Comments on Birchbark Documents Found in the Twenty-first Century

Abstract

This article presents a general overview and highlights some specific features of the birchbark texts that are included in the twelfth volume of the series Novgorodskie gramoty na bereste. This volume offers full critical editions of all texts found in Novgorod and Staraja Russa between 2001 and 2014. My chief goal is to scrutinize systematically the wealth of new information and to show the recent dynamic shifts in the research field. Special attention is paid to the reconstruction and analysis of two large social networks which can be established on the basis of the new data.