Author(s)

Giancarlo T. Tomezzoli¹, Rainhardt S. Stein²

¹Etno-Archaeological Observatory, Munich, Germany.
²Universiteit Utrecht, Utrecht, Holland.

In this article, the strong resemblance of Linear A, Linear B characters with the Proto-Bulgarian characters of the Pliska inscription is used for identifying the phonetic value of each Proto-Bulgarian character. Because said characters are on rays of a rosette, several inscription readings are possible. The selection of the valid reading, its separation in words and its deciphering were made on the basis of similarities between the inscription words and corresponding words in the surviving Slavic languages. The resulting deciphering is: the massacre of the Romans drink glum, but resist at, which can be loosely deciphered as: drink the bitter cup of the Roman massacre glum, but hold on together. The massacre mentioned in the inscription was certainly that that occurred during the war between the Bulgarians of khan Krum and the Byzantines of emperor Nikephoros, when this last on 20^th July 811 sieged Pliska, capital of the First Bulgarian Empire, plundered its treasures and burned it to ground.

Pliska, Rosette, Inscription, Proto-Bulgarian, Linear A, Linear B

Tomezzoli, G. and Stein, R. (2020) The Pliska Inscription. Archaeological Discovery, 8, 84-91. doi: 10.4236/ad.2020.81005.