Scientists of the Institute of Archeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, during excavations in the Church of the Annunciation on Gorodishche in Novgorod, discovered many graffiti inscriptions of the first half of the 12th century, including a kind of wall "chronicle" - the longest Glagolic inscription in Russia, as well as many fragments of frescoes, the press reported. Institute service.
The Church of the Annunciation on the Settlement is located in the vicinity of Novgorod and is also called Rurik's Settlement, because it was here, according to legend, that Prince Rurik came to reign in 862. For a long time the settlement played the role of the residence of the Novgorod princes. In 1342-1343, by order of the Moscow Grand Duke Simeon the Proud, the old temple was destroyed, and a new one was built in its place.
“In total, we found 49 graffiti on the pieces of plaster from the walls of this temple. In terms of their value for historians and linguists, they are not inferior to birch bark letters, since we see here a direct response of the 12th century Novgorodians to the events taking place around them, said Vladimir Sedov, head of the Novgorod architectural and archaeological detachment of the Institute of Archeology, RAS Corresponding Member, in the message.
Archaeologists discovered that during the construction of a new temple in the 14th century, the foundations of the oldest church were covered with sand and a building layer containing fragments of the original painting of the early 12th century. It was in this “construction waste” that thousands of fragments of fresco paintings of that time were found, including those with images of faces. This year, four dozen fragments of graffiti inscriptions from the first half of the 12th century were discovered.
“Unlike modern graffiti, they were not made by vandals, it was a socially accepted practice - messages about current events, prayers, even business records were scratched on the walls of churches, below the level of the paintings. It was a kind of medieval wall newspaper. It is possible that the chroniclers consulted these graffiti as such a kind of archive,”Sedov noted.
The most interesting of those found, scientists consider the inscriptions about the death and burial of Prince Vsevolod Mstislavich, who reigned in Novgorod from 1117 to 1136, and then was expelled from the city and died in 1138 in Pskov. Three inscriptions in the altar are dedicated to these events, one is “ceremonial” and lengthy, written in very beautiful handwriting, the second is very short and the third is that he was buried the next day after his death.
Scientists also discovered several inscriptions in Glagolitic - the first Slavic alphabet, which by the beginning of the 12th century was already used extremely rarely. One of the inscriptions containing the prayer is perhaps the largest known verbatim inscription in Russia at the present time.
“In Ancient Russia, very little was used of the verb, in ancient manuscripts occasionally there are separate verb letters. Among the Novgorod graffiti were found about a dozen inscriptions in Glagolitic, possibly their authors - some scholars, scribes of that time, "snobs". It is as if a modern person would undertake to write today, using the old spelling - with yats and eras,”Sedov explained.
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In addition to inscriptions and fragments of paintings, archaeologists discovered during excavations the lead seal of Prince Mstislav Davidovich of Smolensky, who reigned in Novgorod for a short time, as well as many other artifacts, for example, rivets.
