Birch bark manuscript

As birch bark documents (Russian берестяные грамоты, scientific transliteration berestjanye gramoty ) the since 1951 during archaeological excavations in the city of Novgorod found, written on birch bark texts referred to in the Slavonic language.

In the meantime, more than 1,000 texts were recovered on birch bark in Novgorod and in neighboring towns. The oldest texts date from the 11th century, rich in younger forms to the 15th century you are not in widespread altostslawischen or Russian Church Slavonic written language written, but in Altnowgoroder dialect. Content provide the texts an interesting insight into the daily life of that time, because it is generally to private letters, notices or invoices of all social classes. (Hence birch bark document is a somewhat misleading term, it would be correct to speak of Birkenrindenbriefchen or birch bark slips. )