Onfim's homework, battle drawings and 'I am a wild beast'
About the work
Imported from the workbook's Full reassessment sheet, revised 7 October 2026 (record ID 113). The assessment below is the workbook's comparative judgment under its stated criteria; source links and limits are retained.
Workbook assessment: Insufficient evidence
Date or witness: c.1240–1260
Region: Novgorod, present-day Russia
Workbook date-sort bounds: 1240 CE to 1260 CE; these bounds are not automatically invention or disappearance dates.
Description
A child's birch-bark exercises include warriors, a named mounted fighter and a fantastic creature labelled as a wild beast. The State Historical Museum dates its Onfim sheet to 1240–60.
Evidence of adoption or transmission
Onfim’s birch-bark drawings and exercises document a child’s own participation in visual culture.
What remains uncertain
The same child producing several drawings is not independent adoption by other people. No medieval circulation of these particular images is established.
Workbook revision note: Reassessed using grassroots criteria