Pliska rosette

The Pliska Rosette is a seven-pointed bronze rosette found in 1961 in Pliska, the medieval capital of Bulgaria. It is dated by archeologists to the 7th-9th century.

It is in the shape of a seven-pointed star and 38 mm in diameter. It is inscribed with Proto-Bulgar signs^[1]^[2] of the Murfatlar type. Each ray is inscribed with two signs and an IYI symbol can be seen on the back.

Modern use

Representations of the medallion's design are often used (along with the symbol IYI and first letter from the glagolitic alphabet - ) by nationalist and patriotic movements in Bulgaria. It is also used as the logo of bTV's documentary series Bulgarite (Българите).

In Popular Culture

The Rosette features in the film In the Name of the King 3: The Last Mission by director Uwe Boll. It's tattooed on the arm of Hazen Kaine played by Dominic Purcell and has an important role in the plot of the film.

References

^ The Bulgars seem to have spoken a Turkic language, and terms and titles in the Proto-Bulgar inscriptions can be paralleled in those from the Orkhon valley. For more see: Mark Whittow, The Making of Orthodox Byzantium, 600–1025; Macmillan International Higher Education, 1996, ISBN 1349247650, p. 271.
^ Bulgar runic-like signs have also been found in clearly Christian contexts, such as the monasteries of Murfatlar (Constanţa district, Romania) and Ravna (Varna district, Bulgaria), as well as on the above-mentioned bronze rosette from Pliska. Some believe the script to be genuinely Bulgar one, although it is rather heterogeneous and about a third of the signs can be recognized in runic-like inscriptions of the so-called Orkhon-Yenisei type. For more see: “The” Other Europe in the Middle Ages: Avars, Bulgars, Khazars and Cumans; Volume 2, with editors Florin Curta and Roman Kovalev; BRILL, 2008, ISBN 9004163891, p. 191.

“The Bronze Rosette from Pliska: On Decoding the Runic Inscriptions in Bulgaria.” in Byzantino-Slavica. LVI (1995): 547-555 by Pavel Georgiev
Juha Janhunen, Volker Rybatzki, "Writing in the Altaic world", in: Proceedings of the 41st Annual Meeting of the Permanent International Altaistic Conference, p. 270.

External links

[1] The Bulgars seem to have spoken a Turkic language, and terms and titles in the Proto-Bulgar inscriptions can be paralleled in those from the Orkhon valley. For more see: Mark Whittow, The Making of Orthodox Byzantium, 600–1025; Macmillan International Higher Education, 1996, ISBN 1349247650, p. 271.

[2] Bulgar runic-like signs have also been found in clearly Christian contexts, such as the monasteries of Murfatlar (Constanţa district, Romania) and Ravna (Varna district, Bulgaria), as well as on the above-mentioned bronze rosette from Pliska. Some believe the script to be genuinely Bulgar one, although it is rather heterogeneous and about a third of the signs can be recognized in runic-like inscriptions of the so-called Orkhon-Yenisei type. For more see: “The” Other Europe in the Middle Ages: Avars, Bulgars, Khazars and Cumans; Volume 2, with editors Florin Curta and Roman Kovalev; BRILL, 2008, ISBN 9004163891, p. 191.

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