welcome
Live Science

Live Science

Entertainment

Entertainment

Onfim's doodle: A 13th-century kid's self-portrait on horseback, slaying an enemy

Live Science
Summary
Nutrition label

70% Informative

A 7-year-old boy named Onfim drew a self-portrait on a piece of birch bark in the mid-13th century .

He is the most famous person in the Novgorod birch-bark texts.

His artistic talent was preserved for centuries by the wet, low-oxygen soil of his native city.

There is no historical evidence to reveal what happened to him as he grew up.