ABSTRACT
The lives of non-elite people, particularly women, are not easily reconstructed from the best-known sources, which focus disproportionately on ruling families and high-ranking clergy. At most, normative sources such as laws and sermons describe how people ought to behave, rather than how they did. But archeological excavations in Novgorod and other places in Russia have uncovered hundreds of notes by men and women of all social orders. These notes are reminiscent of modern email or text messages and concern daily activities. Medieval people wrote on birchbark, which was plentiful, rather than parchment or paper, which were expensive. When the message had served its purpose, it was thrown away, to be uncovered centuries later. The birchbark documents usually preserve only one side of the dialogue, and make reference to unexplained circumstances and unidentified individuals. Holes and tears further obscure the meaning. Yet these are the unmediated voices of ordinary people, and as such, they provide rare insight into their thoughts.
