374:'. This is followed by a highly original call following along the lines of 'leave your villages and homes', with dozens of phrases starting with 'leave your' and listing a great number of things to leave, all starting with a Slavic prefix 'raz-': разлады, раздоры, расклады, развозы, распловы, разлогы, разлеты, размеры, размолвы, and so on (troubles, strifes, positions, moving around, sailing, flying, sizes, disagreements, etc.). This highly original sequence leads Zaliznyak to believe that the text was originally composed in Church Slavonic, as it is hard to imagine that translation from a foreign language could follow such a neat Slavic pattern.
302:
such, the stylus traces form a constant mesh of lines across the entire surface. To complicate the process, they are also all written by a single hand, making handwriting analysis impossible. As such, Zaliznyak does not call the process 'reading'; instead, he calls it 'reconstruction'. Instead of asking himself the question, 'what's written on this line', Zaliznyak approaches the problem as 'is a phrase A or a word B possible among everything written in this sector'.
341:. Often, the position where an error or deviation from Church Slavonic is possible, a correct symbol or symbols will also be present alongside an erroneous one, in which case Zaliznyak always assumes the original text was correctly written. In some cases, such assumptions will of course be incorrect. These multiple possibilities may also be the original author's correcting himself by erasing a mistake with his stylus and writing in a correct symbol.
20:
306:
moves some distance to the side and begins identifying symbols at the next position. After several positions are discerned in that way, most letter combinations are discarded as senseless jumble, and possibly meaningful words are identified. Zaliznyak then moves to the next position and attempts to locate subsequent symbols that would complete the word or a sentence. As the text, as was typical at the time, is written with
117:
350:
397:'church of St. Alexander', according to Zaliznyak, does not mean a physical church building, but rather a church in the sense of teachings or doctrine. As there were no monasteries anywhere in Rus during the time these texts were written, Zaliznyak believes that Isaakiy was taught outside of Rus, and became a monk elsewhere. He was likely a witness to the
294:
512:. After the ‘official’ church had prevailed, the sect’s texts were no longer copied and most traces of the existence of this heresy were erased. An especially symptomatic example of the scribe’s attitude to the ‘official’ church is the following excerpt from the “Spiritual Instruction from the Father and the Mother to the Son”:
431:, without any direct references to any events there. Zaliznyak believes that Laodicea was a sort of a secret word among the Bogomils, which identified a Bogomil teaching to other believers, without making anything apparent to outsiders. In this context, the strange title of a schismatic work written 500 years later by a
305:
The reconstruction is therefore done letter by letter, starting from an arbitrary position, usually somewhere at the top of a 'page'. After analyzing a meshwork of scratches and identifying some of the letters in a given spot (which can realistically number hundreds or even thousands), Zaliznyak then
266:
of the tablets presented unique challenges, as the usual preservation method for wood would have destroyed the wax layer, and vice versa. The method eventually decided on called for careful separation of the wax layer, and preserving each material separately. The newly exposed wood under the removed
369:
origins (birth)'. The text contains a highly unorthodox prayer, reading 'we pray to thee father
Alexander, forgive us our sins by your will and give us salvation and the food of paradise, amen'. In it, this Alexander therefore assumes powers usually reserved to God alone. The prayer is followed by
317:
Another specific of the texts is that many of them have been written multiple times, for reasons that can only be guessed at. Due to the previous copy being erased before a new copy is made, each repetition is written somewhat shifted compared to the previous copy. It is unknown whether the copies
301:
According to
Zaliznyak, reading the concealed texts in the scratches is a unique challenge unlike anything attempted by any research team previously. The very compact surface of the four writing surfaces contains traces of thousands of texts, estimated to have been written over several decades. As
151:
in the soil. The tablets were 19 x 15 x 1 cm, and they have a 15 x 11.5 cm indentation filled with wax. Two of the tablets have one wax layer and one blank wooden side, and a third tablet has two wax sides. The boards have round holes at one edge, through which wooden pegs were inserted,
396:
Zaliznyak therefore postulates that the writer was this monk
Isaakiy, who followed a previously unknown schismatic teaching of a self-proclaimed prophet Alexander, an Armenian by birth, and that Alexander himself was based in Thracia, and Isaakiy was sent to spread Alexander's word in Suzdal. The
385:
Finally, another text that
Zaliznyak calls “Spiritual Instruction from the Father and the Mother to the Son” contains the following note “Въ лѣто ҂ѕ҃ф҃з҃ азъ мънихъ исаакии поставленъ попомъ въ соужъдали въ цръкъве свѧтаго александра арменина…” (“In 6507 I, monk Isaac, was posted as a priest in
313:
After careful examination of each position, Zaliznyak creates symbol chains that continue to grow in size. The search often branches off into false leads, where at a certain symbol the chains switch off to a different text fragment. Sometimes these false branches are identified after only a few
333:
cooperated with
Zaliznyak on some portions of the reconstruction, where Zaliznyak identified a portion of the chain and passed it on to Vallotton, with both of them then continuing to independently reconstruct the text. In the experiment, both Vallotton and Zaliznyak ended up with completely
475:
the tetralogy “From
Paganism to Christ” (title from Zaliznyak): four so far unknown texts titled “Moses’ Law" (Russian “Закон Моисеев”), “The Unstrengthening and the Unpeacing” (“Размаряющие и размиряющие”), “Archangel Gabriel” (“Архангел Гавриил”), and “Jesus Christ’s Law” (“Закон Иисуса
377:
A subsequent concealed text contains the following passage: 'The world is a town in which live the
Armenians and the Africans and the Thracians and the Italians and the Spanish and the Greeks'. Zaliznyak believes that an earlier allusion to Alexander, the Areopagite of
136:, covering nearly 6,000 square meters (64,500 square feet). The area excavated housed affluent mansions and a large 1,200 square meter (13,000 sq ft) communal building housed a court house and a Novgorod city treasury. The vast majority of text found in Novgorod were
393:“Spiritual Instruction from the Father and the Mother to the Son” continues onto increasingly more gloomy analysis of the state of the world, showing that the writer identifies with people excluded from the official church for believing unorthodox teachings.
467:
a multitude of examples of the alphabet, in a short version (а б в г д е ж ѕ з и ї к л м н о п р с т оу ф х ц ч ш щ ѿ) and a full version (а б в г д е ж ѕ з и ї к л м н о п р с т оу ф х ц ч ш щ ѿ ъ ѣ ѫ ѭ ю ꙗ ѧ ѿ) as well as with an enumeration of the
282:, has taken tremendous effort to reconstruct so far only a small portion of the texts preceding the basic text. The main difficulty with this task is the fact that the feeble traces of dozens of thousands of letters left by the
87:
consisting of three bound wooden tablets containing four pages filled with wax, on which its former owner wrote down dozens, probably hundreds of texts during two or three decades, each time wiping out the preceding text.
103:
and from the text itself (where the year 999 occurs several times), the wax codex was used in the first quarter of the 11th century, and maybe even in the last years of the 10th century. It is therefore older than the
325:. Only small portions of Zaliznyak's texts have been peer-reviewed to this time, as no research team came forward that was willing to learn and repeat the process over the length of a large text. Linguist
370:
prophecies by the same
Alexander, who then calls for people to 'leave your villages and homes' and to walk the earth, spreading Alexander's message. Alexander then says 'whoever listens to me, listens to
254:
is used; before the codex discovery, the monoyeric system was considered to have been a late invention, with the dualyeric system being the original; the discovery proved that the reverse was the case.
628:
286:, often hardly discernible from the natural shading of the soft lime wood, have been superimposed on each other, producing an impenetrable labyrinth of lines (Zaliznyak speaks of a “hyper-
210:
and could be examined at once. The
Psalter translation exhibits a somewhat different translatory tradition than the Slavonic translations of the Psalter known so far (especially the
314:
symbols, but sometimes the false branches can take several words, sentences, and even longer to be discounted. Such false leads can take several days or even weeks to identify.
420:
contains a mention of a schismatic monk
Andreyan jailed for disagreeing with the official church in 1004, during the timeframe the codex texts were written. According to
401:
in 988, and operated in a still largely pagan Rus of the early 11th century. The concealed texts contain a conversion prayer, which in first person singular and plural (
766:
Zaliznyak, Andrey (2002). Tetralogiya «Ot yazychestva k Hristu» iz Novgorodskogo kodeksa XI veka. // Russkij yazyk v nauchnom osveschenii. № 2 (4): 35—56 (in Russian).
390:, at the church of St. Alexander the Armenian…”). The year 6507/999 reappears several times on the margins, and is the only numerical sequence identified in the text.
424:, this Andreyan was a Bogomil. So the Novgorod Bogomil codex being found in the vicinity of a courthouse in the early 11th century therefore leads to some theories.
828:
795:
Zaliznyak, Andrey; Yanin, Valentin (2001). Novgorodskij kodeks pervoi chetverti XI v. — drevneishaya kniga Rusi. In Voprosy yazykoznaniya. № 5: 3—25 (in Russian).
124:
Since 1932, remnants of the medieval Russian city of Veliky Novgorod have been continuously excavated by the Novgorod Archaeological Expedition started by
843:
500:
The great number of so far unknown texts in the Novgorod Codex might be explained by the fact that the writer belonged to a Christian community declared
783:
318:
were made right after each other, or weeks, months or even years apart. Multiple copies of the same text make identifying false chains easier.
848:
818:
813:
808:
163:
are estimated to have grown at about 1 cm per year, the document was estimated to have been placed there around 1015-1020. Subsequent
179:
in 988 are considered unlikely, and as such, the wax tablets are reliably dated to a very narrow 42-year window between 988 and 1030 AD.
853:
833:
271:
cutting through the thin wax. It took the research team several weeks to realize that some symbols could be discerned in the scratches.
398:
176:
744:
175:
gave the range of 760 AD to 1030 AD with a 95.4% certainty. Due to the Christian text on the tablets, dates earlier than the
858:
736:
Sobolev, A. N. (2003). Новгородская псалтырь XI века и ее антиграф . In Voprosy yazykoznaniya. pp. 113–143 (in Russian).
92:
823:
627:
Work on the Novgorod Codex is continuing. Scholarly literature, so far published only in Russian, is listed in the
361:. Its introduction is written in first person by somebody who identifies himself as 'Alexander, the Areopagite of
202:). This is the so-called basic text of the Novgorod Codex. Consequently, the book is alternatively known as the
263:
231:
65:
41:
753:Славянское языкознание. XIII Международный съезд славистов. Любляна, 2003 г. Доклады российской делегации
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The world is a town in which people not forsaking the true faith in Christ are excluded from the church.
421:
334:
identical chains, matching to the letter, but the chains were admittedly short, only 20-30 symbols long.
480:
428:
366:
211:
137:
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a fragment of the so far unknown text “Spiritual Instruction from the Father and the Mother to the Son”
310:, identifying these chains becomes somewhat easier than would be the case were it written with spaces.
326:
279:
125:
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Finally, a problem Zaliznyak considers unsolvable is identifying spelling errors or Russisms in the
234:
origin. The whole text was written by the same hand in a so-called 'monoyeric' orthography (Russian
838:
575:
The world is a town in which people not deserving of this punishment are excluded from the church.
505:
493:
a fragment of the so far unknown text “Instruction by Alexander of Laodicea on Forgiveness of Sins”
409:) denies idolatry and accepts Christianity, so it is likely Isaakiy himself converted pagan Slavs.
338:
223:
583:
The world is a town in which people not deserving of this exclusion are excluded from the church.
455:
417:
168:
164:
100:
612:Миръ естъ градъ въ немъ же отълѫчаѭтъ отъ цръкъве чловѣкы неотъстѫпъны отъ правыѩ вѣры х҃совы.
155:
The tablets were discovered in a stratum 50 cm away and 30 cm below a wooden walkway
479:
a fragment of the so far unknown text “On the Concealed Church of Our Saviour Jesus Christ in
307:
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105:
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56:
32:
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80:
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580:Миръ естъ градъ въ немъ же отълѫчаѭтъ отъ цръкъве чловѣкы недостойны такого отълѫчения.
19:
774:
607:
The world is a town in which people worthy of veneration are excluded from the church.
144:
76:
802:
747:[Problems of studying the Novgorod Codex of the 11th century, found in 2000]
357:
One of the first concealed texts reconstructed was an unnamed text Zaliznyak called
222:
The language of the Novgorod Codex is a very regular (especially in the basic text)
599:
The world is a town in which people worthy of praise are excluded from the church.
781:[The Novgorod Psalter of the early 11th century—the oldest book of Rus'].
604:Миръ естъ градъ въ немъ же отълѫчаѭтъ отъ цръкъве чловѣкы достоины прославления.
572:Миръ естъ градъ въ немъ же отълѫчаѭтъ отъ цръкъве чловѣкы недостоины такоѩ кары.
486:
a fragment of the so far unknown text “Tale of the Apostle Paul on Moses’ Secret
591:
The world is a town in which people of pure faith are excluded from the church.
469:
371:
322:
290:”). Consequently, ‘reading’ a single concealed text of one page can take weeks.
713:
640:
543:
The world is a town in which disobedient people are excluded from the church.
509:
413:
287:
148:
84:
567:
The world is a town in which inflexible people are excluded from the church.
551:
The world is a town in which blameless people are excluded from the church.
487:
349:
207:
559:
The world is a town in which innocent people are excluded from the church.
596:Миръ естъ градъ въ немъ же отълѫчаѭтъ отъ цръкъве чловѣкы достоины хвалы.
588:Миръ естъ градъ въ немъ же отълѫчаѭтъ отъ цръкъве чловѣкы прѣчистыѩ вѣры.
535:
The world is a town in which unwise people are excluded from the church.
199:
195:
191:
160:
745:"Проблемы изучения Новгородского кодекса XI века, найденного в 2000 г."
709:
564:Миръ естъ градъ въ немъ же отълѫчаѭтъ отъ цръкъве чловѣкы непрѣломъны.
532:Миръ естъ градъ въ немъ же отълѫчаѭтъ отъ цръкъве чловѣкы неразоумъны.
379:
129:
556:Миръ естъ градъ въ немъ же отълѫчаѭтъ отъ цръкъве чловѣкы невиновъны.
548:Миръ естъ градъ въ немъ же отълѫчаѭтъ отъ цръкъве чловѣкы непорочъны.
540:Миръ естъ градъ въ немъ же отълѫчаѭтъ отъ цръкъве чловѣкы непокоривы.
501:
447:
The following concealed texts, among others, have been found so far:
412:
The teachings of Alexander the Armenian were likely an early form of
387:
362:
330:
283:
268:
188:
172:
133:
527:
The world is a town in which heretics are excluded from the church.
293:
427:
Finally, a feature of the texts is common allusions to the city of
348:
292:
115:
18:
460:
the beginning of a translation of the treatise “On virginity” by
128:. Since the early 1970s, the excavations focused on the Troitza (
779:"Новгородская псалтырь начала XI века — древнейшая книга Руси"
239:
227:
671:
669:
667:
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663:
661:
382:
is connected to the listing of Thracians early in the list.
524:Миръ естъ градъ въ немъ же отълѫчаѭтъ отъ цръкъве еретикы.
206:. This text can be read as easily as any other document on
120:
An example of excavated Novgorod boardwalk, built ca. 1120
267:
wax was found to have been extensively scratched by the
688:
686:
684:
755:(in Russian). Moscow. pp. 190–212. Archived from
451:
a multitude of psalms, written down several times each
226:, albeit with some 'mistakes' in the rendition of the
483:
and On the Laodicean Prayer of Our Lord Jesus Christ”
70:
46:
464:, of which a Slavonic translation had not been known
108:, the earliest precisely dated book of Kievan Rus'.
152:holding the tablets together as a four-page book.
143:On 13 July 2000, the expedition headed by prof.
675:
23:1st page of the Codex at the time of discovery
8:
278:, one of the foremost experts on the early
784:Herald of the Russian Academy of Sciences
692:
345:Concealed texts and identity of the owner
159:dated to the year 1036. As the strata in
703:
701:
321:The process remains exceedingly hard to
657:
140:; wax tablets were extremely uncommon.
829:Earliest known manuscripts by language
504:by the ‘official’ church — probably a
187:The wax of the codex itself contains
16:C. 1000 CE Rus' palimpset in Slavonic
7:
359:Instruction on Forgiveness of Sins
91:According to the data obtained by
14:
844:11th-century biblical manuscripts
708:Butrin, Dmitry (19 July 2015).
629:Russian Knowledge (XXG) article
399:Christianization of Kievan Rus'
353:Reconstructed first page, Ps 75
259:Preservation and reading method
230:letters betraying the author's
177:Christianization of Kievan Rus'
79:, unearthed on 13 July 2000 in
710:"Град, в котором читают книги"
75:) is the oldest-known book of
1:
849:Old East Slavic inscriptions
819:Old Church Slavonic language
814:Old East Slavic manuscripts
809:Church Slavonic manuscripts
238:), i.e. instead of the two
71:
47:
875:
854:History of Novgorod Oblast
834:Cultural history of Russia
676:Zaliznyak & Yanin 2001
472:(азъ боукы вѣдѣ глаголи…)
280:medieval Novgorod dialect
236:одноеровая система письма
198:(and a small fragment of
112:Discovery and description
60:
36:
439:, takes on a new light.
147:discovered three wooden
437:The Message of Laodicea
308:no spaces between words
354:
298:
138:birch bark manuscripts
132:) area of the ancient
121:
72:Novgorodskaja psaltir'
24:
508:group similar to the
454:the beginning of the
352:
296:
212:Psalterium Sinaiticum
157:dendrochronologically
119:
61:Новгородская псалтирь
22:
859:Cyrillic manuscripts
126:Artemiy Artsikhovsky
422:Evgeniy Golubinskiy
48:Novgorodskij kodeks
37:Новгородский кодекс
456:Apocalypse of John
418:Nikonian Chronicle
355:
299:
169:Uppsala University
167:of the wax at the
165:radiocarbon dating
134:Ludin part of town
122:
25:
824:Novgorod Republic
771:Zaliznyak, Andrey
741:Zaliznyak, Andrey
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327:Izabel Vallotton
297:Andrey Zaliznyak
276:Andrey Zaliznyak
204:Novgorod Psalter
106:Ostromir Gospels
97:dendrochronology
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53:Novgorod Psalter
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433:Fyodor Kuritsyn
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339:Church Slavonic
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224:Church Slavonic
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81:Veliky Novgorod
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11:
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787:(in Russian).
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762:on 2013-11-10.
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712:(in Russian).
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29:Novgorod Codex
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791:(3): 202–209.
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21:
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757:the original
752:
717:. Retrieved
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470:letter names
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264:Preservation
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93:stratigraphy
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26:
323:peer-review
232:East Slavic
149:wax tablets
77:Kievan Rus'
839:Bogomilism
803:Categories
719:2015-07-21
714:Kommersant
647:References
641:Palimpsest
414:Bogomilism
288:palimpsest
183:Basic text
85:palimpsest
83:. It is a
652:Footnotes
506:dualistic
502:heretical
488:Patericon
476:Христа”).
367:Laodicean
208:parchment
66:romanized
51:) or the
42:romanized
777:(2001).
743:(2003).
635:See also
510:Bogomils
481:Laodicea
429:Laodicea
242:letters
218:Language
200:psalm 67
161:Novgorod
731:Sources
380:Thracia
363:Thracia
130:Trinity
68::
57:Russian
44::
33:Russian
416:. The
388:Suzdal
331:Geneva
284:stylus
269:stylus
189:psalms
173:Sweden
760:(PDF)
749:(PDF)
372:Peter
365:, of
250:only
95:(and
405:and
246:and
194:and
27:The
329:of
240:yer
228:yus
214:).
171:in
99:),
805::
789:71
773:;
751:.
700:^
683:^
660:^
631:.
435:,
407:we
196:76
192:75
63:,
59::
39:,
35::
722:.
695:.
678:.
490:”
403:I
252:ъ
248:ъ
244:ь
55:(
31:(
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