Birchbark letters from Veliky Novgorod and Staraya Russa excavations of 2023

The article contains a preliminary publication of nineteen birchbark letters found during the archaeological season of 2023 in Veliky Novgorod (Nos. 1158-1172) and Staraya Russa (Nos. 55-58). The published documents date back to the 12th - early 16th centuries. From the historical point of view, three 14th-century documents are of the greatest value: No. 1164 is a record of tax collection, reflecting the decimal organization of the population of the Novgorod hinterland; No. 1164 is a petition addressed to the corporation of skotniki and pomuzniki, which administered the territories in the Zaonezhye region; No. 1170 is a record of a court session with a mention of boyars. The linguistic material of the published texts includes a rare example of the N. Sg. poklone in the address formula of a letter, the letter. designating ['o], another example of b + o combination reflexed as a, the first attestations of the words ezdbcb 'messenger', sida 'silk', kruta 'dowry', archaic personal names Pirovaya, Oblikb, etc