The birch bark letter given the document number 292 is the oldest known document in any

Finnic language The Finnic (''Fennic'') or more precisely Balto-Finnic (Balto-Fennic, Baltic Finnic, Baltic Fennic) languages constitute a branch of the Uralic language family spoken around the Baltic Sea by the Baltic Finnic peoples. There are around 7 mi ...

. The document is dated to the beginning of the 13th century. It was found in 1957 by a Soviet expedition led by

Artemiy Artsikhovsky Artemiy Vladimirovich Artsikhovsky (russian: Артемий Владимирович Арциховский) (December 26 (December 13, O.S.), 1902 — February 17, 1978) was a Russian Soviet archaeologist and historian, professor (since 1937) ...

in the Nerevsky excavation on the left coast side of Novgorod. It is currently held at the Novgorod City Museum. The language used in the document is thought to be an archaic form of Livvi-Karelian, the language spoken in Olonets Karelia, although the exact form is difficult to determine, as Finnic dialects were still developing during that period.

Transcription

The text is written in Cyrillic in the Karelian dialect of the archaic Finnic language. A transcription of the text is as follows:

Interpretations

By Yuri Yeliseyev

The text, as

transliterated Transliteration is a type of conversion of a text from one script to another that involves swapping letters (thus ''trans-'' + '' liter-'') in predictable ways, such as Greek → , Cyrillic → , Greek → the digraph , Armenian → or L ...

to the

Latin alphabet The Latin alphabet or Roman alphabet is the collection of letters originally used by the ancient Romans to write the Latin language. Largely unaltered with the exception of extensions (such as diacritics), it used to write English and th ...

by Yuri Yeliseyev in 1959 and interpreted in modern

Finnish Finnish may refer to: * Something or someone from, or related to Finland * Culture of Finland * Finnish people or Finns, the primary ethnic group in Finland * Finnish language, the national language of the Finnish people * Finnish cuisine See also ...

: In English, this means roughly the following: Yeliseyev believes, that this is an

invocation An invocation (from the Latin verb ''invocare'' "to call on, invoke, to give") may take the form of: *Supplication, prayer or spell. *A form of possession. *Command or conjuration. * Self-identification with certain spirits. These forms ...

against

lightning Lightning is a naturally occurring electrostatic discharge during which two electrically charged regions, both in the atmosphere or with one on the ground, temporarily neutralize themselves, causing the instantaneous release of an avera ...

, as evidenced by "ten your names" construction. According to superstitious notions, knowledge of the name gives a human the magic power over an object or phenomenon.Written information on Karelians
by S. I. Kochkurkina, A. M. Spiridonov, T. N. Jackson, 1996

By Martti Haavio

As the

orthography An orthography is a set of conventions for writing a language, including norms of spelling, hyphenation, capitalization, word breaks, emphasis, and punctuation. Most transnational languages in the modern period have a writing system, and ...

used does not utilize spaces between words, the source text can be transcribed into words in different ways.

Martti Haavio Martti Henrikki Haavio (22 January 1899 – 4 February 1973) was a Finnish poet, folklorist and mythologist, writing poetry under the pen name P. Mustapää. He was born on 22 January 1899 in Temmes, and died 4 February 1973 in Helsinki. He w ...

gives a different interpretation of the text in his 1964 article, suggesting, that this is a sort of an

oath Traditionally an oath (from Anglo-Saxon ', also called plight) is either a statement of fact or a promise taken by a sacrality as a sign of verity. A common legal substitute for those who conscientiously object to making sacred oaths is to g ...

: In modern Finnish, this means roughly the following: In modern Estonian, this means roughly the following: In English, this means roughly the following:

By Yevgeny Khelimsky

Professor Yevgeny Khelimsky in his 1986 workХелимский Е. А. О прибалтийско-финском языковом материале в новгородских берестяных грамотах. In the book Янин В. Л., Зализняк А. А. Новгородские грамоты на бересте (из раскопок 1977—1983 гг.): Комментарии и словоуказатель к берестяным грамотам (из раскопок 1951—1983 гг.) / АН СССР. Отд-ние истории. — М.: Наука, 1986. — С. 254—255.) criticizes Haavio's interpretation and gives the third known scientific interpretation, believing the letter to be an invocation, like Yeliseyev: A translation into Finnish of this interpretation would look something like this: In English, it means roughly the following: †''Syyttö-Jumala'' could also mean "Blaming God" or "God that blames"; modern Finnish ''syyttää'' = to blame or prosecute.

References

Sources

* Jelisejev, J. S. ''Vanhin itämerensuomalainen kielenmuistomerkki'', Virittäjä-lehti 1961: 134 * Jelisejev, J. S. ''Itämerensuomalaisia kielenmuistomerkkejä'' (Zusammenfassung: ''Ostseefinnische Sprachdenkmäler''), Virittäjä-lehti 1966: 29

*

''The Letter on Birch-Bark No. 292'',

Journal of the Folklore Institute The ''Journal of Folklore Research: An International Journal of Folklore and Ethnomusicology'' is a triannual peer-reviewed academic journal covering research on folklore, folklife, and ethnomusicology. It was established in 1942 and is published ...

, 1964. * Haavio, Martti, ''Tuohikirje n:o 292. Vanha suomalaisen muinaisuskonnon lähde'', Virittäjä-lehti 1964:

External links

*
Birch bark letter no. 292 (includes a photo and references)
- at the website on Russian birch bark letters *

* {{in lang, fi
Vielä kerran itämerensuomen vanhimmista muistomerkeistä
- with (English) summary following references Finnic languages Novgorod Republic Earliest known manuscripts by language Uralic inscriptions History of Novgorod Oblast Incantation 13th-century inscriptions 13th century in Russia Betula 1957 in Russia 1957 archaeological discoveries