The stone arena of Pliska, without analogue for its time in Europe, continues to poses more questions than answers to scientists. Covered by 4446 stones, most of them taken from other buildings. And those with graffiti and crosses on them were certainly taken from a church destroyed in the 9th century. But what attracts the attention of scientists are the fleece-like inscriptions next to biblical scenes, BNT reported.
Moses climbing Mount Sinai to receive God's Ten Commandments. This biblical plot is combined with several runic signs. In search of an analogy, a biblical plot and runic signs leads us to Murfatlar.
Only two places in our country keep fleece-like inscriptions – the monastery in Ravna and the one in Chernoglavtsi. But many more are described in the rock monastery at Murfatlar, near Constanta. And a team of scientists from 7 scientific institutes, under the leadership of Evgenia Komatarova, is heading there. Little did he imagine that he would stand on the threshold of a great discovery with a very real chance to read the runic signs and secret coded messages.
"What we found on the spot was extremely unexpected for us, because it turned out that there are many more inscriptions that were not put into circulation," commented Ch. associate professor Dr. Evgenia Komatarova-Balinova, medieval archeology, NAIM.
In the 9th century, the rock churches near Constanta were part of the territory of the First Bulgarian State. Stones were cut from the rocks next to them for the construction of the great Dobrudja stone rampart. There are several Bulgarian pagan necropolises nearby. Carved into the soft limestone of the Tibishir hill, the churches are constantly crumbling. As well as its covering built 50 years ago. And the Romanian institutions do not allow our camera. That's why we use a virtual opportunity to go inside, developed by the 3D laboratory of the Institute of Information Technologies at the BAS.
"Among this graphic material, an image of a saint accompanied by several fleece-like inscriptions is particularly curious. Now here we see the extent of the defacement of one of Murfatlar's most famous paintings, that of a saint who experts believe to be St. John the Baptist. Above the nimbus is a short, fleece-like inscription, which is supposed to explain the saint's name. Under it is also a long fleece-like inscription," explained Ch. Dr. Evgenia Komatarova-Balinova.
Among so many inscriptions, it quickly becomes clear to scholars that the rune-like script is not at all the Turkic runic script known so far. At least because it is certainly read from left to right, and not the other way around, as it would be written in the Khazarian Haganah.
"We understand that it is read from left to right, because when they were considering the field they were writing in, usually the first character was the largest. In addition, there are several 4- and 5-line inscriptions - fleece-like, which are left-aligned", pointed out Ch. Dr. Evgenia Komatarova-Balinova.
This is the easy part. What is more difficult is untangling all this written chaos from 4 graphic systems – Runic, Glagolitic, Cyrillic and Greek. And establishing the earliest and the later. In order to succeed in their task, scientists arm themselves with the most modern technologies. In this case: reflex-transformation photography – a black sphere that refracts light at different angles. And so new, unsuspected inscriptions appear.
Difficult, slow and systematic, scientists established that the earliest were the runic inscriptions, which were affected later by Cyrillic letters.
"When we document graffiti in this way, textual graffiti, we will be able to compare all variants and come to the conclusion - what is the invariant, that is, what is the sign that all these hands convey. Without this step, the decipherment of these inscriptions cannot take place," said Prof. Antonia Granberg – philologist, medievalist, University of Gothenburg.
BNT: Were they Christians?
Assoc. Antonia Granberg - They are without a doubt in a Christian environment, they are inscribed in crosses or in the shoulder area or in the cross itself depends on the shape of the cross. There are other Christian symbols around these graffiti
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In addition, some of the fleece-like inscriptions are next to figures of saints - in the places where their names are usually written. And this is quite a promising direction in their understanding.
Paleographic tables already have a fairly large comparative base with over 100 runic signs. Including those from the stone arena of Pliska. But since the inscriptions from the rock churches have a preserved context, scientists can more confidently reason about their authors.
"We believe that the rock complex at Murfatlar was originally inhabited by a distinct group, probably monks, who served themselves with this script. It makes a very strong impression that this is a calligraphically played hand," said Evgenia Komatarova.
BNT: What language did they write in?
Evgenia Komatarova: Since the place where the Murfatlar rock complex was built falls within the borders of the First Bulgarian State, it could be assumed that the language is most likely Old Bulgarian.
BNT: And why did they use runic characters and not, say, Greek?
Evgenia Komatarova - Because maybe they wanted to convey messages to each other, it was their silent communication that only they could understand. Keep in mind that this is still about the early years, the first decades after Christianization.
BNT: It gets even more interesting. You left messages for only them to read. Secret messages. However, someone has since deleted them.
Evgenia Komatarova: Yes, this is actually something very curious. It seems that after a period of time, the composition of this brotherhood is already changing, the next group of monks comes and begins to wipe out. This is the central altar table, and here you can see very clearly the marks of mechanical blows which destroyed the old fleece-like ones.
BNT: Some kind of heresy?
Evgenia Komatarova: We cannot rule it out.
BNT: That is, the first Christians were on guard against other Christians.
Evgenia Komatarova: Yes, probably yes. And they communicated such silent messages to each other in a language that only they understood, so as not to be exposed by others.
They have four images of saints accompanied by fleece-like inscriptions. But it turns out that they draw more optimism for their reliance from another place.
"We're getting into science here, but on this cross you see here, it also has fleece-like characters carved into its shoulders. Here they can be seen very well. There are also in this part", says Evgenia Komatarova.
BNT: Incised inscriptions in a cross always mean...
Evgenia Komatarova: Exactly, because we know that there are formulas by which the characters are written.
BNT: Heresy, heresy, but shouldn't there be deviations here?
Evgenia Komatarova: Yes, we know what should be written on the shoulders of these crosses.
BNT: Here is the Rosetta Stone.
Evgenia Komatarova: Yes, this is our rosette stone.
Apart from the runic inscriptions, almost all the Cyrillic ones have been restored and deciphered. They are mainly pilgrims, which can be expected for the scale of the rock church complex.
"Here, for example, one of these pilgrim inscriptions reads "I, Yav Pop, pass by and place candles for my sins". The very act of placing candles, as well as leaving a gift, also fits into the pilgrimage gesture," explains Assoc. Antonia Granberg.
Judging by the graffiti, the rock complex was a large pilgrimage center, they came from afar. In one of the crypts there is a small niche in which most likely the relics of a saint or some relic that attracted pilgrims were laid. The spatial and georeferenced plan of the churches also leads to another conclusion – the four churches were conceived in one architectural plan or built at the same time.
Rock churches, unfortunately, have a short life. They were certainly abandoned in an organized manner, which perhaps means that they began to crumble and became unsafe to visit. Buried by rock fragments, the churches were discovered during drilling by a mining company 50 years ago. Despite the cover, now every rain threatens this precious monument for us Bulgarians. And there are still many unexplored parts that can provide valuable information about life from the golden age of Bulgaria.