Birch bark letters

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

In 1951, apparently, in payment for the won war - they found ancient birch bark letters, instead of those already found and destroyed during the revolution. The non-Russian scientists did not dare to destroy the new certificates or hide them in storage. This gave Russian researchers a strong trump card.

Despite the summer heat of 2014 and the alarming messages that come from Ukraine, the editorial staff of the "President" newspaper does not miss interesting moments concerning the ancient Russian history and the history of the Russian language.

July 26 marks 63 years since the discovery of ancient Russian birch bark letters - a great monument of Russian linguistic history. In connection with this date, we interviewed the famous linguist, researcher of the ancient period of the Russian language, Andrei Alexandrovich Tyunyaev.

Andrey Alexandrovich, do we know that you have published another monograph? Tell us about her

- It's called "The Book of Ra: The Origin of Letters, Numbers and Symbols." A small fragment of the text is given on the website www.organizmica.com, and this book can be bought from the publishing house "White Alvy". It is devoted, as the name implies, to the study of the question of the appearance of letters, numbers and symbols. I have been working on this book since 2005. Understanding the meaning of ancient symbols is not an easy task. And to give them the correct interpretation is an even more difficult task.

Then how can a researcher understand that he is on the right path?

- You can only understand by the outcome of the work. Let me give you an example. In the Book of Ra, I realized that I had achieved the correct deciphering of ancient meanings when the whole picture of ancient semantics was fully revealed. And this picture was included in the book.

What is this picture?

- It is very simple and therefore, with a high probability, correct. All letters are formed from the acrostic, which describes the ancient astral myth about the origin of the world and man.

So your book should also touch on the Bible?

- Naturally! It also affects. The Book of Ra shows that the Bible is just an alphabet or alphabet, the plot of which has been developed very widely by talented authors.

And this means that there should be analogues in Russia and in other countries?

- Certainly! And they are. I brought them in the book. In Russia it is a fairy tale called the ABC, for the Scandinavians it is a fairy tale called Futhark, among the Turks it is a fairy tale called Altai-Buchai and others, and among the Semites it is a fairy tale called the Bible. There are similar tales among the ancient Egyptians and many other peoples.

I wonder how we can study the Russian language of antiquity if we do not have books?

- There are books, only you need to go to church for them. Of course, in our days priests will not give Russian books, but soon, perhaps, the country's leadership will understand that the culture of the Russian people cannot be cut off by Christianity, and then we will receive these books.

Why are you so sure that they exist?

- Because they are. This is evident from the works of medieval authors and modern researchers. And, in addition, this follows from the fact of the discovery of birch bark letters. After all, the letters indicate that the entire Russian people were literate at the very beginning of the 11th century. This is when, for example, the French knew neither forks, nor spoons, nor kitchen, nor writing, nor reading - this is how the Queen of France, Anna Yaroslavna, described them in her letter.

It turns out that the ill-wishers missed the publication of birch bark letters?

- It turns out that way. For the first time, the tracks were destroyed. I'm talking about the time of the revolution, when kids on the streets played football with birch bark letters from ruined museums. Then everything was destroyed. And in 1951, when under Stalin there was a sharp and rare rise in all Russian - apparently in payment for the war won - then new ancient birch bark letters were found, which non-Russian scientists did not dare to destroy or hide in storage. Now it turns out that Russian researchers have received such a strong trump card.

Now tell us about the article posted in the Presidential Library and in which you were mentioned?

- Yes, this is really important for my and for Russian studies of the Russian language in general, which, including on the basis of my work, Presidential Library named after B. N. Yeltsin published a dictionary entry "The first birch bark manuscript was found in Veliky Novgorod" (link to the article - Among the small list of used literature is my report "Birch bark letters as a document", which I did back in 2009. This happened at the Sixth All-Russian Scientific Conference " Archival studies and source study of Russian history: problems of interaction at the present stage.”The conference took place on June 16 - 17 at the Russian State Archive of Social and Political History, in Moscow.

Maria Vetrova

Birch bark letters as a document

A. A. Tyunyaev, President of the Academy of Fundamental Sciences, Academician of the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences

Since the second half of the 20th century, researchers began to receive new written sources - birch bark letters. The first birch bark letters were found in 1951 during archaeological excavations in Novgorod. About 1000 letters have already been discovered. Most of them were found in Novgorod, which allows us to consider this ancient Russian city as a kind of center for the spread of this type of writing. The total volume of the dictionary of birch bark letters is more than 3200 lexical units, which makes it possible to carry out comparative studies of the language of birch bark letters with any language remaining in written sources of the same period.

1. Russian birch bark letters of the 11th century

Novgorod was first mentioned in the Novgorod I Chronicle under 859, and from the end of the 10th century. became the second most important center of Kievan Rus.

The geography of the finds shows that on the territory of Russia there are now 11 cities in which birch bark letters have been found: Novgorod, Staraya Russa, Torzhok, Pskov, Smolensk, Vitebsk, Mstislavl, Tver, Moscow, Staraya Ryazan, Zvenigorod Galitsky [8].

Here is a list of charters dating back to the 11th century. Novgorod - No. 89 {1075-1100}, No. 90 {1050-1075}, No. 123 {1050-1075}, No. 181 {1050-1075}, No. 245 {1075-1100}, No. 246 {1025-1050}, No. 247 {1025-1050}, No. 427 {1075-1100}, No. 428 {1075-1100}, No. 526 {1050-1075}, No. 527 {1050-1075}, No. 590 {1075-1100}, No. 591 {1025-1050}, No. 593 {1050-1075}, No. 613 {1050-1075}, No. 733 {1075-1100}, No. 753 {1050-1075}, No. 789 {1075-1100}, No. 903 {1075 -1100}, No. 905 {1075-1100}, No. 906 {1075-1100}, No. 908 {1075-1100}, No. 909 {1075-1100}, No. 910 {1075-1100}, No. 911 {1075-1100 }, No. 912 {1050-1075}, No. 913 {1050-1075}, No. 914 {1050-1075}, No. 915 {1050-1075}, No. 915-I {1025-1050}. Staraya Russa - Art. P. 13 {1075-1100}.

From the above list, we see that the letters of the 11th century were found only in two cities - in Novgorod and in Staraya Russa. In total - 31 certificates. The earliest date is 1025. The latest is 1100.

Diagram 1. The content of the texts of birch bark letters.

It can be seen from the text of the letters that 95 percent of the birch bark letters have an economic content. So, in the letter No. 245 it says: "My cloth is for you: red, very good - 7 arshins, [such and such - so much, such and such - so much]." And in the letter No. 246 it says: “From Zhirovit to Stoyan. It's been nine years since you borrowed from me and did not send me any money. If you don’t send me four and a half hryvnias, then I’m going to confiscate goods from a noble Novgorod citizen for your fault. Send us good."

The names of people found in the letters of the 11th century are pagan (that is, Russian), not Christian. Although it is known that at baptism people were given Christian names. Almost no letters are found with religious texts (see diagram 1), neither with Christian nor with pagan.

By the beginning of the 11th century, the population of Novgorod corresponded not only with addressees located inside the city, but also with those who were far beyond its borders - in villages, in other cities. Villagers from the most distant villages also wrote household orders and simple letters on birch bark [1].

Graph 1. The number of birch bark letters found in Novgorod:

in total - in red, of which church texts - in blue. The horizontal axis is years.

Vertical - the number of certificates found.

The trend line of Novgorod letters is marked in black.

Figure 1 shows that the writing of texts on birch bark letters for the Russians, residents of Novgorod, has been a common thing, at least since 1025. Church texts, on the other hand, are rare.

Outstanding linguist and researcher of Novgorod letters, academician, laureate of the State Prize of the Russian Federation A. A. Zaliznyak claims that "" [6]. Already at the very beginning of the 11th century the whole Russian people wrote and read freely - "" [7]. Six-year-old children wrote - "" [6]. Almost all Russian women wrote - "" [6]. Literacy in Russia is eloquently indicated by the fact that "" [6].

* * *

It is considered "" [11]. However, in the "Tale of Bygone Years", a monument of the early 12th century, there is no information about the baptism of Novgorod. The Novgorod Varvarin Monastery was first mentioned in the chronicles around 1138. Consequently, the Novgorodians and residents of the surrounding villages wrote 100 years before the baptism of this city, and the Novgorodians did not get their writing from Christians.

2. Letter in Russia before the 11th century

The situation with the existence of writing in Russia has not yet been studied, but many facts testify in favor of the existence of a developed writing system among the Russians before the baptism of Russia. These facts are not denied by modern researchers of this era. Using this writing, the Russian people wrote, read, counted, and divined.

So, in the treatise "On the Writings" the Slav Brave, who lived in the late 9th - early 10th centuries, wrote: "". V. I. Buganov, linguist L. P. Zhukovskaya and academician B. A. Rybakov [5]. Information about the pre-Christian Russian letter was included in the encyclopedia: "" [11].

3. Development of writing in the 9th - 11th centuries

Modern science believes that the Cyrillic letter was created in 855 - 863. brothers Cyril and Methodius. "Cyrillic - the Byzantine uncial (statutory) alphabet of the 9th century, supplemented with several letters in relation to the sounds of Slavic speech", while "most of the additions are variants or modifications of the letters of the same Byzantine charter …" [15].

Meanwhile, I. I. Sreznevsky argued that the Cyrillic alphabet in the form in which it is found in the oldest manuscripts of the 11th century, and even more so, the Cyrillic charter, which usually refers to the 9th century, cannot be considered a modification of the then Greek alphabet. Because the Greeks at the time of Cyril and Methodius no longer used the charter (uncials), but cursive. From which it follows that "Cyril took the Greek alphabet of earlier times as a model, or that the Cyrillic alphabet was known on Slavic soil long before the adoption of Christianity" [12]. The appeal of Cyril to the form of writing, which has long been out of use in Greece, cannot be explained, unless Cyril created the "Cyrillic" alphabet [13, 14].

The Life of Cyril testifies in favor of the latter version. Arriving in Chersonesos, Cyril “found here the Gospel and the Psalter, written in Russian letters, and found a person who spoke that language, and talked with him, and understood the meaning of this speech, and, comparing it with his own language, distinguished the letters vowels and consonants, and, making a prayer to God, soon began to read and expound (them), and many were amazed at him, praising God”[16, pp. 56 - 57].

From this quote, we understand that:

1. The Gospel and the Psalter before Cyril were written in Russian letters;
2. Kirill did not speak Russian;
3. A certain man taught Kirill to read and write in Russian.

As you know, from the end of the 6th century, the Slavs, supported by the Avar Kaganate and the Bulgarian Kaganate, began to gain a foothold on the Balkan Peninsula, “which in the 7th century. almost entirely inhabited by Slavic tribes, who formed their principalities here - the so-called Slavinia (in the Peloponnese, Macedonia), the union of the Seven Slavic tribes, the Slavic-Bulgarian state; part of the Slavs settled within the Byzantine Empire in Asia Minor”[11, p. "The Great Migration of Nations"].

Thus, by the 9th century, the same Slavic tribes lived in both Byzantium and Macedonia. Their language was part of one areal-linguistic community called "satom", which includes Bulgarian, Macedonian, Serbo-Croatian, Romanian, Albanian and Modern Greek. These languages have developed a number of similarities in phonetics, morphology and syntax. The languages included in the linguistic union have significant commonality in vocabulary and phraseology [17]. Such languages did not require mutual translation.

Nevertheless, for some reason, Cyril needed a translation, moreover, from Russian, which he had seen, or from Greek into a certain "Solunian dialect of the Macedonian language" presented as a "Slavic language".

We find the answer to this question in the following. In Greece, in addition to traditionally and historically Greek (Slavic) dialects, there was another independent dialect - Alexandrian - formed "under the influence of Egyptian and Jewish elements." It was on it that "the Bible was translated, and many church writers wrote" [18].

4. Analysis of the situation

The Russian letter existed before Cyril. As part of the same linguistic community (satom), Russian and Greek languages were similar and did not require translation.

Christianity was created in the 2nd century. in Rome. The Gospels were written in Roman (Latin). In 395 the Roman Empire collapsed as a result of the invasion of nomadic tribes (Bulgarians, Avars, etc.). In the Byzantine Empire during the 6th - 8th centuries. Greek became the state language, and Christian books were translated into it.

Thus, due to the so-called. Of the “great migration of peoples”, the population of the Northern Black Sea region and the Balkans began to consist of two unrelated ethnic groups:

1. autochthonous Europeoid Christian peoples (Greeks, Romans, Rus, etc.);
2. alien Mongoloid Türkic-speaking peoples (Bulgarians, Avars and other descendants of the Khazar, Türkic and other kaganates who professed Judaism).

Due to the languages / u200b / u200b belonging to different language families, difficulties arose in communication between aliens and autochthons, which required translation of texts. It was for these Turkic-speaking Slavs that Cyril created a Church Slavonic script different from Greek, Roman, and Russian, "… some letters of which were taken from the Hebrew square alphabet" [15]. Borrowed letters are not found in birch bark letters of the 11th century, but are found in all Church Slavonic texts. It was these letters that, as a result of reforms in Russia, were completely excluded from the Russian alphabet.

In this regard, the position of the German Church (Latin) in relation to Cyril is understandable - his books were banned. They were not written in Greek, not in Latin or in Russian, they were translated by Cyril into the Turkic language of the migrated Slavs. "" [15].

Russia was not a barbaric Slavic state, but was a full-fledged civilized member of the European community, had its own letter - birch bark letters are understandable without translation. And Church Slavonic texts require translation into Russian.

5. Conclusions

1. It is impossible to put an equal sign between the Russian letter of birch bark letters of the 11th century and Church Slavonic texts of the same period, since these two writing systems belong to different ethnic groups of people: the letter of birch bark letters was formed by the Russian people, and the Church Slavonic letters were formed by the Slavic peoples of the Byzantine territories.
2. Researchers of Novgorod and other cities in which birch bark letters were found should more carefully study the issue associated with the process of teaching Russian writing in these cities and adjacent villages.