Love in a Wet Climate

'I have sent for you three times', begins Russia's oldest love letter, which was recently found among medieval rubbish heaps excavated in the Russian city of Novgorod. 'What is the evil you hold against me, that you never visited me this week?'

The names of the lovers do not appear on the letter, which was scratched on a strip of birch bark with an iron instrument. The almost 800-year-old manuscript was torn in three, perhaps in anger, perhaps in fear of discovery, says Professor Valentine Yanin, one of Russia's foremost archaeologists and leader of the famous Novgorod excavations. The middle piece of the letter is missing, but after a few fragmented sentences, the third part concludes, 'Even if I hurt you thoughtlessly, if you will begin mocking me, let God judge you, and my weakness'.

The love letter was coiled up like a film, but after being soaked in a vat of water, cleaned and flattened, it could be handled without fear of crumbling. The ancient Russian script is written in an elegant hand, using the feminine verb forms.