TROY, Ala. (TROJANVISION) — A Troy professor is detailing the work behind her most recent publication “Texting” in Medieval Russia: Insights from the Birch Bark Letters.

The documents used for her project were recently made available.

“The digital corporate made it accessible, made it available and accessible for researchers in countries and all over the world to use this special data,” said author and English professor, Dr. Tatyana Slobodchikoff.

Throughout the discussion, Slobodchikoff explained the importance of birch bark during the medieval age. The material was used to write love letters, tell stories, and share news.

“I read and analyzed all of the birch bark letters,” Slobodchikoff explained. ” “I worked with them just mainly myself, deciphering them, trying to understand them and to classify them, counting them and so on.”

As Slobodchikoff conducted research and worked to understand the texts in medieval Russia, she also faced challenges along the way.

“Sometimes I would not be able to see clear tracks, or clear path, in the data,” Slobodchikoff told TrojanVision. “Then I said to myself that it’s okay; that’s how people spoke. There were certain trends that I was able to identify in the data, but they were not very clear cut, and I had to be okay with that.”

To learn more about birch bark letters, click here.