ЕДИН ПЪРВОБЪЛГАРСКИ ЕПИГРАФСКИ ПАМЕТНИК ЗА ПОКРЪСТВАНЕТО НА БЪЛГАРИТЕ
ONE OF THE FIRST BULGARIAN EPIGRAPHIC MONUMENTS DEPICTING THE BAPTISM OF THE BULGARIANS

Summary/Abstract: In this article there is a new attempt to interpret a First Bulgarian inscription still not clearly deciphered, published by V. Beshevliev ("First Bulgarian inscriptions. Sofia, 1992, p. 199) No. 52, found in 1962 near the village of Dlazhko, Shumen region, which is attributed to military inscriptions, orders and lists of chest plates and helmets. Today, the limestone tablet is in the Shumen museum, inventory number 15317. The text reads as follows: The translation of the reconstructed inscription suggested here is: Oh, Boris, you are baptizing in your own country in the year 6357. Good luck! It was established that: 1) the inscription was made on the reverse side of an altar plate from a broken pagan temple (sharaptash); 2) the data of the Baptism in the land of Boris in the year 6357 (= 865/866) comply with the testimony of the inscription from Balshi, where the event took place in the period January 1 – March 24, 866, complied with "eth behti" (866 the year of the dog) in Tudor Doksov's attribution; 3) Taking into account the fact that the inscription was discovered in the area of Souk punar (Turkey: cold spring), where there is a river, it can be assumed that the very act of conversion to Christianity was carried out in this place for part of the proto-Bulgarians, thus also leaving a commemorative plaque. 4) Horses and a deer with a cross depicted on the side parts of the stone, together with the proto-Bulgarian runes, symbolically represent the transition from paganism to Christianity. The content of the inscription proves that the significance of the act of Baptism was taken consciously all over the Bulgarian land.

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