Russian scholars have set about translating relic birchbark manuscripts into English, the Novgorod Museum Reserve informs. The translated texts will be posted on the already existing web site www.gramoty.ru.
      
      'The project on translating texts of birchbark manuscripts and placing them on the internet is realized for the first time ever' – a representative of the Novgorod Museum Reserve added.
      
      The unique site already presents 1049 manuscripts of the 11th – 15th centuries, discovered during archeological excavations in Veliki Novgorod, Vitebsk, Zvenigorod, Tver, Torzhok, Pskov, Staraya Russa and Rurik site. On www.gramoty.ru you will find photos of the birchbark manuscripts (gramoty in Russian) and their text copies in the Old Slavonic language and translations into the modern Russian, as well as basic information about the archeological rarities.
      
      The majority of the texts have already been translated into English; the work is expected to be completed in the beginning of the next year.
      
      The project on presenting the peculiar collection of Old Russian manuscripts on the internet aims at making these 'messages from the past' accessible to people all over the world.
      
      Source: oreanda.ru