A Promissory Note on a Wooden Tablet from Mangazeya

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.15826/qr.2021.3.617

Keywords:

Russian epigraphy of Siberia of the seventeenth century, Mangazeya settlement, Novgorod everyday writing of the seventeenth century

Abstract

The reason that prompted the authors to write this article was an archaeological artifact (found in 2009 during excavations of the Mangazeya settlement) in the form of a pine tablet with Cyrillic letters carved on it. The analysis of the inscription demonstrates that it was neither an educational text nor a meaningless set of letters. This was a completely coherent document, called “a debt bondage” (Rus. кабала) in the seventeenth century and earlier and “a promissory note” later. The document refers to private legal acts, but due to the absence of surnames and the names of witnesses confirming its contents, it is difficult to consider this promissory note a completed legal act. The appearance and content of the tablet refer to similar private legal acts from the northwest of Russia (Veliky Novgorod and Pskov) and demonstrate certain archaic features. This proves the survivability of northern Russian culture in colonised northern Siberia (where for obvious reasons there was a deficit of paper, an already common material in the seventeenth century). The promissory note from Mangazeya is a sample of everyday writing, a rather archaic form of private legal act that existed in the Novgorodian north long before the start of the Russian colonisation of Siberia.

Author Biographies

Evgeny Vershinin

PhD (History), Research Fellow, Institute for the Archeology of the North.

9 bldg., Lane 5P, 628305, Nefteyugansk, Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug – Yugra, Russia.

ORCID 0000-0002-5492-268X

Georgy Vizgalov

PhD (History), Research Fellow, Surgut State University. 

1, Lenin Ave., 628412, Surgut, Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug – Yugra, Russia.

ORCID 0000-0002-6861-7715

vizgalovgp@mail.ru

References

Belov, M. I. (Ed.). (1952). Russkie morekhody v Ledovitom i Tikhom okeanakh. Sbornik dokumentov [Russian Sailors in the Arctic and Pacific Oceans. A Collection of Documents]. Leningrad, Moscow, Glavsevmorputi. 386 p.

Chistyakov, O. I. (Ed.). (1984–1994). Rossiiskoe zakonodatel’stvo X–XX vekov v 9 t. [Russian Legislation of the 10th – 20th Centuries]. Moscow, Yuridicheskaya literatura. Vol. 1. Zakonodatel’stvo Drevnei Rusi 430 p. Vol. 2. Zakonodatel’stvo perioda obrazovaniya i ukrepleniya Russkogo tsentralizovannogo gosudarstva. 530 p.

PSRL v 46 t. [Complete Collection of Russian Chronicles]. Vol. 3. Novgorodskaya Pervaya letopis’ starshego i mladshego izvodov. (2000). Moscow, Yazyki slavyanskoi kul’tury. 723 p.

Tikhomirov, M. N. (1955). Krest’yanskie i gorodskie vosstaniya na Rusi. XI–XIII vv. [Peasant and Urban Uprisings in Russia. 11th – 13th Centuries]. Moscow, Gospolitizdat. 280 p.

Vizgalov, G. P., Parkhimovich, S. G. (2008). Mangazeya: novye arkheologicheskie issledovaniya [Mangazeya: New Archaeological Research]. Yekaterinburg, Nefteyugansk, Magellan. 296 р.

Vizgalov, G. P., Parkhimovich, S. G. (2017). Mangazeya: usad’ba zapolyarnogo goroda [Mangazeya: The Manor of the Polar City]. Nefteyugansk, Yekaterinburg, Karavan. 360 р.

Yanin, V. L. (1962). Novgorodskie posadniki [Novgorod Posadniks]. Moscow, Izdatel’stvo Moskovskogo universiteta. 388 p.

Yanin, V. L., Zaliznyak, A. A. (1986). Novgorodskie gramoty na bereste (iz raskopok 1977–1983 gg.) [Novgorod Birch Bark Manuscripts (from Excavations of 1977–1983)]. Moscow, Nauka. 312 p.

Zaliznyak, A. A. (1998). Posleslovie lingvista [The Afterword of a Linguist]. In Yanin, V. L. Ya poslal tebe berestu… 3rd Ed. Moscow, Yazyki slavyanskoi kul’tury. 464 р.

Published

2021-09-29

How to Cite

Vershinin, E., & Vizgalov, G. (2021). A Promissory Note on a Wooden Tablet from Mangazeya. Quaestio Rossica, 9(3), 902–910. https://doi.org/10.15826/qr.2021.3.617

Issue

Section

Modi studiorum