Copyright © 2000 by Sergei V. Rjabchikov. All Rights Reserved.

THE PROTO-SLAVONIC RECORD ON THE FRAGMENT OF A VESSEL FROM THE TAMAN' ARCHAEOLOGICAL MUSEUM

by Sergei V. Rjabchikov

The fragment of a black-glazed vessel, 5th - 4th centuries B.C., is exhibited in the Taman' Archaeological Museum. According to the description by C. Morgan (1999: 34-5, plate 13), it is the artefact Nr 63, ca. 375 - 315 B.C., from the village Starotitarovskaya. The text inscribed on the fragment is presented in figure 1.

Figure 1.

It is not the Greek script. Taking into account the signs of the "cherty i rezy" (pre-Cyrillic, Scythian) script (Rjabchikov 1998a: 23, tablet 1; 1998b: 5-6, tablet 1), the record reads b-ch-e-l-a zh-u-zh (bchela zhuzh) 'a bee buzzes', the word 'three' (three vertical lines) is inserted between both words. The word b-ch-e-l-a is comparable with Old Church Slavonic b''chela, b'chela, Old Russian b''chela, b'chela, bchela, Russian pchela 'bee', and the word zh-u-zh is comparable with Russian zhuzhzhat' 'to buzz'. These data are an additional evidence that the Scythians and Sarmatians (Sauromatae) were indeed the Proto-Slavs.

The number three is, in my opinion, a designation of the name of the Old Indian deity Trita connected with Old Indian trtiya 'third'; this character is associated with the water and well (Toporov 1992a). Moreover, Trita corresponds to the Russian fairytale character Ivan Tretey (Ivan Vodovich 'Ivan, a son of the water') (Toporov 1992b). On the other hand, a bee is associated with the water in the Greek, Roman and Russian mythologies (Ivanov and Toporov 1992). Besides, a bee appears from oversee in the Russian folklore (Ivanov and Toporov 1992). The parallel Tmutarakan' song is registered. So the bee mentioned in the Proto-Slavonic inscription is a symbol of the Taman' land. The three lines compares with the trident (1), the coat of arms (emblem) of the Kingdom of the Bosporus (Drachuk 1975: 63ff).

NOTE

1. It is a symbol of the Greek god Poseidon, cf. also the name of his son, the god Triton (Losev 1992; Taho-Godi 1992).

REFERENCES

Drachuk, V.S., 1975. Sistemy znakov Severnogo Prichernomor'ya (Tamgoobraznye znaki severopontiyskoy periferii antichnogo mira pervykh vekov nashey ery). Kiev: Naukova dumka.

Ivanov, V.V. and V.N. Toporov, 1992. Pchela. In: S.A. Tokarev (ed.) Mify narodov mira. Vol. 2. Moscow: Sovetskaya Entsiklopediya, pp. 354-6.

Losev, A.F., 1992. Poseidon. In: S.A. Tokarev (ed.) Mify narodov mira. Vol. 2. Moscow: Sovetskaya Entsiklopediya, pp. 323-4.

Morgan, C., 1999. Taman Antiquity. Vol. 2. A Catalogue of Attic Pottery in the Collection of the Taman Museum. St. Petersburg: State Hermitage Museum Publishing.

Rjabchikov, S.V., 1998a. Tainstvennaya Tmutarakan'. Krasnodar: Torgovo-promyshlennaya palata Krasnodarskogo kraya.

Rjabchikov, S.V., 1998b. Drevnie texty slavyan i adygov. Krasnodar: Torgovo-promyshlennaya palata Krasnodarskogo kraya.

Taho-Godi, A.A., 1992. Triton. In: S.A. Tokarev (ed.) Mify narodov mira. Vol. 2. Moscow: Sovetskaya Entsiklopediya, pp. 526.

Toporov, V.N., 1992a. Trita. In: S.A. Tokarev (ed.) Mify narodov mira. Vol. 2. Moscow: Sovetskaya Entsiklopediya, pp. 525-6.

Toporov, V.N., 1992b. Trita, Frita. In: S.A. Tokarev (ed.) Mify narodov mira. Vol. 2. Moscow: Sovetskaya Entsiklopediya, p. 526.

Published 13 November 2000.

Sergei V. Rjabchikov, Krasnodar, RUSSIA.

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