Russian version
Copyright © 1999 by Sergei V. Rjabchikov. All Rights Reserved.
ON THE INSCRIPTION ON THE TMUTARAKAN'
AMPHORA IN THE KRASNODAR HISTORICAL-ARCHAEOLOGICAL MUSEUM
by Sergei V. Rjabchikov
The following graffito on the Tmutarakan' amphora housed in the Krasnodar
Historical-Archaeological Museum is presented in figure 1.
Figure 1.
The first letter is the standard Cyrillic one N, but the second letter
corresponds to the letter G of the ancient Scythian/Slavonic script
cherty i rezy.
As sometimes the letter a is omitted in the
Tmutarakan' records,
one can read the letters nag. One short line is represented above this
word; it means in my opinion the word 'one'. Therefore I think that the word
nag is the abridgement of the Russian word nagata (nogata)
'money in the ancient Russia'. It is well known that one nogata was
equal to 2.5 Russian kunas and to 2.5 Arab dirhems (Klyuchevsky
1987: 225). The term nagata/nogata is comparable with Old
Indian nahyati 'to bind; to put on'.
I suppose that the text 'one nogata' is the cost of certain volume of wine.
REFERENCE
Klyuchevsky, V.O., 1987. Sochineniya v devyati tomakh. Vol. 1. Moscow:
Mysl'.
Copyright © 1999 by Sergei V. Rjabchikov. All Rights Reserved.
Published 9 December 1999.
Sergei V. Rjabchikov, Krasnodar, RUSSIA.
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