[INDOLOGY] Russian 14 cent. Birchbark MSS from Novgorod

[asko.parpola at helsinki.fi]

Dear Richard,

Professor Jos Schaeken, who leads the international team of  
researchers studying
these birchbark documents, has written such a preliminary discussion in Dutch:

Schaeken, Jos, 2012. Stemmen op berkenbast. Berichten uit middeleeuws Rusland:
Dagelijks leven en communicatie. Leiden: Leiden University Press. 176 pp.
e-ISBN 978-94-0060-086-7.

This is freely downloadable as an open access book at the address
given by Professor Schaeken on his website, where the leaders of the
international team are also mentioned:  
http://www.schaeken.nl/lu/research/index.htm

Best regards, Asko Parpola


Quoting Richard Salomon <rsalomon at u.washington.edu>:

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