Birch bark letters are private messages and documents of the 10-16 centuries, the text of which was applied to the birch bark. The first such documents were found by domestic historians in Novgorod in 1951 during an archeology expedition led by historian A.V. Artsikhovsky. Since then, in honor of this find, a holiday is celebrated every year in Novgorod - Day of birch bark letters. That expedition brought nine more such documents, and by 1970, 464 had already been found. Archaeologists found Novgorod birch bark letters in soil layers, where the remains of plants and ancient garbage were preserved.
Most of the letters on birch bark are personal letters. They touched on various household and household issues, transmitted orders and described conflicts. Birch-bark letters of half-joking and frivolous content were also found. In addition, Arkhipovsky found copies that contained peasants' protests against the gentlemen, complaints about their fate and lists of lordly offenses.
The text on birch bark letters was deduced by a simple and primitive method - it was scratched with a sharpened metal or bone writing (pin). Pre-birch bark was processed so that the letters came out clear. In this case, the text was placed on a birch bark letter in a line, in most cases without division into words. When writing, fragile ink was almost never used. The birch bark letter is usually short and pragmatic, it contains only the most important information. What the addressee and the author know is not mentioned in it.
In archives and museums there are many late documents and letters written on birch bark. Even whole books have been found.
S.V. Maximov, a Russian ethnographer and writer, said that he himself had seen a birch bark book in Mezen at the Old Believers.
Birch bark, as a material for writing and transmitting information, became widespread in the 11th century, but lost its importance by the 15th century. It was then that paper was widely used among the population of Russia, which was cheaper. Since then, birch bark has been used as a secondary material for recording. Mostly it was used by commoners for personal notes and private correspondence, and official letters and messages of state significance were recorded on parchment.
Gradually, birch bark also left life. In one of the letters found, in which complaints were recorded to the official, the researchers found instructions to copy the contents of the birch bark letters to parchment and only then send it to the address.
The dating of letters takes place mainly in a stratigraphic way - based on the layer in which the thing was discovered. A number of letters on birch bark are dated due to the mention of historical events or important persons in them.
Birch bark letters represent an important source on the history of our language. It is from them that one can establish the chronology or degree of fame of a linguistic phenomenon, as well as the time of appearance and etymology of a particular word. There are many words that are found in letters unknown from other Old Russian sources. Basically, these are words of everyday meaning, which practically had no chance to get into the writings of writers of that time.