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 pomužniki, 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 ъ designating ’o, another example of ъ + o combination reflexed as a, the first attestations of the words ězdьcь ‘messenger’, šida ‘silk’, kruta ‘dowry’, archaic personal names Pirovaya, Oblikъ, etc.