This letter dates c.1160-1200 CE. The images come from https://gramoty.ru/birchbark/document/show/novgorod/155/

Translated from the Old Slavic by Jacob Bell. After edition in A.V. Arcixovskii and V.I. Borkovskii, eds., Novgorodskie gramoty na bereste, Vol. IV (Moscow: Akademiia nauk SSSR, 1958), 35-36. This translation CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.

From Polchok[o? a?] to…[after you] took the slave girl from Domaslav, I paid him 12 grivnas.[1] So, give me 12 grivnas. If you don’t send them, I’ll drag you before the king and the bishop and you can expect a greater loss.

[1] A post-eleventh century currency system and measure of weight.

Discussion Questions

  1. What can this source tell us about slavery in medieval Novgorod?
  2. How can we use this letter to write a history about purchasing slaves in medieval Rus’?