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Deciphering the Murfatlar inscriptions - the beginning.


     Despite comparisons with well-known scripts and relative success in determining the direction of writing, deciphering the Murfatlar inscriptions took a lot of work. Auspicious were inscriptions M35, M36, and M37, which accompany icons and are expected to have the names of the saints written on them and, above all, the word for saint, which should be the same in all three inscriptions. Also, inscription M35 was assumed to be of Saint John based on the features of the drawing. In addition, I came across an interesting drawing of a cross, for which it seemed to me that ΙС ЧС was written in runes. But nothing was happening. My attempts to use the same values for the Cyrillic-like runes also failed. I should add here that I had a theory that I categorically rejected.
      
       It is about the flanked epsilon, the most common combination of signs in Early Medieval Bulgaria. One of V. Beshevliev's assumptions about this monogram was that it conveys the name of the god Tangra. Other scholars have suggested that the flanked epsilon is a Christian symbol interchangeable with the cross. In fact, there is nothing to prevent both from being true: in the Cuman Bible, the word lord is rendered by the word "tengri". When I first saw "tengri" written in Orkhon runes I held my breath.


flanked epsilon


"Tenngri" is written in Orkhon script from right to left.






     If you remove the first letter and stylise the other three, you get the flanked epsilon, especially if you consider that in Chuvash, the word sounds "tura" and in Balkar, "teyri", which reduces the spelling to three letters.



Teyri






Tura






Alas, I could find no better evidence than the above reasoning. So, my search was at a dead end. I read Orkhon inscriptions and Glagolitic texts and dug into exciting finds. That's how I came across the amulet from Haskovo, an illustration of a rare practice, digraphy - recording a text with a mixed Glagolitic-Cyrillic alphabet (Popkonstantinov K. Petrov I. 2006)


The beginning of Haskovo ambulette

     It took me several evenings to copy and translate the words - I wanted to know if I would understand the text without a dictionary and translate the words. One morning I woke up and, for no reason, said to myself that there was something significant in this amulet. I opened the page of the article and immediately noticed the strange Glagolitic letter „хлъм“, which looked so much like a rune.



Letter „хлъм“

This letter in the Greek alphabet is a monogram of epsilon and omicron. But he wasn't doing that work here. Why should it not be a rune with a value like the Orkhon script's soft „b“. I opened the dictionary, and the word "eb" (house) stood opposite this rune. I looked at the inscription from Byala.



The inscription from Byala

I knew such a translation had already been made (Simeonov B. 1986), but everything was different this time. When the front signs were added, it became "tengri eb", which means god's house or church (in Codex Cumanicus, it is found: iduq ev- holy house, holy abode, also Karaim: yeg'v - church which is an interesting parallel to Hungarian: egyhaz- the church (Golden P. 1992) and also Kipchak: algïsh övü - church, temple (Garkavets Al. 2010)). Confused and digging for something else, I found the word, saint, then other words. Literally, in one day, everything fell into place. But let me start over and drive in a row.






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