[INDOLOGY] Russian 14 cent. Birchbark MSS from Novgorod

[Richard Salomon]

Does anyone know of any good scholarly discussions of the Novgorod 
documents? They sound like the same sort of thing as the Vindolanda 
(Yorkshire) letters, which present fascinating slices of ordinary life 
back in the day. Nothing comparable from the ancient Indian world, 
unfortunately, although the Niya Kharosthi documents are somewhat close.

Rich Salomon

On 10/20/2014 5:56 AM, Stefan Baums wrote:
> Dear Dominik and Matthew,
>
> yes, plenty of birch in Russia. And the letters are incised
> in the bark. Here two photos where that is more clearly
> visible:
>
>     http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birch_bark_manuscript#mediaviewer/File:Beresta.jpg
>     http://users.stlcc.edu/mfuller/Novgorodwoodp.html (scroll down)
>
> It am not sure whether ink was rubbed into the incisions
> (palm‐leaf style), but this may have been unnecessary since
> the incision made the darker lower bark visible through the
> light outer layer.
>
> All best,
> Stefan
>

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Richard Salomon
Department of Asian Languages and Literature
University of Washington, Box 353521
Seattle WA 98195-3521
USA