Wooden counting tags from excavations in Staraya Russa

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

Wooden tags have been fixed on the territory of Europe since the times of Antiquity. During the Middle Ages and Modern Times, they became ubiquitous and were one of the integral elements of everyday life. The field of use of tags was vast: from the way of recording simple calculations and teaching counting to using them as bills of exchange and the equivalent of non-cash money.

Ore mining, engraving from George Agricola's book De Re Metallica Libri XII (1556).

The ore mined is counted using notches on a wooden tag -

In the XIX century. wooden tags are gradually falling out of wide use, but their use was recorded by ethnographers even in the second half of the 20th century.

Counting tags from Slovenia, ser. XX century -

Counting tag from Lapland, 1890 -

For millennia, this way of recording numbers and keeping counts has played a huge role in the economic life of society. Debt wooden tags are mentioned in documents such as the Napoleon Code and the "Charter of the Russian Empire's Commercial Judicial Proceedings" (1887).

Judging by the archaeological finds in Staraya Ladoga, Novgorod, Pskov, Staraya Russa, Torzhok, Tver, Rostov, Beloozero, wooden tags representing sticks with notches were widespread in Russia. This is evidenced by their mention, under the name of lots or boards, in written sources. (Novgorod first chronicle (under 1207), articles of the Pskov court letter (late 15th century), Novgorod birch bark letters, as well as in later written documents).

In the peasant environment, the use of wooden tags was recorded by ethnographers until the 20th, and in remote areas until the 21st century.

Counting tag for a bear holiday, Ust-Urna village, Khanty, 2006 -

During excavations in Staraya Russa, more than 650 medieval wooden tags were discovered (images and information on counting tags found since 2005 can be viewed in the database of archaeological finds). The study of this collection allows not only to introduce new materials into scientific circulation, but also to propose other methods of working with this category of finds.

Photos and drawings of counting tags from excavations of different years -

Nevertheless, undeservedly little attention was paid to the study of this category of finds.

At the moment, in Russian historiography, there are two approaches to the classification of tags.

One of which is historical and archaeological, represented by the research of RK Kovalev. Analyzing the archaeological collection of Novgorod and drawing on a wide range of analogies, he proposed a typology of tags and a classification of notch counting systems.

Economists M. I. Kuter and A. V. Kuznetsov offer a different view of this problem, considering tags not as a category of archaeological finds, but as a source on the history of the formation of accounting in Russia.

However, already at the first stage of the study of Old Russian materials, it became clear that the proposed classifications have a number of significant drawbacks. Because of this, I had to develop my own system.

First, it was necessary to identify the signs by which the tags could be clearly distinguished from other objects.

The main sign of a tag is the presence of nicks. A series of notches represent a way of writing numbers within the unit number system and are applied not only to what we call tags. For example, seal cylinders also often have notches, but this is one of the options for recording a number used along with Cyrillic numbers.

Wooden cylinder-seals from Novgorod -

In addition, at the Novgorod and Old Russian excavations, the remains of log cabins with logs marked with notches were also found, which indicate the order of laying the logs.

On the other hand, counting with notches was carried out not only on specially prepared sticks, but also on completely different objects (for example: whorls, spindles, a toy sword, an arrow, a bucket handle, a whip handle, etc.) "turning" them into tags …

Spindle, whorl, wooden arrow and toy sword tags -

That is, any item that contains numbers recorded in the unit reckoning system using notches or notches applied during or as a result of counting or mathematical operations can be ranked as counting tags. Objects are excluded from this array, the functions of which are clearly defined and the written numbers play a strictly defined role (logs in a log house, cylinders-seals). One such relatively easily separable category is "credit" or split tags.

Whole "counting" tags are used to calculate and record its results, and split to fix the amounts and numbers between two "persons".

But let's not dwell on them and return to the counting ones.

Counting tags were found at almost all excavations in Staraya Russa.

The most representative collections come from the Borisoglebsky and Pyatnitsky-I excavations.

At the Pyatnitsky excavation site in 2002-2012. cultural strata of the 11th-15th centuries were studied. with a thickness of about 6 m. Excavations explored the territories of two estates located in the historical core of the city and did not change borders throughout the studied period. The nature of the building and the complex of material culture testifies to a rather high status, active production and economic activity of the inhabitants of these estates. Another, important for research, the array of finds comes from the Borisoglebsk excavation, where a complex of 255 tags was recorded in the layers of the 11th-12th centuries on the territory of two estates.

It should be said that the collection of tags originating from Staraya Russa is comparable in number to the Novgorod one and is one of the largest in Europe.

Counting tags are distinguished by a great external variety. Among them, based on morphological features, some varieties can be distinguished: peg tags with a pointed end (7) and stakes tags (wedges) with notches applied to the edges of the sharpened part (1) (Kovalev labels), tags made of pre-processed tetrahedral rods (one).

However, at the moment, it is impossible to determine whether these types of tags had strictly limited functions or served for the same purposes as the others.

Counting tags are found in all studied layers from the 11th to the 15th centuries, however, a significant increase in their number should be noted, observed in the 11th - 1st half. XII century.

The types of wood used to make the counting tags are very diverse (slide 26) but most were made from pine, birch and spruce. Probably the choice of material was not targeted and was dictated by the raw materials available locally.

What and how was counted with the help of wooden tags?

In total, the old Russian collection currently includes 649 tags (including the credit ones). Of these, 591 copies were examined within the framework of the study. The number of notches on the surviving tags ranges from 1 to 130. The notches in the rows are numbered from 1 to 46, and the number of rows on the tags ranged from 1 to 8.

On 89 tags, the rows of notches are divided into sections. The number of notches in the department is very diverse, 3, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11, 12 and 25 notches each.

On 8 tags, the departments are allocated irregularly. For example, one alternates between 3 and 7, the other 8, 4 and 3 notches, etc.

Earlier it was said that each row of notches and (or) the sum of notches on the tags is a record of the number obtained in the course of targeted actions (primarily counting) and the frequency of using numbers can give information about the methods and units of counting.

For this, graphs were built, separately for the number of notches on whole tags and, separately, for the number of notches in whole rows.

The representativeness of the collection makes it possible to obtain completely objective data that are consistently repeated on different sets.

Peaks and troughs are recorded on the charts, the combination of which reveals certain patterns. It is important to note that the frequency of using the first ten numbers shows great variability depending on the selected set, and the frequency of using numbers over ten always shows the same pattern.

What conclusions can we draw?

The account, in most cases, was obviously conducted within the framework of the decimal system, widespread in Russia. This confirms the presence of a large number of rows of notches, divided into divisions of 10. Moreover, the use of the decimal system is confirmed by the peaks in the graph. The frequent occurrence of the numbers 9-11, 20, 28-30, 39-40, 50-51 as the sum of notches on tags and in rows is explained by the desire to round off and operate with amounts that are multiples of the base of the number system. That is, we see a certain pattern that complements our ability to distinguish counting systems.

Quite a lot (7 copies), tags with sections in 6 notches, 5 of them date back to the XI century, and 2 to the XIII-XIV centuries. It should be noted that multiples of 6 and 12 on the tags are relatively rare. That is, some objects were counted by 6, but at the same time they did not use a six (or a dozen) as a measure of counting or the base of the number system. What could be considered this way? Here it should be remembered that in the XI century. according to V. L. Yanin, kun was 6 centuries old (and in the XIV-XV centuries altyn was equal to 6 Moscow money).

The next number of interest to us is 7. Found 3 tags with sections in 7 notches. All of them were found in the layers of the 11th century. But quite often there are tags containing the numbers 14 and 28 multiples of 7. In addition, a relatively large number of tags containing the numbers 29 and 30 have been recorded. At the same time, 28 and 29 are found more often than 30. This pattern is not observed on other numbers (close to 20 for example). Perhaps the answer lies in the fact that 28 and 29 are the number of days in a month (lunar or calendar). Apparently, tags containing multiples of seven, as well as 29 and 30, were probably used for calendar calculations or counting units of products, materials, events or actions corresponding to the number of days in a week or month.

It is difficult to explain the presence of a large number of tags with the number 16 and 17, despite the fact that these numbers are never used in the sections. Perhaps this is due to the fact that with the help of tags with so many notches, measures of weight, bulk solids or measures of liquid were counted. In the systems of such measures, multiples of 16 are often found. From the later examples, one can cite a four - 1/16 of a box and a steelyard - 1/16 of a pood.

The rest of the highlighted sections should be considered either errors (like 9 and 11), or arbitrarily chosen for performing any mathematical operations: addition, subtraction or division (3, 5, 12, 25 and mixed sections).

The collection of medieval wooden tags from Staraya Russa is the most important source for studying the economic life of a medieval city. In the course of its study, a new technique was developed that allows one to obtain more objective data on the functions and significance of wooden tags. Counting tags found during excavations were probably used to count objects (in tens), money, measures of weight, loose bodies or volume (16). as well as calendaring and mathematical calculations.

References

one.. Apostolou N., Crumbley D. L. The Tally Stick: the First Internal Control? // The Forensic Examiner. Springfield, 2008. Vol. 17, no. 1. P. 60-62.

2. Kovalev R. K. Wooden debt tags-shirts of the XI-XII centuries. from the Novgorod collection.//Novgorod historical collection. 2003. - Issue. 9 (19). S. 28-35.

3. Kovalev R. K. Novgorod wooden tags: general observations // Russian archeology. 2002. No. 1. P. 38–50.

4. Kuter M. I. A. V. Kuznetsov. European history of tags: a view from the standpoint of modern accounting theory // Siberian financial school. 2010. No. 1 (78). S. 77-81; M. I. A. V. Kuter Kuznetsov. The value of tags in the study of the historical development of accounting // Vestnik SamGUPS. 2009. T. 2. No. 5. S. 48-53.

5. Kovalev R. K. Novgorod wooden tags … p. 44-45.

6. Kuter M. I. A. V. Kuznetsov. European history of tags … pp. 77-79

7. Yanin VL At the origins of the Novgorod statehood // NovGU im. Yaroslav the Wise. - Veliky Novgorod, 2001.-- S. 93-150.

8. Kovalev R. K. Novgorod wooden tags … p. 41.

9. Tikhomirova AA Wooden tags on the settlements of the Upper Volkhovye of the 10th-15th centuries // Dialogue of cultures and peoples of medieval Europe: to the 60th anniversary of the birth of Evgeny Nikolaevich Nosov. SPb., 2010. - S. 49-50.