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The restoration of Psaltyri (Book of Psalms), Old Russian book created at the turn of the 10th century, has been completed. The unique cera or wooden book with a text written on bees-wax was found by the archeological expedition to Novgorod headed by Academician Valentin Yanin is thought to be the most ancient amongst the known Slavic books. The restoration of the book and the analysis of its text took 3 years to complete.
Archeologists have been digging on the Troitsky excavation site since 1973. Every season brings valuable finds, such as birchbark letter rolls, household utensils and musical instruments. The event that took place in 2002 is viewed as an extraordinary one, even in terms of the Novgorod excavation seasons which are traditionally rich in surprises. A wooden book was found under the ruins of an ancient temple dating back to the end of 10th – beginning of 11th century. Experts in historic dendrology ascertained that the building was erected in 1030. The book looked like three waxed tablets connected by dowels. It was unearthed deep under the temple. Therefore it became clear that the book had been made a few years earlier. Before the finding of the book, the New Testament of 1056-1057 had been considered the oldest Slavic book. It was made at request by one Ostromir hence the name given by researchers to that book – the Ostromir New Testament.
According to Valentin Yanin, the restoration of the invaluable find was one of the most complicated experiences in restoration and conservation of the wooden historical objects referring to Slavic written culture. Vladimir Povetkin, a reputable restoration artist from Novgorod, the only specialist in Russia who can bring such old specimens back to life, took up the job. He doesn’t reveal the secrets of his restoration methods. We only know the wax layer had to be transferred to new groundwork using special technologies, it would have melted away destroying the text if the damp wood with some wax on it had been dried out after spending ten hundred years in the ground. The wax with the text was eventually put back to the wooden pages.
There’s an image of the cross and a geometrical pattern decorating the outside of the first tablet of the cera, a “jacket” of the book. 23 lines of the text scribbled on wax with a stylus sit on a “flyleaf”. The total amount of text lines covering the second, third and fourth pages is 100. The scribbling made on such a frail material as wax is thought to have been preserved for more than a thousand years because of the unique makeup of the Novgorod soil.
The first phrase that was deciphered by Valentin Yanin read like a prayer. Given the meaning of that line, experts suggested that the text of the cera had to do with matters of faith and might relate to the first Christian literary records. The book was created a few years after the adaptation of Christianity in Russia. Experts began looking for the phrase unraveled by Yanin sifting through the Book of Psalms while continuing to decipher the remaining lines of the cera. Finally, it was found out that the book contains Psalms 75 and 76 by Asaph and a few verses from Psalm 67 by David from the Old Testament.
A team of linguistic researchers lead by Academician Andrei Zaliznyak, the world authority on historical linguistics, located the country of origin of the cera. Since the text was written in Old Church Slavonic i.e. Old Bulgarian Cyrillic, the book might have been brought to Russia from Bulgaria or Serbia. However, according to Academician Zaliznayk, the text contains 13 specific errors that clearly indicate the Russian origin of the oldest book. The errors that could be by Russian copyists only. For the first time the book was put on display in the Novgorod Kremlin in spring last year. The State Hermitage is likely to become the first museum exhibiting the book to general public.
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19:35 12 марта 2010
