Doski

a written legal document used in ancient Rus’. The name comes from the doski, or tablets on which debts were recorded as early as the 12th and 13th centuries. There were two types: simple ones, for debts of less than one ruble, requiring no collateral, and pawned ones, which required collateral. Doski were used right up to the 17th century.

The use of wooden tablets to record laws and legal acts is known among other European peoples as well. The laws of the Athenian reformer Solon were inscribed on tablets, as were the well-known Twelve Tables of the Law. In feudal Bohemia, certain legal acts, including decisions of municipal courts, were recorded in doski, which were books with a wooden cover (destroyed by fire in 1541).