ARE THERE RUNES ON THE BIRCH BARK STRIP FROM SMOLENSK?

Abstract

The subject of the present article is a 12th-century strip of birch bark from Smolensk, which, according to E. A. Mel´nikova (1984) and S. L. Nikolaev (2017), is inscribed with Scandinavian runes of the younger Futhark. Mel´nikova’s reading and interpretation have been accepted in Russian scholarship but viewed with scepticism by Scandinavian runologists. For this reason, the inscription on the birch bark strip from Smolensk has not been included in Samnordisk runtextdatabas, the database of Scandinavian runic inscriptions. In addition, Mel´nikova was recently joined in her opinion that the Smolensk strip bears Scandinavian runes by Nikolaev, though his reading and interpretation of the inscription is quite different from hers. The author of the present article has studied the subject in situ in a binocular microscope and gives a detailed account of her observations. In the article, Mel´nikova’s and Nikolaev’s readings are analysed and arguments are put forward to demonstrate that the lines on the bark strip can be accepted neither as runes nor as any other kind of writing.