A Witness of the Matrimonial Rituals from Old Novgorod. Inscription on a Bone from the 13th Century Excavated 2020

Abstract

In the summer of 2020, a fragment of a cow's rib with a Cyrillic inscription was found at excavations in Novgorod. The place of the find is one of the richest boyar estates in the Lyudin quarter of medieval Novgorod. The time of the document hitting the ground is the last quarter of the 13th—the first twenty years of the 14th century. The inscription is fully preserved, it contains a whole readable message. The historical and cultural value of the find lies in the content of its compact inscription: it is unique evidence of a bride-price agreement. The terminology is of value: the bride, on whose behalf the text is written, and the groom (addressee) are designated not by their own names (Christian or pre-Christian), but by the images of the ritual folklore of the wedding — kuna ‘marten’ (she) and sobol’a ‘sable’ (he). The bride-price is no less interesting. The text communicates an idea of a dialogue between the two sides of the marriage ritual. The new evidence of the matrimonial rites and the associated oral-written communication expands our understanding of this sphere of medieval culture and allows us to correct some interpretations of the few birch bark letters on the topic of marriage.