondrik writes to Onzifor:

“You give orders for the fish. Smerds don't pay me without a levy, and you didn't send a person with a diploma. And as for your old shortfall, the record of the distribution of shares came."

That is, the smerds refuse to pay taxes in fish, since the person sent to them does not have a list of who should pay how much. What is this list? And birch bark letters give an answer to this question.

The overwhelming majority of birch bark letters are devoted to economic affairs. In this letter, Ondrik complains to Onisiphorus that he cannot collect taxes, since there is no list of who should pay how much

Photo: gramoty.ru

There is a fairly large number of lists of peasant obligations recorded on birch bark. In them, next to the name of the peasant, it is written how much and what he must deliver to the owner. This is the list Ondrik wanted from Ontsifor.

Whether Ondrik received the necessary documents or not, we do not know. Most likely, Onzifor sent all the lists, and it ended in peace. Although this was not always the case. Among the same 26 letters there is a birch bark letter in which the gentleman threatens his peasants that if they do not obey him, he will send a special official who will deal with the troublemakers.

The relations of the peasants with the master's servants, sent to govern them, developed in different ways. In a birch bark letter of the end of the XIV century. contains a lengthy collective complaint about the housekeeper: “A bow to Yuri and Maxim from all the peasants. Whoever you put us as a key keeper does not stand for us, he ruins us with fines, we are robbed by him. But sit and don't dare to drive away from him! And because of this we are ruined. If he has to continue to sit, we have no strength to sit. Give us a meek man - we beat you with our forehead on that one."

Apparently, Yuri and Maxim ignored this request, since soon the same peasants sent another complaint. However, the relationship with the key keeper could have developed in a different way. On the same site, a letter was found in which the housekeeper is trying to beg from the master the seeds necessary for the peasants, that is, he acts as a negotiator.

And some letters report dramatic conflicts, on the basis of which one wants to write a script for a social drama. Here, for example, is such a letter from the beginning of the 15th century: “Your peasants, the inhabitants of the village of Cherenskoye, are beating them with their brows to your master Mikhail Yuryevich. You gave the village to Klimts Oparin, but we don't want it: not a neighbor. God is free, you are."

That is, Mikhail Yuryevich gave Klim Oparin the village with the peasants inhabiting it, but the peasants do not consider this transfer to be legal. In general, this is a well-known situation when an enterprise changes its owner, and the workers are worried.

In this letter Zhiznomir complains to Mikula that he was accused of stealing a slave and now he will have to go to court: “Letter from Zhiznomir to Mikula. You bought a slave in Pskov, and now the princess grabbed me for it (convicting theft - A. K.). 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 put [on the horse] the prince's husband, [go] to face-to-face confrontations. And you, if you haven't taken that money [yet], don't take anything from him"

Photo: gramoty.ru

Members of noble families corresponded not only with their servants, but also with each other. Among the 26 letters of one family, there is also a letter from the mayor Onzifor, addressed to his mother: “A petition to Mrs. mother from Onsifor. Tell Nester to collect the ruble and go to Yuri the folding man. Ask him (Yuri) to buy a horse. Yes, go with Obrosiy to Stepan, taking my share. If he (Stepan) agrees to take the ruble for a horse, buy another horse. Yes, ask Yuri for a half and buy it with salt. And if he doesn't get the bags and money before the trip, then send them here with Nester,”etc.

In that letter, the mayor Onzifor gives his mother various household tasks

Photo: gramoty.ru

It can be seen from the letter that all family members, both men and women, were involved in solving economic issues. However, the women of medieval Novgorod are worthy of a special story.

What evil do you have against me that this Sunday you did not come to me?.

We are used to thinking that in the Middle Ages a woman was powerless, dark and illiterate. However, when studying birch bark letters, it turned out that women participated in correspondence very actively. Women's letters testify, firstly, to the widespread female literacy, and secondly, to the fact that they were active both in economic matters and in organizing their personal lives.

For example, here is the official marriage proposal. It is generally accepted that marriage negotiations were conducted between the parents of young people, and the girl was asked last. Now, having discovered a written proposal for marriage, addressed directly to a woman, this idea will have to somehow be changed:

“From Mikita to Melania. Go for me - I want you, and you want me; but the witness is Ignat Moiseev …”(further the letter breaks off).

That is, a certain Nikita informs Melania about the seriousness of his intentions and recommends Ignat Moiseev as a witness.

And here is a love letter from the 12th century, in which a girl reproaches her lover that she has already sent him news three times, but he still does not come. “What evil do you have against me,” she asks, “that you didn’t come to me that Sunday? 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 … Even if I touched you out of my folly, if you start to mock me, then God and my thinness will judge you."

Prayers and liturgical texts are not often found among the letters. This letter contains the names of the saints that the priest named when blessing those praying after the end of the service

Photo: gramoty.ru

The pieces of birch bark are comparatively small, and the scratched letters cannot be too small. So you can't write a long text here, and the style of birch bark letters is more like the style of correspondence in instant messengers than the unhurried narration of letters from the era of paper and quills. However, the emotional intensity fully compensates for the forced brevity. Such overwhelming emotions seem like a surprise. After all, medieval literature did not talk about feelings, and we are used to thinking that people learned to write about them only in modern times.

Women's letters destroy our idea of the powerless and downtrodden women of the Middle Ages. It turns out that 800 years ago, feelings, emotions and passions were exactly the same as they are now.

And the abandoned wife is actively fighting for her rights and writes to a relative, urging him to come and help: “From Guest to Vasil. What my father and relatives gave me in addition, after him. And now, by marrying a new wife, he does not give me anything. Shaking my hands (as a sign of a new engagement), he chased me away, and took the other as his wife. Come do me a favor. That is, a woman turns to her relative or patron with a complaint about her husband, who, having taken her dowry, is going to marry another woman.

The woman is the author of the largest diploma known to date. Somewhere between 1200 and 1220, Anna sent a birch bark letter to her brother Klimyata. She asks her brother to act as her representative in the litigation with Kosnyatin. The essence of the conflict was as follows. Kosnyatin accused Anna of vouching for her son-in-law (what exactly, we do not know), and called her a dissolute woman, for which Fedor, apparently her husband, kicked Anna out.

On a piece of birch bark, Anna compiled a cheat sheet for Klimyata, a synopsis of the speech that he should give, referring to Kosnyatin. To make it easier for her brother to read her speech on a piece of paper, she writes about herself in the third person: “After you put the guarantee responsibility on my sister and her daughter (that is, declared that they had vouched) and called my sister a curvoy, and my daughter - b … U, now Fedor, having arrived and having heard about this accusation, drove out my sister and wanted to kill”.

Through Klimyatu, Anna is going to insist on the proceedings. Klimyata should demand that Kosnyatin prove his accusations and present witnesses who would confirm that Anna really acted as a surety. At the same time, Anna swears by all terrible oaths to her brother that she is right.

“When you, brother, check,” she writes, “what accusation and what surety he has brought against me, then if there are witnesses confirming this, I’m not your sister, and not your husband’s wife. You kill me."

Among the birch bark letters there are also letters written by the nuns of the monastery of St. Barbara. The tone of these documents is distinguished by calmness and dispassion, as, in fact, befits monastic letters. Here Pelageya informs Fotinya where the money transferred to the monastery is, and at the same time is interested in the health of the monastery heifer: "Is the heifer of St. Barbara healthy?" Here the abbess of the monastery asks to urgently send her some details of clothing and complains that soon she will have to tonsure the novices as a nun and she is concerned about this.

When reading these letters, I had the feeling that I was reading the correspondence of British ladies of the Victorian era. Only at five o'clock they drink kvass, not tea.

Linguistic problem

In the previous parts of this article, I quoted birch bark letters in Russian translation, because it is often very difficult to understand the original text of such a letter. Moreover, difficulties arise not only among unprepared readers, but also among professionals dealing with the history of Ancient Russia.

For a long time, they saw in the letters primarily a historical source, and not a linguistic one. At the same time, they proceeded from the fact that birch bark letters were written by illiterate people who do not know spelling rules, arbitrarily distorting words and making the most incredible mistakes.

If a person who deciphers an ancient text admits the possibility of a large number of inexplicable errors, then this means that the result will be a translation with a large number of arbitrary interpretations.

The situation began to change after 1982, when Andrei Anatolyevich Zaliznyak began to decipher the birch bark letters. By that time, Zaliznyak had a reputation as an outstanding linguist, who created, in particular, a formal description of the grammatical system of the Russian language, which later formed the basis of the Russian Internet.

When analyzing the letters, Zaliznyak proceeded from the fact that there are no accidental mistakes. Any mistake is explained, on the one hand, by the peculiarities of the language in which a person speaks, and on the other, by the rules that he learns when teaching to read and write.

By itself, this thought is nothing new. Obviously, if a person who does not know anything about Russian begins to study school notebooks and sees that it is quite common to spell the word "cow" through the letter "a", he will conclude that schoolchildren pronounce in this word a vowel sound close to "a".

The search for general principles that explain strange spellings and seemingly inexplicable errors requires an analysis of a large amount of texts, and the letters turned out to be the ideal material for such work. Comparison of texts of the same type written by different people makes it possible to identify their common features. The systematization of such features sometimes leads to surprising discoveries.

Here we have a letter in which a person is accused of either embezzlement or negligence. The plot is not important to us here. In particular, this letter says that damage to the economy has been done, but the lock is "kule" and the doors are "kul". The author of another letter proudly writes that he has all the goods "k'l". The meaning seems to be obvious that both "kul-" and "kl-" are "tsel-". But why is it written here "k" instead of "c"?

The explanation, which boils down to the fact that the author did not know the spelling rules, so he wrote what the Lord would put on his soul, does not seem convincing. How could two different people make the same mistake, contradicting not only spelling, but also their pronunciation? And here is the time to ask the question, is such a spelling really contrary to the pronunciation of the ancient Novgorodians?

It is known from the history of Slavic languages that the sound "c" in this and similar words originated from the sound "k", which in a certain position passed into "c". The transition of the Proto-Slavic consonants * k, * g, * x before the vowels ě (in the Old Russian language this vowel was denoted by the letter “yat”) and “i” into the consonants “ts”, “z”, “s” the historians of the language call the second palatalization.

An analysis of the "mistakes" of birch bark letters made it possible to conclude that this process, common to all Slavic languages, was not in the Old Novgorod dialect. And immediately a number of readings became clear that were incomprehensible.

For example, one of the letters says that a certain Vigar was taken "19 cubits of khri". What is this mysterious "khѣr"?

If we remember that in the Novgorodian language before the vowel ě the consonant "x" did not go into "s", we find out that "хѣр" is "sѣr", that is, gray, unpainted cloth..

As a result of such operations, the strange spelling of birch bark letters ceased to seem like something chaotic and haphazard. The general patterns that explain all these oddities became clear.

It is curious that when in 2017 a letter was found, the author of which clearly suffered from dysgraphia and repeated part of the syllables twice, the expedition members happily told that they had finally found a letter in which there were a lot of mistakes. The abundance of errors was no longer perceived as a standard characteristic of the writing of illiterate people, but as something rare and unique.

On the basis of the letters, it was possible to reconstruct many features of the speech of the ancient Novgorodians, while it turned out that the Old Novgorod dialect was very different from other East Slavic dialects. The speech of Muscovites and Kievites had more similarities than the speech of Muscovites and Novgorodians.

Intellectual show

Since the mid-1980s, Andrei Zaliznyak began to read an annual public lecture, in which he talked about the letters found during the last archaeological season, and about the difficulties, hypotheses and ideas that arose when reading birch bark letters. In these lectures, deciphering letters turned into solving exciting linguistic problems. The intrigue persisted until the last moment, and all those present took part in the search for an answer.

The annual lecture, during which Andrei Anatolyevich Zaliznyak commented on the newly found birch bark letters, became an intellectual show, which not only philologists and linguists tried to get to

Photo: Efim Erichman / Orthodoxy and the World

The first lectures were attended mainly by historians and philologists, but soon the audience ceased to accommodate those who wanted to become a participant in the deciphering of ancient texts. The annual lecture had to be transferred to the streaming auditorium, but it also did not accommodate those who wish. Everyone came here - linguists, historians, and mathematicians … Teachers of humanitarian classes sent their students to a lecture. People came early to take a seat.

Elderly professors sat on the steps next to the students. For many, Zaliznyak's autumn Novgorod lecture was the main intellectual event of the year, which was expected in advance.

In recent years, lectures have been held in the huge auditorium of the main building of Moscow State University with sound reinforcement and projection on the screen of everything that was written on the blackboard. Those who remembered the first chamber lectures joked that the stadium would be the next venue for the Novgorod lecture.