Murfatlar Rock Art (Church B1)

             Romanian archaeologists have divided the area of ​​the complex into sectors marked with letters of the alphabet, starting from the north with the letter A. Sector A was destroyed in the industrial extraction of chalk before the discovery of the Cave Complex. Only traces of dwellings dug terraced on the slope of the hill were found at the beginning of the excavations. Those buildings were just 15 meters from the entrance of rock church B1. The surviving part of the Murfatlar Cave Complex can be divided into three groups of buildings. Church B1 and funeral rooms C1-C2 are located in the northeastern part of the Complex. To the west of them stay the co-called "Peninsula" where Churches B2, B3 and B4, rooms and galleries were dug. Another group of caves was found 50 meters south, where some of the “E” buildings survived: Churches B3, B5, some corridors, burial chambers and galleries. 

 Church B1. General plan

Church B1 is dug on the northern slope of the hill. It is one of the first buildings discovered in 1956. Its dimensions are 6 m by 2 m, and its height is 2 m. Starting from the west, the church is divided into three rooms: a narthex, a nave and an altar. Rock inscriptions and paintings are incised on the surface of the massif around its entrance and some of the walls of the narthex and the nave. 

In front of the church are engraved two inscriptions, the sketches of which were published by D. Bogdan. The first, incised above the church entrance, consists of three signs: .

Inscription M49.

The second inscription is located to the right of the entrance (Fig. 10). It consists of approximately 13 characters. Romanian researchers, who studied the complex after its discovery, proposed that the inscription was Cyrillic and contained a date written with Cyrillic letters. In this way, they tried to date the complex to the times of Byzantine rule in Dobruja at the end of the 10^th century (Barnea I., Bilcurescu V. 1959, p. 543). However, this mistake was corrected later by both Romanian and Bulgarian specialists, who clarified that the inscription actually wasn’t Cyrillic but Runiform and didn’t include any letters from the Cyrillic alphabet with a numerical value.

Inscription M12.

            

According to I. Barnea, three of the walls of the narthex of church B1 have decoration: northern, western and southern. The opening for the entrance of the church has been dug through the north wall of its narthex. Just right of it are two inscriptions, known only from the facsimiles of D. Bogdan (Bogdan D. 1961, III,7-8). The first consists of two vertically written letters: (Fig. 12). The second inscription, incised slightly below the first, is encircled by two concentrically incised rectangles. It consists of four characters: . (Fig. 12). The decoration of the eastern wall of the narthex is known by drawings and partially by photographs. Around and above the doorway to the nave are incised numerous crosses, a horse with a writer and about 17 character-long Runiform inscription. The inscription is one of the longest and most well-preserved Runiform inscriptions in the Murfatlar church complex. It was the object of several publications and is documented relatively well.

Fig. 11, The northern wall of the narthex of B1.

Fig. 12, Inscriptions M61 and M38.

 

Fig. 13, The decoration of the eastern wall of the narthex of B1.

Fig. 14, Inscription M5.

The panel engraved on the southern wall of the narthex contains a hunting scene. Here can be seen a rider, several running rabbits, and perhaps several hounds. Above the scene are incised two inscriptions: at the top, a Cyrillic one and at the bottom, a Runiform inscription (fig 11). Both inscriptions are known from many publications, some of which attempt to decode the Runiform inscription, as both inscriptions are believed to be bilingua. Also, there are Runiform characters incised over the bodies of the animals and the rider. Unfortunately, the quality of the drawings doesn’t allow their identification (fig. 12). Clear is only the character incised over a horse's body at the right-lower end:  (Fig. 10). Most likely, the hunting scene illustrates an unknown Pagan myth. Surprisingly rabbits are known from other scenes at Murfatlar. However, its character as a mythic animal is unknown. A somewhat isolated Runiform character is incised on the left side of the panel. At the bottom, a ligature consisting of two signs is added.

Fig. 15, The panel from the southern wall of the narthex of B1.

Fig. 16, The panel from the southern wall of the narthex of B1, details.

Fig. 17, Two inscriptions from the southern wall of the narthex of B1.

The decoration of the nave of B1 is much simpler. On its wall are incised crosses: on the northern and southern two and on the eastern wall five. Also, another Runiform inscription is incised on the south wall of the passage between the narthex and the nave (Fig. 21). It is known only from the facsimile published by D. Bogdan (Bogdan D. 1961, VII, 14). Its state of preservation doesn’t allow its characters to be identified with certainty.

Fig. 18, Northern walls of the passage and the narthex of B1.

Fig. 19, The eastern wall of the nave of B1.

Fig. 20, Southern wall of the nave of B1.

Fig. 21, Inscription from the southern wall of the passage.

The Runiform inscriptions found on the walls of the religious complex Murfatlar are incised in many different ways. Sometimes they are embedded into the bodies of people and animals. Sometimes they form ligatures or are intricately manipulated to form a cross. Other of them are just written linearly, as Cyrillic inscriptions are. However, at Murfatlar, two types of Runiform inscriptions can be distinguished: Phonetic and Logographic. Evidence from many other sites suggests that Logographic Runiform inscriptions are dominating and oldest ones. The script they are written was most likely created long before the arrival of the Bulgarians in Europe. However, except for the inscription from the Rosette from Pliska, Phonetic Runiform inscriptions are known only from Murfatlar. This script contains characters identic with letters from Glagolitic and Cyrillic alphabets, so it might have been created in the 9th or 10th century. The use of logograms in Phonetic inscriptions and the similarity of some of the letters of the so-called Murfatlar alphabet to Logographic Runiform characters suggest that the alphabet from Murfatlar is just a continuation of the tradition of the Logographic Runiform script. Another is the question, though, whether both scripts were used for writing in one and the same language.

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