I decoded the ancient Slavonic alphabet, so-called cherty i rezy (Rjabchikov 1998a: 5-6; 1998b: 23) and read some ancient Western Slavonic and Russian records performed by this writing system. Let us examine several texts (Masch 1771) from the temple of Retra from the ancient Slavonic town Arkon. It was situated at a Baltic land. Notice that sometimes the vowels are omitted in the texts. The interpretation is based on the my previous articles, The Scythians, Sarmatians, Meotians, Russians and Circassians: Interpretation of the Ancient Cultures and The Proto-Palestinian, Proto-Sinaian and Proto-Byblian Inscriptions: A Slavonic Key.
1. The figurine of a god contains a brief record (see figure 1).
2. The head of the figurine of the sun god is decorated with eight "rays". The accompanying text is presented in figure 2.
3. The head of the figurine of a lion is decorated with the "rays". The text of this artifact reads Rerag (see figure 3).
4. The figurine of a god with horse's legs is covered with the record ir tp, i.e. yar tap (see figure 5).
Let us examine a Sarmatian golden artifact (Anfimov 1987: 176, photo) from the Seversky barrow, Krasnodar Territory, Russia. Here the god Sventovit (Vit) holding a mace rides a lion (an incarnation of the god Rarog or Svarog). The two signs P7 da of the Phaistos disk are depicted near them. I read the word P7-P7 as dad, cf. Russian ded 'grandfather'. This idea is preserved in the Slavonic pagan cult of dedy associated with the dead (Ivanov, Toporov 1991) and in the name of the Russian pagan god Stribog 'The old god' (Belyakova 1995: 90-1). Moreover, the term strelets (associated with Russian strela 'arrow') may be compared with the name Stribog, too; and according to the pagan beliefs, the sun was born in the Sagittarius constellation (Russian sozvezdie Strel'tsa) during the winter solstice. I suppose that the creation of the Universe is represented in the figure 7 indeed. The Phaistos disk (side A) describes some moments after the winter solstice; the solar gods Hor and Vit are mentioned there. Let us examine the figure again. The head lying under the lion is sign P3 ra of the Phaistos disk. Here it is a determinative and means 'the sun; the sun deity'. One can distinguished the two signs of the full moon and the two signs of the sun that are divided by the sign of a sprout, the symbol of the new moon, vegetation, and resurrection of the god Osiris. The signs of the solar wheel and the flying sun are depicted on the "earth". The warrior standing on the right is the Skythian god Herakles, otherwise the god and the first man Targitaos. He is depicted near the goddess Argimpasa united with a snake in the sacral garden (notice a plant behind them).
5. The figurine of the head of a lizard or a serpent is covered with the letters; I read the words stra (see figure 7) and mra (see figure 8).
6. The figurine of a god has the record t Sir (see figure 9).
7. The figurine represents a deity in the high-necked dress, holding a staff. This image correlates with the descriptions of the Egyptian god Pta (Rubinshtein 1992) who according to the ancient beliefs created the first deities and the World. This god was worshipped not only in Egypt, but also in Palestina and at Sinai. The text on the figurine reads rast Pta '(the god) Pta rears' (see figure 10).
8. The religious item (see figure 11) is a symbolic description of the Universe and a calendar.
The eagle symbolizes the east and the summer solstice. The corresponding text reads seseg, i.e. se Seg 'it is the Scythia (the eastern land of the sun)'. But Scythian skoloti 'Scythians' means lit. 'eagles'! The form seg is comparable with the Old Indian caka 'Scythian', Greek Sakai 'a Scythian tribe lived in the Asia'.
Using the decoded Scithian-Sarmatian-Meotian calendar, one can decode the records of this Western Slavonic calendar. The month's name Reftn, i.e. Rev tan 'The howl (of cow)-thaw' (cf. Russian rev 'howl', tayat' 'to thaw', taly 'thawed') is May; it corresponds to the names of the Scythian goddess Argimpasa and of the Iranian and Armenian goddess Ardvi Sura Anahita.
The name of the month Ga 'March; vernal equinox' is comparable with Old Indian gi 'bull; cow'.
The spiral may denote the transformation from December to January through the winter solstice, compare the same idea in the Scythian-Sarmatian-Meotian calendar. Here I can interpret the terms tarar and utgutg associated with the west and winter solstice. They are comparable with Greek Tartaros 'hell; the underworld' and Scandinavian utgard 'the end of the earth where demons and giants live'. On the other hand, the form tarar may be read as ta rar 'this is (the sun god) Rar(og)', and the form utgutg may be connected with Russian utka 'duck'. In accordance with Russian fairy-tales, Ivan-tsarevich had broken the egg appeared from a duck, and the king of the underworld, Koshchey Bessmertny, died. On these grounds, I conclude that the figurine of the lion with the duck symbolizes the winter solstice.
So this calendar is closely connected with the Sarmatian-Scythian-Meotian calendar discovered in a Kuban barrow.
Anfimov, N.V., 1987. The Kuban's Ancient Gold. Krasnodar: Krasnodar Book Publishers.
Belyakova, G.S., 1995. Slavyanskaya mifologiya. Moscow: Prosveshchenie.
Ivanov, V.V. and V.N. Toporov, 1991. Dedy. In: S.A. Tokarev (ed.) Mify narodov mira. Vol. 1. Moscow: Sovetskaya Entsiklopediya, pp. 363-4.
Ivanov, V.V. and V.N. Toporov, 1992a. Rarog. In: S.A. Tokarev (ed.) Mify narodov mira. Vol. 2. Moscow: Sovetskaya Entsiklopediya, p. 368.
Ivanov, V.V. and V.N. Toporov, 1992b. Sventovit. In: S.A. Tokarev (ed.) Mify narodov mira. Vol. 2. Moscow: Sovetskaya Entsiklopediya, pp. 420-421.
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Rjabchikov, S.V., 1998a. Drevnie texty slavyan i adygov. Krasnodar: Torgovo-promyshlennaya palata Krasnodarskogo kraya.
Rjabchikov, S.V., 1998b. Tainstvennaya Tmutarakan'. Krasnodar: Torgovo-promyshlennaya palata Krasnodarskogo kraya.
Rubinshtein, R.I., 1992. Ptah. In: S.A. Tokarev (ed.) Mify narodov mira. Vol. 2. Moscow: Sovetskaya Entsiklopediya, pp. 345-6.
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Vasmer, M., 1987. Etimologichesky slovar' russkogo yazyka. Vol. 3. Moscow: Progress.
Copyright © 1999 by Sergei V. Rjabchikov. All Rights Reserved.
Published 21 October 1999.
Sergei V. Rjabchikov, Krasnodar, RUSSIA.
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