THE FOURTH BOOK OF MACEDON commonly called
SCRIPTS1
The Word In the beginning, the Word existed. The Word was with God, and the Word was God. He existed in the beginning with God. Through him all things were made, and apart from him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life brought light to humanity. And the light shines on in the darkness, and the darkness has never put it out. The Holy Bible (John 1:1)
Now let me take you on a mythical journey, fully awake. There seems to be a logical connection between the Great Mother Goddess cult in Macedonia and the quote above. The Mother cults all across the world are related to oral tradition, which means the word was seen as sacred and kept through oral transmission from generation to generation. Now, if the Word existed with God in the very beginning, how can we explain it in a way that would suit both our spiritual cravings, on one side, and the dry facts on the other? Since oral tradition is difficult to follow in time, we need to refer to more tangible goals. For this reason we should look into the earliest written accounts that describe a single event, that I believe is directly associated to the Word, and languages in general as well as the development of the Scripts. The earliest accounts in almost all the cultures describe a single event that has influenced the development of all ancient civilizations drastically, that of the Deluge, or better known as the Flood. I believe that the information about what really the Flood represented to those people of the ancient lore is available to us, in a
1
An extract from THE HOUSE OF MACEDON – THE LIVING BIBLE OF LIGHT by Petro Invictus
hidden form, and we need to make a step forward with each breath we take, each word we read, since it is an ongoing process, here and now. If we assume that the ancient Mysteries, like the Orphic for example, were “the guardians of a transcendental knowledge so profound as to be incomprehensible save to the most exalted intellect and so potent as to be revealed with safety only to those in whom personal ambition was dead and who had consecrated their lives to the unselfish service of humanity”, and if we assume that the ancient mystics had developed a very intriguing system of preserving their knowledge, through oral tradition, customs and culture, that would prevail all turmoil of time and still sound the same eternal message, then we can say that the oral tradition in Macedonia, as well as the customs and traditions can provide us with enough evidence to suggest that the Word has indeed been preserved in its original form all throughout the ages, in a very cunningly spontaneous process. Through the Mysteries, which were “secret societies, binding their initiates to inviolable secrecy, and avenging with death the betrayal of their sacred trusts”, the Word was kept alive. One legend says that Orpheus was killed by a thunderbolt for revealing the secret to others. This legend might hold the key to the origins of the phonetic script of the Phoenicians, in relation to the Danube scripts and the Rock Art inscriptions in Macedonia. Before the scripts developed, the oral tradition in Macedonia was the dominant method of transmitting knowledge, similar to the Celtic tradition, where an initiate would first learn how to be a bard, meaning how to sing about the Truth, which is what they called their epical accounts on their history, and then when the initiate learns healing and magick, he/she may become a Druid. The Orphic priests used symbols that they engraved on rocks to pass on important messages to the next generation. They watched the stars on top of the rocky megalithic observatories, applied their spiritual skills to communicate with the Other World, and talked about the Truth within inner circles, thus they remembered. They put inscriptions on the rocks, which were used for special purposes, during rituals. The rituals were dedicated to a single goal, to instill the Truth into the sub-conscious minds of the people for the ages to come. The scripts were seen as magical symbols, since they represented the signs on the sky. Each letter was a constellation, and the mystery goes that if one puts them together in the right way one will probably see the map of the Universe… The Flood, to these mystics would be a symbolic representation of a cosmic event that they anticipated and lived through, and then decided to warn us that it might happen again. The Flood caused the migrations of many people between Europe, Asia and Africa, which created the Hellenic or the Greek culture to the south of the aboriginal culture of Europe, that of the Neolithic inhabitants of Macedonia. Before the Flood, things were rather quiet in the Balkans. The Great Mother cult reveals a prehistory of a spiritual idyllic paradise as it seems from the archaeological evidence, with divine music, poetry, astronomy, scripts, theatre, all this some 7000 years ago, or even earlier. The people here, the native population, spoke very little, used an isolating language, consisting mostly of root morphemes, combined in a disyllabic system as a kind of primeval method of communication. Today this language is known as proto-Slavic, a branch of the Indo-European languages. According to the ancient Greek sources, the term
Pelasgian referred to the native non-Greek population of the region, which settled the Balkans prior to the Semitic invasions that took place after the Flood, which was a process going on in waves, across a millennium and a half. The Pelasgians spoke a language related to the Phrygian which belongs to the Indo-European group of languages. They certainly did not speak the Semitic of the Danaos nor that of the Dorians, who were related to the Phoenicians. The earliest accounts on the Flood in the Hellenic sources come from Hesiod2. He mentions Deukalion3 who is parallel to the Biblical Noah and to Utnapishtim, the survivor of the Sumerian flood that is told in the Epic of Gilgamesh. As Hesiod saw it, Deukalion4 saved the Pelasgian race from the Flood, and then installed his race unto the Earth. The ark that he built was a safe haven for the Pelasgians, and it touched the tops of several mountains across almost all of the Mediterranean. This might be seen as an indication of the possible location of the Pelasgians, or the native population of Europe, observed from the perspective of the ancient Greek authors. After the Flood, when everything was set, Deukalion resettled the Earth with the Pelasgians, and giving reverence to the Great Mother, Gaia, “created” the living rocks5 like that of Kokino and 2
Hesiod (Greek: Ἡσίοδος Hesiodos) was an early Greek poet and rhapsode, who presumably lived around 700 BC. Hesiod and Homer are generally considered the earliest Greek poets whose work has survived since at least Herodotus's time (Histories, 2.53), and they are often paired. (Wikipedia) Commentary: the term Greek is still used in wider public due to the fact that this myth is transmitted through Greek sources. However the facts reveal that it is the non-Greek native population of what is today Greece which these names can be related to. The fact that we know of these events through Greek sources does not make them Greek, since the Danaos and Dorian tribes, who comprise the Greek civilization, arrive much later after the Deluge. 3
In Greek mythology, Deucalion (Ancient Greek: ∆ευκαλίων) was a son of Prometheus and Pronoia. When the anger of Zeus was ignited against the hubris of the Pelasgians, Zeus decided to put an end to the Bronze Age with the Deluge. For Lycaon, the king of Arcadia had sacrificed a boy to Zeus. This was a sacrifice that was forbidden in the new Olympian order, utterly inappropriate as an offering, and repugnant besides. Zeus struck Lycaon's house with a thunderbolt and turned him into a wolf. (Wikipedia) 4
Deucalion, who reigned over the region of Phthia, had been forewarned of the flood by his father, Prometheus. Deucalion was to build an ark and provision it carefully (no animals are rescued in this version of the Flood myth), so that when the waters receded after nine days, he and his wife Pyrrha, daughter of Epimetheus, were the one surviving pair of humans. Their ark touched solid ground on Mount Parnassus, or Mount Etna in Sicily, or Mount Athos in Chalkidiki, or Mount Othrys in Thessaly. Hyginus mentions the opinion of a Hegesianax that Deucalion is to be identified with Aquarius, "because during his reign such quantities of water poured from the sky that the great Flood resulted." 5
Once the deluge was over and the couple had given thanks to Zeus, Deucalion consulted an oracle of Themis about how to repopulate the earth. He was told to “cover your head and throw the bones of your mother behind your shoulder”. Deucalion and Pyrrha understood that "mother" is Gaia, the mother of all living things, and the "bones" to be rocks. They threw the rocks behind their shoulders and the stones formed people. Pyrrha's became women; Deucalion's became men. Deucalion and Pyrrha had at least two children, Hellen and Protogenea, and possibly a third, Amphictyon (who is autochthonous in other traditions).
Tzotze’s Rock, where he put the people to observe the stars, and preserve the Truth for the generations to come. These myths seem to hold a lot of truth if we analyze the symbolism behind them. Deucalion had a daughter, called Thyia6, who was the mother of Magnes and Macedon7, who were both natives, or Pelasgian to the ancient Greeks. These names had survived in Hellenic written sources, and it is interesting to see the connection between these and the Doric Greeks or Hellenes, as an identity they have obviously assumed from the native population of Greece, since the Danaos invasion did not happen until the 1750s BC, and the Dorian invasions, which was the last wave of Semitic migrations from Asia across the Northern fringes of Greece into the Peloponnese, which formed the bulk of what was to become Greek civilization, happened around the 12th century BC, it turns that Deucalion was a Pelasgian of the native stock. His grandson Macedon would therefore also be a native to the land which they called Mother Gaia, or Gea, thus Argead would imply, descending from the Earth Gea, Ar meaning ‘earth’ in modern Macedonian. Thyia was a Priestess of Dionysus, a devotee to the Great Mother Goddess cult, with its roots in the Neolithic cultures of Macedonia. Her brother was called Ilin or Hellen, representing the Sun, Ilion or Helion in Greek, whose name means light even today in modern Macedonian. Their children as apparently named in one of the oldest texts, Catalogue of Women, include daughters Pandora and Thyia, and sons Hellen and Idomeneus. Their descendants were said to have dwelt in Thessaly. One fragment agrees with later accounts in making Deucalion the son of Prometheus and Pronoea; another, the son of Minos. (Wikipedia) 6
According to Hesiod's Eoiae or Catalogue of Women, Thyia (Greek: Θυία) was the daughter of Deucalion and Pyrrha and mother of Magnes and Makednos by Zeus. In the Delphic tradition, Thyia was also the naiad of a spring on Mount Parnassos in Phocis (central Greece), daughter of the river god Cephissus. Her shrine was the site for the gathering of the Thyiades (women who celebranted in the orgies of the god Dionysos). She was said to have been the first to have sacrificed to Dionysus, and to have celebrated orgies in his honour. Hence the Attic women, who every year went to Mount Parnassus to celebrate the Dionysiac orgies with the Delphian Thyiades, received themselves the name of Thyades or Thyiades. She was said to have been loved by Apollo and bore him Delphos, the eponymous founder of town Delphi, beside the oracular shrine. She was also closely associated with the prophetic Castalian Spring, from which she was sometimes said to have been born. Thyia was also related to Castalia, the nymph of the spring, Melaena, an alternative mother for Delphos, and the Corycian nymphs, naiades of the springs of the holy Corycian Cave. (Wikipeida) 7
Makedon or Macedon (Greek: Μάκεδνος or Μακεδνός) was, according to Hesiod's Eoiae or Catalogue of Women on the origin of the son of Thyia and Zeus, brother of Thessalian Magnes and cousin of Boeotian or Epirotan Graecus. His mother Thyia was the daughter of the Greek progenitors Deucalion and Pyrrha and sister of Hellen, who together with his three sons Dorus, Xuthus (with his sons Ion and Achaeus) and Aeolos, comprised the set of the basic 7 ancient tribes that formed the Hellenic nation. The above genealogy is also quoted by the Macedonian historian Marsyas of Pella. (Wikipedia) The term Greek here suggests that the Semitic tribes, who later settled the Greek peninsula, had imitated much of the mythology of the native population, thus justifying their heritage to the land.
If we move to Herodotus8 after Hesiod, we get a rather different story. Herodotus lived much later than Hesiod, say in the 5th century BC. He talks about the two races, Pelasgian and the Hellenic, the first related to the Ionians, the second to the Dorians. The Ionians are related to the Athenians, while the Dorians are related to the Lacedaemonians, who were seen as related to the Jews, at least according to the Old Testament9. Could it be that Herodotus here was applying various names to people who lived in various stages of development? The Pelasgians or the natives never left home, that is clear. They lived across the Mediterranean and as certain evidence point out, even further north. It seems that the Phrygians, Trojans, Paeonians, Argeads, Thracians, Epirans, and many other tribes were native to the region (therefore Pelasgians to the Greeks), who spoke an Indo-European pre-Slavic language, related to the Phrygian language. Some of these Pelasgians, living to the south in the Mediterranean, had to face several waves of devastation caused by the migrations of the Semitic tribes, which can be related to the Hyksos invasion of Egypt. They gradually got assimilated and later became Ionian, mixing with the Danaos, to be known as Athenians in Classical Greece. This implies that the Athenians were a mixture of the native population, the invading Danaos, and the Achaeans10, while those who replaced the Pelopids11, the Dorians, were a wandering tribe, probably coming from 8
From Herodotus’ Histories: "When he heard these verses, Croesus was pleased with them above all, for he thought that a mule would never be king of the Medes instead of a man, and therefore that he and his posterity would never lose his empire. Then he sought very carefully to discover who the mightiest of the Greeks were, whom he should make his friends. He found by inquiry that the chief peoples were the Lacedaemonians among those of DORIC, and the Athenians among those of IONIC stock. These races, IONIAN and DORIAN, were the foremost in ancient time, the first a PELASGIAN and the second a HELLENIC people. The Pelasgian race has never yet left its home; the HELLENIC has WANDERED OFTEN and FAR. For in the days of king Deucalion1 IT (the Dorian) INHABITED the land of Phthia, THEN the country called Histiaean, under Ossa and Olympus, in the time of Dorus son of Hellen; DRIVEN from this Histiaean country by the Cadmeans, IT SETTLED about Pindus IN THE TERRITORY CALLED MACEDONIAN; from there again IT MIGRATED to Dryopia, and AT LAST CAME from Dryopia into the Peloponnese, where it took the name of Dorian." 9
"A curious Hebrew Nazarite practice (Num. vi.) is seen in the feast at which the Athenians sacrificed the hair of their children to Diana. The ceremony of shaving the head, and the drink-offerings, &c., were either in imitation of the Nazarite law, or the Athenians were related, like the Lacedaemonians, to the Jews. (Joseph. Antiq. XII. iv. 10; XIII. v. 8; I Macc. xii. 21)." (From The Ten Tribes at Athens by E. Reep) 10
At the beginning of the 14th century BC I believe there was another invasion of Greece - that of the Pelopids of Achaians from Anatolia, which introduced new styles of fortification and possibly chariotracing; but this is not of direct concern to my project. (Martin Bernal’s Black Athena) 11
In the 12th century BC there was a more disruptive historical break. In Antiquity, what is now called the “Dorian Invasion” was much more frequently termed ‘The Return of the Heraklids’. The incomers undoubtedly came from the north-western fringes of Greece, which had been less affected by the Middle Eastern culture of the Mycenaean palaces which they destroyed. Their calling themselves ‘Heraklids’ is fascinating, as it was a claim not only to divined descent from Herakles but also to Egyptian and
Phoenicia, they traveled far across the land, moving from Phthia, to the Histiaean land, where they stayed in the time of Dorus son of Hellen, who were both Pelasgians, since they were descendants of Deukalion. Then they were driven from there, and moved to a place called Pindus in Macedonia where they stayed for a short period, and then migrated again to Dryopia, and at last came to the Peloponnese, where they settled under the name of Dorians. This wandering had caused the fall of the Mycenaean Kingdoms, and the start of the Greek Dark Ages. I am telling you this, because it was the Dorians who applied the Phoenician writing system in Greece, after 400 years lack of literacy, during which period the use of the Mycenaean Linear B script ceased. The Phoenician alphabet resembles the Rock Art inscriptions across Macedonia, which predates it. The Macedonian Argeads, taking their roots from the Pelasgian Macedon, and their mythical forefather Deucalion, according to Hesiod, lived in Argos until the arrival of the Danaos, who imposed their own culture and identity12 upon the natives, causing the Argeads to move north13, and cross the Great Mountain (Mount Olympus), lead by their Tsar Caranus, and establish their Kingdom in Argos Orestikon. The Paeonians14 moved north even earlier, allegedly after the first foot race in Elis, and later called the Argeads to help them with their neighbors. The Argeads moved due to the increasing influence of the Danaos, and settled in what was to be the land of Macedon. There was a regrouping of people, the natives to the north, the newcomers to the south, and those who got assimilated by them. The new Hellenic race was formed on the Phoenician ancestors of the royal families which had been replaced by the Pelopids. There is no doubt that the descendants of these conquerors, the Dorian kings of Classical and Hellenistic times, believed themselves to be descendants from Egyptians and Phoenicians. (Martin Bernal’s Black Athena) 12
The idea that the Pelasgians were the native population, convened to become something more Greek by the invading Egyptians, occurs more clearly in the plays of Aischylos and Euripides, written around the time of Herodotos' Histories. According to them the Pelasgians were the indigenes, encountered and somehow overcome by Danaos in the Argolid: “Danaos, the father of fifty daughters, on coming to Argos took up his abode in the city of Inachos and throughout Greece (Hellas) he laid down the law that all people hitherto named Pelasgians were to be named Danaans." According to Aischylos the Pelasgians were clearly identified with the later Hellenes, and he refers anachronistically to the practices of the former as Hellenic. 13
Before the first Olympiad, Caranus was moved by ambition to collect forces from the Argives and from the rest of the Peloponnese, in order to lead an army into the territory of the Macedonians. At that time the king of the Orestae was at war with his neighbors, the Eordaei, and he called on Caranus to come to his aid, promising to give him half of his territory in return, if the Orestae were successful. 14
According to Pausanias the first king of Elis was Aethlios, who came from Thessaly with his people. His son, Endymion, according to the legend, had fifty daughters and three sons. Endymion was the first to proclaim a foot race in Olympia, between his three sons, Paeon, Epeios and Aetolos. Epeios won the race and the throne and the inhabitants named after him, Epeans, as Homer calls them. Paeon left after his defeat and went to the territory after the river Axios, which took his name, Paeonia.
grounds of imitating the culture and the identities of the native population, similar to what the Hyksos did in Egypt, thus borrowing heavily both from the native Pelasgians, but also from the Semitic cultures of the Mediterranean, primarily the Phoenician and the Danaos. Ilion, or the symbol of the enlightened, was preserved as an identity of the Hellenic race, which derived from all these waves of invaders mixing with the native population. The turmoil brought forth the epic Trojan War, which was the culmination of the conflict between the Pelasgians or the native population, and the invading Semitic tribes. After the Trojan War, the Great Mountain separated the cultures, Greek to the south, natives or ‘barbarians’ - as seen by the sophisticated Semitic Hellenes - to the north. These barbarians to the north had preserved in their oral tradition the mysteries of the ancient lore, the unspeakable Truth of Life itself. Yet, since we can only observe this reality based on the impressions that the ancient Greek authors had about these barbaric, uncivilized people to the north, we can assume that since the mysteries were transmitted orally and inside the community, the ancient Greeks cannot have known about them, which might be the cause for their prejudiced viewpoints on the culture of the native tribes to the north of Olympus. While the northern tribes cherished the Word in their oral tradition, the Phoenicians spreading their influence on the Hellenic world, introduced the phonetic script in Greece. But how did they get it in the first place? The Phoenicians15 lived in what is now Syria16, and can be related to the Hyksos invasions of Egypt, which brought them to Asia Minor, in close contact with the Phrygians. The Phrygians had previously lived in the Balkans before moving to Asia Minor. They can be associated to the early Neolithic cultures in Macedonia as well as the Rock Art inscriptions from that period, which resemble those of the Phoenicians. If we assume that there has been a contact between these two tribes, the Phoenicians and the Phrygians, than having in mind that the Phoenicians were “unpolished seamen with no art, literature, or culture of their own”, who “bravely sailed farther than any other ancient people to trade in ivory, precious metals, and spices”, and if we assume that they “did not have the patience to write in artistic hieroglyphics, so they ‘invented’ a simple alphabet in the twelfth century B.C.”, which corresponds roughly 15
Hekataios of Abdera set out his view that the traditions of the Egyptian expulsion of the Hyksos, the Israelite Exodus and that of Danaos' landing in Argos were three parallel versions of the same story: The natives of the land surmised that unless they removed the foreigners their troubles would never be resolved. At once, therefore, the aliens were driven from the country and the most outstanding and active among them banded together and, as some say, were cast ashore in Greece and certain other regions; their teachers were notable men, among them being Danaos and Kadmos. But the greater number were driven into what is now called Judaea, which is not far from Egypt and at that time was utterly uninhabited. The colony was headed by a man called Moses. The ancient chronographers varied in their dating of the arrival of Kadmos and his 'second' foundation of Thebes. I would associate these legends too with the Hyksos, though they could refer to later periods. Greek tradition associated Danaos with the introduction of irrigation and Kadmos with the introduction of certain types of weapons, the alphabet, and a number of religious rituals. (Martin Bernal’s Black Athena) 16
Meanwhile, it is interesting to note that according to an ancient tradition referred to by Homer, Amphion and Zethos were the first founders of Thebes and that its other founder, Kadmos, arrived from the Near East long after their city had been destroyed. (Martin Bernal’s Black Athena)
with the migration of the Phrygians17 to Asia Minor, where the Phoenicians had settled from the Near East, then could it be that the Phoenicians learned the sacred writing from the Orphic mystics of Phrygia? Could this be the legend of Orpheus being killed for revealing a secret to the outsiders? If we take this as a working hypothesis, this might be the solution to the mysterious appearance of the alphabet among the unpolished seafarers of Phoenicia, and its distribution across the Hellenic world, which now served for administrative and literary purposes rather than mystical and religious, as it was the case in Macedonia, with the Orphic symbols on the rocks? Was it Kadmos who learned the mystery from Orpheus and thus passed it on to the common people, primarily to his Semitic brethren, as those of Phoenicia and those of Greece? After all, Diodoros referred to Kadmos' having taught the Pelasgians the use of Phoenician letters. It appears that the mythical Kadmos, had brought the alphabet from Phoenicia to Greece, and had taught the natives how to use it. At that time the natives of Greece were a mixture of Danaos and Pelasgians, and there was another wave of Achaeans who settled there from Anatolia, of Semitic origins as well, as it seems. So at the arrival of Kadmos, the natives or the Pelasgians of Peloponnese consisted roughly of the earliest native population that mixed with the Danaos from Egypt and later with the Ionians from Anatolia. These seem to have been the first to receive the alphabet from the Phoenician Kadmos18. Kadmos who brought the alphabet to Greece, must have acquired it, or better say ‘purchased’ it from a Phrygian Orphic mystic, who on the other hand had inherited it as a spiritual legacy from prehistoric times from the time when their ancestors inhabited the mountainous regions of southern Balkans, since the same signs, of the same alphabet can be found all across the Balkans, and the Danube area, known to modern scholars as the Vinča and Danube scripts, predating the Phoenician innovation of its administrative use.
17
The Phrygians (Phruges or Phryges) initially lived in the Southern Balkans; according to Herodotus under the name of Bryges(/Briges), changing it to "Phruges" after their final migration to Anatolia, via the Hellespont. 18
According to Black Athena, Kadmos' colonization of Thebes is fully accounted for in ancient literature:
“This was the stronghold of the Ancient Model because it was so vigorously and widely attested, and because respect for the Semitic Phoenicians outlasted that for the African Egyptians by several decades.” “The Iliad is full of references to Danaans and Kadmeians, whose eponyms - Danaos and Kadmos - would have been instantly recognized by at least later Greeks as having come from Egypt or Phoenicia.” “Homer and Hesiod both referred to Europa, who was always seen as a sister or some other close relative to Kadmos, as the 'daughter of Phoenix'.” “Homer frequently uses the term ‘Phoenix’ in the sense of 'Phoenician'.”
The sacred script was thus simply transmuted from being a secret code of the Mysteries to being an administrative script of the merchants - a revolutionary step that would change the human perception on reality to unspeakable scopes.
The Vinca Script: Rock Art in Macedonia
The Swastika19 from a mosaic in Ohrid, Plaošnik The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. The Holy Bible (John 1:9)
(Dreamtime…) There was a time when the people would nest on the rocks, observing the stars, looking for signs hidden in the thin beams of light that reached their pupils from far above. When the beam would twinkle inside their pinecones20, they would let the waves of the Eternal Ocean reach their souls and reveal the mysteries of the Cosmos. Then as the signs would shine brighter each time they observed them, they would inscribe them on the rocks, to know where the message was coming from. They marked each dot that revealed a message on those rocks. Thus they could see the whole of the Cosmos written on the 19
The earliest swastika-like symbols preserved appear on pottery dating to the 5th millennium BC, as part of the "Vinča script". The swastika (from Sanskrit ‘svastika’) is an equilateral cross with its arms bent at
right angles either left-facing ( ) or right-facing ( ). It is traditionally oriented so that a main line is horizontal, though it is occasionally rotated at forty-five degrees, and the Hindu version is often decorated with a dot in each quadrant. The swastika was present in almost all early cultures of the world, from India to the Americas, as well as in the pre-Christian Slavic mythology. It was dedicated to the Sun god named Svarog and called Kolovrat. (Online Encyclopedia) 20
Ref. to the pineal gland and the Pinecone Cult of Dionysus Creed.
rocks, and when the stars aligned the dots would show it clearly. Then the people would know which cycle they lived in.
Rock Art engravings from Jedoarce, Tetovo, north-west Macedonia As time passed by, the messages got clearer and clearer, and the people knew that there was something coming from the Great Ocean. The messages revealed that there was a Flood coming from far above, and that it would completely change the world, bringing oblivion to the people. The Elders then gathered on Father’s Rock21, and decided to do something in order to prevent the people from forgetting everything. They inscribed lines between the dots they had put on the rocks to mark the location of the stars where they received the messages from, and combined the dots into symbols that they called the Sacred Script. Just before the Flood reached the Great Mother, there lived a young Ilion who loved the Sun, and took pleasure bathing in its warm rays; to him it was like bathing in the Great Ocean, since the Sun’s rays were already full of the mystery that the Flood was bringing forward to all the people. He took the signs from the Sacred Script, and engraved them on a stone. He wrote:
A pre-Vedic inscription from a grave monument from Ilina Gora, Upper Shrine, Osinchani, near Skopje (7000 - 6000 B.C.)22 The signs that his forefathers had left on the rocks shone brightly in the sunlight, and revealed to his delight the eternal message:
21
Ref. to the megalithic observatory of Kokino, also known as Tatićev Kamen (Father’s Rock).
22
Contributed by Vasil Iljov: http://www.unet.com.mk/ancient-macedonians-part2/index.html
“KRE[T SE SI U L’T S’L S IQU”
23
"KRESHT SE SI U L'T S'L S ILJU" “KRESKAJ SI SE VO LET SAL SO ILO (SONCETO)” “GLITTER IN YOUR FLIGHT ONLY WITH THE SUN”
He inspired many to soar into the sunbeams that were pouring down in torrents as the Flood was approaching. The sunlight gathered around them and amassed in their pinecones, and sheltered their souls with the Truth - never to be forgotten. Then all of the sudden the Flood came, and darkness covered the Earth for three days and nights. The people were hiding in the caves, dreaming of the Sun. After the Flood was over, the Elders came and returned the light to the world. They told the people the names of everything, since many had forgotten, and gave them the Sacred Script, with the knowledge how to read it when they needed to remember. Then people started naming everything with the sounds that came from the signs on the rocks, and uttered the Sacred Words, dancing in circles like the Great Mother does around the Sun. They were to be kept secret and cherished to the end of days, when the next Flood would approach. The Word was thus kept alive among the people, within their customs and lore, while the Sacred Script kept its secret meaning among the initiated few. The Elders would again nest on the rocks, observing the stars, waiting for new messages. But the beams got weaker, and the messages were fading. Then one day the Elders saw the stars gathered amid the Great Ocean and recognized some signs of their Sacred Script, striking a sharp tone in their souls. They carved the signs down on the soft earth, and read the alarming message:
An inscription with the Sign System of the Vinca Culture on a clay tablet24from Gradešnica (4000 BC)
23
This is a message that can be recognized by anyone who can read old Cyrillic, if we read the inscription from right to left. The Cyrillic letters are easily recognized. The message is at least 8000 years old.
HIDE AWAY NOW - BAD PEOPLE DISGUISED AS DOGS ARE COMING AGAIN… СКРИЈ СЕ С’Г – ЛОШИ ЉУДИ ПС’НИ КОИ ИЊИ ИДУ ШИРЕ ИД’Т П’Г... The Elders knew it was a bad omen, and they summoned the people to pass the message onto them. They told them that there will be many raids by strangers who will come to ravage the Great Mother, who will try to cast a dark cloud over the Sun so that the children would forget the Truth. They told them to carve the message on clay tablets, and gather around the Holy Rock, to feast and celebrate Life, with dances and music that would stay with them till the end of days as part of their mores. They asked them to distribute the clay tablets across the land and warn the rest of the times to come. So mote it was…
The Gradešnica plaque When the people from all the four parts of the land heard the news, they gathered at the Holy Rock to hear the Elders proclaim the Word: This is the Sacred Script of those who come with the Word; it is the Light of the World, to be written and spoken: a, b, v, g… among the Keepers of the Sun.25
24
Found in a sanctuary (perhaps), the Gradešnica plaque recalls a ritual, shallow vase 12.5 cm long. Discovered in Vraca (north-west Bulgaria), it dates back to the end of the eighth millennium and is bearing inscriptions on both sides. 25
This is an adaptation of an extract from an early-Slavic text written in the 9th-10th centuries, by a monk called “Chernorizec Hrabar” – ”Црноризец Храбар (Old Slavic: Чръноризьць Храбръ). The title of the text is “On the Letters” - О писменех, За буквите (Old Slavic: О писменехъ), written in defense of the use of the Cyrillic script as a Holy Script of the Church.
Listen thou People of the Word26, thou are the Keepers of the Truth, thy songs and dances are the blood of the land, our Holy Mother, thy language is the spirit of the Sun, our Holy Father, you are those to carry this Truth to the end of days, oh Children of the Sun. Therefore, hide this Truth in your myths and legends, weave it in your garments, sing of it, dance to it and never let go of the lore that binds you to the land, for you are the land and the land is you. When the dark clouds hang upon you, do not despair… Find a shelter in your Mother’s bosom, lift up your eyes to the sky and behold thy Father on Heavens, drink from his Light and fly as Ilion once did in the rays of wisdom, drink of it and remember, thou are the chosen ones, the Word bearers, and upon you the Word is bestowed, out of which everything came... Treasure Life, revere the Sun, and guard the Great Mother from the intruders… Keep the Sacred Script among the wisest of you, and do not let its secret out until the day has come when the world will see the Power of the Word. Then you will know each other as People of the Word, and you will proclaim the Truth to the world. Be as shrewd as a snake and innocent as a dove, and thou shall know God… Thy Word will become alive and will reach everyone’s ear… Thou will shed the golden rays of the Sun across the world and so long as there are eyes - they will know who You are…
Tzotze’s Rock The people than gathered around the Holy Rock and danced for seven days and nights. They told the myths of ancient lore, over and again, weaving the truth in their garments, singing of the Great Wisdom until the last one remembered each word of it. Then they made vessels where they inscribed the message of Truth, and offered it as a sacrifice to the land. The massage said: With God all alone…
26
People of the Word would translate as Sloveni in Macedonian.
(Awakening…)
Image 1
Image 2
1. Ceramic seal from the locality of "Cerje" near Govrlevo, close to Skopje (c. 6,000 BC) inscribed in the ancient Macedonian "public" and "secret" alphabet, from right to left and from top to bottom, with an illustrated manner of deciphering the contents: "S'L S BO S'M" which would mean "I AM ONLY WITH GOD" or "WITH GOD ALL ALONE." 2. Inscriptions on pottery from the ancient settlement “Barutnica” near Anzabegovo, Macedonia (7000 - 6000 years b.c.)27
The Vinča signs28, also known as the Vinča alphabet, Vinča-Turdaş script, or Old European script, are a set of symbols found on prehistoric artifacts from southeastern Europe. Some believe they constitute a writing system of the Vinča culture, which inhabited the region around 6000-4000 BC. Others doubt that the markings represent writing at all, citing the brevity of the purported inscriptions and the dearth of repeated symbols in the purported script; it is all but universally accepted among scholars that the Sumerian cuneiform script of c. 3000 BC is the earliest form of writing. It is more likely that the symbols formed a kind of "proto-writing"; that is, that they conveyed a message but did not encode language. In 1875, archaeological excavations led by the archeologist Zsófia Torma (1840– 1899) at Turdaş (Tordos), near Orăştie in Transylvania (now Romania) unearthed a cache of objects inscribed with previously unknown symbols. A similar cache was found during excavations conducted in 1908 in Vinča, a suburb of Belgrade (Serbia), some 120km from Tordos. Later, more such fragments were found in 27 28
Contributed by Vasil Iljov: http://www.unet.com.mk/ancient-macedonians-part2/index.html From Wikipedia
Banjica, another part of Belgrade. Thus the culture represented is called the Vinča culture, and the script often called the Vinča-Tordos script. The discovery of the Tartaria tablets in Romania by Nicolae Vlassa in 1961 reignited the debate. Vlassa believed the inscriptions to be pictograms and the finds were subsequently carbon-dated to before 4000 BC, thirteen hundred years earlier than the date he expected, and earlier even than the writing systems of the Sumerians and Minoans. To date, more than a thousand fragments with similar inscriptions have been found on various archaeological sites throughout southeastern Europe, notably in northern Greece (Dispilio29 Tablet), Bulgaria, Serbia, Macedonia, Romania, eastern Hungary, Moldova, and southern Ukraine. Most of the inscriptions are on pottery, with the remainder appearing on whorls (flat cylindrical annuli), figurines, and a small collection of other objects. Over 85% of the inscriptions consist of a single symbol. The symbols themselves consist of a variety of abstract and representative pictograms, including zoomorphic (animal-like) representations, combs or brush patterns and abstract symbols such as swastikas, crosses and chevrons. Other objects include groups of symbols, of which some are arranged in no particularly obvious pattern, with the result that neither the order nor the direction of the signs in these groups is readily determinable. The usage of symbols varies significantly between objects: symbols that appear by themselves tend almost exclusively to appear on pots, while symbols that are grouped with other symbols tend to appear on whorls. The importance of these findings lies in the fact that the oldest of them are dated around 4000 BC (or even earlier), around a thousand years before the protoSumerian pictographic script from Uruk (modern Iraq), which is usually considered as the oldest known script. Analyses of the symbols showed that they had little similarity with Near Eastern writing, leading to the view that these symbols and the Sumerian script probably arose independently. There are some similarities between the symbols and other Neolithic symbologies found elsewhere, as far afield as Egypt, Crete and even China. If we draw a parallel between the Vinča Script and the Neolithic cultures in the Balkans, particularly that of the Great Mother goddess in Macedonia, then we might assume that the same early settlers of southeast Europe who venerated the Great Mother goddess, as part of their matriarchal culture, used the Vinča Script, whether as part of their distinct
29
The Dispilio Tablet (also known as the Dispilio Scripture or the Dispilio Disk) is a wooden tablet bearing inscribed markings (charagmata), unearthed during George Hourmouziadis's excavations of Dispilio in Greece and Carbon 14-dated to about 7300 years b.p. (5260 BC). It was discovered in 1993 in a Neolithic lakeshore settlement that occupied an artificial island near the modern village of Dispilio on Lake Kastoria in Kastoria Prefecture, Greece. Dispilio (Greek: ∆ισπηλιό, Bulgarian: Дупяк, Dupyak, Macedonian: Дупјак, Dupyak) is an archaeological site containing remains of a Neolithic lakeshore settlement that occupied an artificial island near the modern village of Dispilio on Lake Orestiada in Kastoria Prefecture, Macedonia, Greece. (Wikipedia)
language system, or a form of symbolic ‘proto-writing’ to convey a message, but not a language, as assumed by certain scholars. Now, if we take into consideration the fact that the Great Mother cults were associated to the Dionysus and Orphic mysteries most present in Macedonia, prior to the expansion of the Hellenic culture from the south where writing was introduced with the import of the Phoenician alphabet in Greece, and if we consider the fact that the Orphic mysteries relied primarily on oral tradition, then we might assume that the VinÄ?a Script was a ritualistic code of symbols, intended to convey a message which must have been part of a distinct language, that of the earliest settlers of southeast Europe, who lived in a matriarchal society where writing was considered sacred, therefore secret, or available only to the initiated, while oral tradition was used for transmitting knowledge and culture among the population. The next thing we need to do is find out what the language of these early people was. The languages of modern time are mostly synthetic30, which means that words contain more than one morpheme, and in order to create new words, other morphemes are inflicted to the stem, or the root morpheme. Some languages are highly synthetic such as: Greek, Finish, Latin, German, Italian, Russian, Polish and Czech, while other languages have less morphemes per word, such as English, which is considered to be a rather isolating language31, or Macedonian32, which is seen as distinct from the other Slavic languages, and is classified as analytic language33. This brings us close to the assumption that the Macedonian language consists of fewer morphemes per word, and most of the root morphemes are isolated lexemes. 30
A synthetic language, in linguistic typology, is a language with a high morpheme-per-word ratio. This linguistic classification is largely independent of morpheme-usage classifications (such as fusional, agglutinative, etc.), although there is a common tendency for agglutinative languages to exhibit synthetic properties. (Wikipedia) 31
Synthetic languages are frequently contrasted with isolating languages. It is more accurate to conceive of languages as existing on a continuum, with strictly isolating (consistently one morpheme per word) at one end and highly polysynthetic (in which a single word may contain as much information as an entire English sentence) at the other extreme. Synthetic languages tend to lie around the middle of this scale. (Wikipedia) 32
Macedonian grammar is markedly analytic in comparison with other Slavic languages, having lost the common Slavic case system. The Macedonian language shows some special and, in some cases, unique characteristics due to its central position in the Balkans. (Wikipedia)
33
The term analytic referring a morphological type is synonymous with the term isolating in most contexts. However, it is possible to define analytic as referring to the expression of syntactic information via separate grammatical words instead via morphology (with bound morphemes). Obviously, using separate words to express syntactic relationships would lead to a more isolating tendency while using inflectional morphology would lead to the language having a more synthetic tendency. By definition, all isolating languages would also be analytic (in the sense defined in this section). However, it is possible that a language may have virtually no inflectional morphology but have a larger number of derivational affixes. (Wikipedia)
According to the Motor theory34 of language origin, the first sounds of human language “emerged as an external physical expression of the neural basis for movement control�. This implies that the first sounds were a result of a neurotic activity within our brains, which compelled certain vocal functions to produce certain sounds. In modern Macedonian there are 5 vowels and 26 consonants. If we assume that these were the sounds that emerged from the motor activities of our nervous system, then we might assume that the lowest scale for combining these vowels and consonants to produce meaningful sound representation for ideas to be conveyed, would be a syllabic system, or syllabic morphemes consisting of a consonant and vowel, thus creating the first lexemes. This brings us close to the isolating languages, where the lexemes can consist of as many as two sounds, or a syllable, conveying a specific meaning. These root syllabic forms are known as lemmas35, or the core of the words in a single language. The syllabic lemmas must have been the earliest forms of spoken language, which further combined and developed to create more complex lexical units and thus introduce first the isolating languages, out of which the synthetic languages developed later by combining more than one morphemes to form a word. All in all, we can assume that the earliest languages consisted of syllabic root morphemes, or lemmas, which were used as part of a complex language system comprehensive to the earliest speakers of the particular language.
When it comes to the Macedonian language, which is an analytic language, and consists of a large number of root morphemes, which if rendered to their syllabic form, convey comprehensive and meaningful ideas, we might assume that within the linguistic heritage 34
The motor theory proposes that the complex semantic, syntactic and phonetic structures of language developed from a pre-existing complex system, more specifically the pre-existing motor system. Language thus emerged as an external physical expression of the neural basis for movement control. Features which made a wide range of skilled actions possible - a set of elementary motor subprograms together with rules, expressed in neural organization, for combining subprograms into extended action-sequences - were transferred to form a parallel set of programs and rules for speech and language. The already established integration of motor control with perceptual organization led directly to a systematic relation between language and the externally-perceived world. But if language originated in the establishment of new brain connections between the organization of motor control and perception on the one hand and the neural and physiological systems involved in language on the other, how is it that as far back as can be traced there has been a multiplicity of different languages, with different phonological systems, different lexicons and different grammatical (syntactic and morphological) structures? Because of these differences, de Saussure, Bloomfield and most linguists have concluded, or assumed, that languages must be arbitrary constructs, certainly as regards their lexicons, and that there can be no direct relation between the sound-structures of languages and the external world. The paper examines ways in which reconciliation can be made between the hypothesis of a biological (physiological and neurological) process of language evolution and the observed diversity of languages. (Allott, Robin Michael (1994) Motor theory of language origin: The diversity of languages.) 35
In linguistics a lemma (plural lemmas or lemmata) is the canonical form of a lexeme. Specifically, in lexicography, "lemma" is a synonym for headword, q.v. For example, in the English language, run, runs, ran and running are forms of the same lexeme, with run as the lemma.
of the modern Macedonian language lies yet an undetected form of an early isolating syllabic language system, that was widely in use at the time of the VinÄ?a Script. In order to see this unique feature we must delve deep into the roots of the Macedonian language and try to detect the syllabic lemmas that convey specific ideas. Since languages change gradually36 over the course of centuries, we might assume that in the cohesive oral tradition of the Macedonian culture, language has changed very little, and being an analytic language, it preserved the earliest root morphemes intact, for as long as it took, while later inflicted suffixes and prefixes to these root morphemes to create new words, which derived as a consequence to the Slavic literacy ever since the 9th century. Before this period, the Macedonian language seems to have been preserved as part of the oral tradition inherited since earliest epochs. The basic syllabic system of the Macedonian language can be detected in the earliest accounts of Macedonian names that have survived in recorded form. Apparently, the name Alexander can be seen on the Mycenaean Linear B37 tablet, in its syllabic form: ALE-KA-SAN-DA-RA. In fact both Liner A (Minoan) and Linear B (Mycenaean) scripts share this common linguistic feature, they are both syllabic. This together with the fact that the Greek language of the Classical period derived under the influence of the Semitic Phoenician, and emerged in written form some 400 years after the first Dorian invasions, during which period writing ceased in Greece, and Linear B stopped being used, compels us to assume that both the Linear A and B were used with an earlier non-Greek language spoken by the native population of Greece. This can be supplemented with the striking similarity that both Linear A and B share with the rest of the VinÄ?a signs, which corresponds with the historical accounts given by ancient Greek authors. This is what Black Athena says on Cretan civilization: The Semito-Sumerian civilizations of Mesopotamia were tightly bound by a common script and culture! Those on the periphery, though equally 'civilized', retained their own languages, scripts and cultural identities. In Crete, for instance, there seems to have been a considerable cultural influx from the Levant at the beginning of the ceramic period Early Minoan I, at the turn of the 3rd millennium. Nevertheless, cuneiform did not become the dominant script, and Crete was never fully incorporated into Syro-Mesopotamian civilization. Apart from sheer distance, the most plausible reasons for this would seem to be the resilience of the 36
The fundamental cause of linguistic change and hence of language diversification is the minute deviations occurring in the transmission of speech from one generation to another. These changes are mostly very gradual in their operation, becoming noticeable only cumulatively over the course of several generations. But, in some areas of vocabulary, particular words closely related to rapid cultural change are subject to equally rapid and therefore noticeable changes within a generation or even within a decade. Grammatical and phonological structures are relatively stable and change noticeably over centuries rather than decades. (Robins 1979: 652, 660-662) 37
The short example of Linear B given above can now be decoded: a-re-ka-sa-da-ra. This has been found as the name of a woman on one of the Linear B tablets. There are a few different ways this could be read, but taking ka-sa as ksa and taking da-ra as dra, we get a-re-ksa-dra which is quite clearly the name Alexandra. It is strange to think that there were people with this name living more than 3,000 years ago. (extract from: The Decipherment of Linear B, at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A4596735)
native culture and the fact that Crete was culturally between the Semitic and Egyptian spheres of influence. Hesiod - or possibly Kekrops of Miletos - stated that 'Three Hellenic tribes settled in Crete, the Pelasgoi, Achaians and Dorians. Much later Diodoros Sikeliotes claimed that Pelasgians had settled in Crete after the Eteocretans but before the Dorians. Pelasgoi to Hesiod obviously meant ‘natives’! Here they are seen as Hellenic by Hesiod, though. This could refer to the Pelasgians from Argos which mixed with the Danaos, and later spread their Hellenic culture to Crete, where they encountered the Eteocretans, or the ‘true’ Cretans. But let us proceed: Even if the earlier quotation does not date back to Hesiod who, according to the Ancient Model, lived in the 10th century BC, it tallies well with the Homeric list. In the latter the Pelasgians are distinguished from the Eteo or 'true' Cretans, who are assumed to be non - Hellenic, possibly Anatolian - but more probably Semiticspeaking. The general scheme of expansion from Central Asia or the Steppes was developed before the decipherment of Hittite, the discovery that it was a 'primitive' IndoEuropean language, and the further recognition that there was a whole Anatolian linguistic family. I should mention that for linguists, 'Anatolian' languages do not include those like Phrygian and Armenian which, though spoken in Anatolia modern Turkey - are clearly Indo-European. The true Anatolian languages Hittite, Palaic, Luvian, Lycian, Lydian, Lemnian, probably Etruscan and possibly Carian - present a number of problems for the conventional view of IndoEuropean origins (map 3). It is generally conceded that Proto-Anatolian split from Proto-Indo-European before the latter disintegrated. However, it is impossible to tell the length of time between the two events, which could be anywhere from 500 years to 10,000. In any event, the difference is sufficient to cause many linguists to make a distinction between Indo-European - which excludes the Anatolian languages - and Indo-Hittite, which includes both families (sec chart 2). The Eteocretans, or the earliest inhabitants seem to have been from Anatolia. Could they have been related to the Phrygians38, or the Indo-Europeans from the Balkans, who had migrated to Anatolia from the Southern Balkans, much before the Trojan War? The funerary traditions show that, as well as the scripts.
38
In antiquity, Phrygia (Greek: Φρυγία) was a kingdom in the west central part of Anatolia, in what is now modern-day Turkey. The Phrygians (Phruges or Phryges) initially lived in the Southern Balkans; according to Herodotus, under the name of Bryges (Briges), changing it to Phruges after their final migration to Anatolia, via the Hellespont. During the floruit of the city-state of Troy, a part of the Bryges immigrated to Anatolia as Trojan allies or under the protection of Troy. (Wikipedia)
Furthermore, Homer made no mention of Danaans or Argives in Crete. These facts, together with the general connotation of 'native' associated with the name, would make it plausible to suggest that the (Cretan) Pelasgians were the earliest Hellenic or Greek-speaking inhabitants of the island. Thus Hesiod's order would appear to be chronological: the Pelasgians having arrived on the island before the Achaian invasion of the 14th century, and that of the Dorians in the 12th. Thus according to Black Athena we have the Eteocretans as the earliest settlers of Crete, whose origins are supposedly from Anatolia, even though we do not know whether it was the Hittite or the Indo-European branch they stemmed from. This is due to the fact that the cultural features such as the funerary masks and the scripts show striking resemblance to the Balkan cultures and scripts. The Linear A script can only thus be associated with the Vinča Script. The Mycenean Linear B resulted from the Minoan Linear A, both existing prior to the Dorian invasions of Greece. Could it be that the Linear A and B, being syllabic scripts, were part of the larger Balkan group of Vinča Scripts, and the Indo-European cultures of pre-Semitic Greece?
Symbols dating from the oldest period of Vinča culture (6th-5th millennia BC)39
Common symbols used throughout the Vinča period
Other Vinča symbols
39
http://www.omniglot.com/writing/vinca.htm
Linear A40 There is no consensus on how to transliterate the Linear A symbols - the method shown below is one possible transliteration.
Linear B syllabary41
40
http://www.omniglot.com/writing/lineara.htm
Linear B logograms These logograms stand for whole words and mainly represent items that were traded. As Linear B was used mainly for recording transactions, this is not surprising. Some of the logograms resemble the things they represent, so could be called pictograms. Not all the logograms have been deciphered.
41
http://www.omniglot.com/writing/linearb.htm
The logical conclusion that follows is that the Vinča Script is closely related to that of the Minoan and Mycenaean civilizations, with the notion that the former preceded the latter for at least two millennia. Since all of these scripts can be found on a limited amount of media, such as pottery vessels and clay tablets, most probably used as ritualistic objects, as well as rocks and stones, which used to be sacred to the Neolithic people whose temples dedicated to the Great Mother goddess were caves and megalithic rocks, such as that of Kokino or Tzotze’s Stone in Macedonia, we might assume that the Vinča Script, as well as the Linear A and B were a sacred (secret) code of symbols, used to convey not just messages but concepts and ideas probably as part of a very complex language, that of the Neolithic cultures of the Balkans, which were recognized as Pelasgian, or native, by the invading Semitic tribes of what was to become Greek civilization. If we also assume that the Phoenicians, who introduced the phonetic script to Greece, had received the secret knowledge of it from the Phrygians who migrated from the Balkans to Asia Minor, where the Phoenicians migrated from Syria, which is the only logical link between them, then we might say that the Vinča Script was part of a secret mystical code of writing that existed as part of the religious rites of the aboriginal population of southeast Europe, which was later transmitted to the Phoenicians, who adopted it for their administrative purposes, and introduced it to the Semitic population of Greece, where this script flourished into literacy that would mark what was to be known as Hellenic civilization. The words identified in Linear A and B, on the other hand, reveal that the language used with these scripts was syllabic, or isolating language, which can be seen from the following examples: This glossary42 contains terms that are deciphered according to the rule that Linear A values are the same symbolically and phonetically to Linear B values. (J)A-DI-KI-TE-TE-/JA-DI-KI-TU = words related to Mount Dikte? DA-MA-TE: Already Proto-Greek *Dāmāter (cf. Linear B da-ma-te at Pylos = Cl. Dēmēter (Demeter)? This inscription is from Kythera. KU-RO: whole, total (vel. sim.) (< PIE *kwol- or Semitic *kul? or Etruscan churu). KI-RO: missing, debt(?). MA+RU (ligature of the two signs): wool, same as later Greek mallos. Possibly a Minoan loanword in Greek. Possibly related to Sumerian bar-lu best quality wool blend.
42
Wikipedia: Linear A
PA-DE: a theonym (name for a god), appearing on Linear B tablets as well (as pade / pa-ze). Cf. Sanskrit pati, lord. PA-I-TO: place name, Phaistos. The same name is common on Linear B documents. PO-TO-KU-RO: grand(?) total (vel. sim.). RU+JA (the two signs joined together into a ligature): pomegranate, same as Classic Greek rhoia(?). SE-TO-I-JA: place name, which occurs in Linear B as well. SU-KI-RI-TA: *Sukrita, a place name which occurs in Linear B as well; the town survives today as Sybrita. SU-KI-RI-TE-I-JA: probably "Sukritaian" (with an adjectival suffixed derived from PIE *-iyo-?) Apart from these, there are a considerable number of onomastic elements occurring both in Linear A and Linear B namely in the Mycenaean texts from Knossos. On the basis of the Indo-Iranian hypothesis, a Minoan-English glossary will be published soon; it already exists in French. All these words from Linear A, as well as the names from Linear B reveal the syllabic character of the language they were used with. If we use the lemmas, or the root morphemes from the Macedonian language to decode these words, on the assumption that the Macedonian language is an Indo-European language, therefore related to the Phrygian which was spoken in the Balkans prior to its migration to Asia Minor, both of which derive from the Pelasgian of the Indo-European family, spoken as the language of the native population of the Balkans prior to the Semitic intrusion from the south, then a marvelous mystery unravels. Thus the name A-LE-KA-SAN-DA-RA would be clearly understandable if we analyze the root morphemes using the Macedonian language. As I have already explained, the syllables DA and RA combine to form another lexeme, DARA which means GIFT in modern Macedonian, as well as other Slavic languages, including the Italian DARE (to give). SAN means ‘dream’ in almost all Slavic languages, and KA implies both ‘snake’ and ‘earth’, as in Caduceus, or KADUSHA in modern Macedonian, DUSHA meaning ‘soul’, KA therefore would imply ‘snake’. LE is still used in dialectal forms of Macedonian as a neutral title (mome le ubavo, meaning ‘thou beautiful girl’), and A would be a title to denote ‘the One’, as separate from the rest. In this way, the name A-le-ka-san-da-ra would mean ‘Thou One Gift from the Snake/Earth Dream’, which coincides completely to the allegorical account of Olympia’s dream regarding the conception of Alexander the Great. Similar case emerges with DA-MA-TE, which turns out to be ‘mother’s gift’, MA being the syllabic root form for mother (mama, majka in modern Macedonian), and TE
meaning ‘you’ (tebe te, in modern Macedonian). If we add AR, meaning ‘earth’ in modern Macedonian, to DA-MA-TE, we get DA-MA-TE-AR, or ‘Mother’s Gift to the Earth’, or Demeter. Another name that we get from Linear B is PO-SE-DA-ON-E. If we apply the syllabic lemmas from the Macedonian language we get: PO - meaning ‘town’, SE – meaning ‘all’, but also ‘to weave’, as well as ‘are’ (the form of ‘to be’ for 3rd person plural), DA – implying ‘gift’, ON – meaning ‘he’, or the secret name for God, E- meaning ‘is’ (the form of ‘to be’ for 3rd person singular). In this ordering we get: He is the Town of All Gifts. Of course this is a lame assumption since the root syllables in modern Macedonian might have changed their vowels over the course of time, so this could be all wrong. However, if we combine the first three syllables: POSEDE, we get a word in Macedonian that implies ‘to seat on’, as well as ‘to own’. Now, there is a legend regarding Despoina who was the daughter of Demeter and Poseidon. “In the myth, Demeter was searching for her lost daughter Persephone when Poseidon saw and desired her. To avoid him, she took the form of a mare, but he took the form of a stallion and forced his attentions on her. From this union Despina was born, as was the fabulous horse Arion. Due to her anger at this turn of events, Demeter took on the epithet Erinys, or raging.”43 Now if we assume that POSEDE implies ‘to seat’ or ‘to own’, then POSEDEONA would mean ‘owned her’ or ‘seated her’ as with a mare, ONA meaning ‘her’ in Macedonian. This is merely a speculation, however it turns out that some of the syllables that have survived in modern Macedonian can be applied to the words identified in Linear A and B successfully, which might give results in the attempt to decode these two scripts, given the assumption that these scripts were used with a non-Greek language, which was spoken in Crete and Mycenae prior to the Semitic intrusion. The Vinča Script found on the following clay vessel resembles the Demotic script, and if we apply the key provided by professors Tentov and Boševski, who have managed to decode the Demotic text from the Rosetta stone, we get a message saying: SE-VO-SU-IVO-BOGO. It seems to be a proto-Slavic inscription that can be easily understood by modern Slavic speakers, and it means: All in this vessel and in God. SE – meaning ‘all’, VO –meaning ‘in’, SU – meaning ‘vessel’ (sad in Macedonian, or sud in other Slavic langauges), BOGO – the logogram with the three lines meaning ‘God’. Alternatively, SUI could mean “Our Own” as in SVOI (Macedonian). Thus we get: “All in Our Own God”.
A drawing of a clay vessel unearthed in Vinča, found at depth of 8.5 meters. 43
Wikipedia: Despoina
Another peculiarity, which brings us close to the next chapter on the Demotic script, is an inscription discovered in the village of Opila, Kumanovo area, northeast Macedonia, by Vančo Petkovski. The script on the rock near the water spring reveals signs similar to the Demotic script, and again, if we apply the key provided by the professors Tentov and Boševski, which I will discuss extensively in the next chapter, conveys a message: This is the God of water and you people drink of it…
An inscription44 on a rock near a water spring in the village of Opila, Kumanovo Macedonia The parallel use of both the Demotic and the pre-Cyrillic scrip of the Vinča culture indicates that there were either two scripts in use by the earliest Neolithic population of the Balkans, meaning one for public use (the syllabic Demotic script), and one for secret use by the Orphic mystics (the pre-Cyrillic script that resembles the Etruscan and the Phoenician), or that the scripts were intermingled and later differentiated into separate scripts. To me it sounds plausible to accept the former supposition, since that is the only way to justify the appearance of the scripts in Macedonia much earlier than the Phoenician and the Greek alphabet emerged, as part of a Mystery that has been the core of the belief system of the people who cherished oral tradition and considered writing as sacred. This would later lead to the Slavic literacy - Cyril and Methodius being next in line of the initiates into the innermost knowledge of the monotheistic Orphic Mysteries, which - for the first time ever - would officially reveal and promote the secret script to the speakers of all Slavic languages, as part of the orthodox Christian doctrine, shaped in the spirit of the Mystery schools of ancient times, something that has been inherited in the inner Byzantine circles from generation to generation. The Cyrillic alphabet thus appears to be the secret script of the mystics. However, if revealed without the key, which was given only to initiates, it seems to be simply a phonetic alphabet without any mystery that would mark it as sacred. The Mystery is an inner knowledge, and we cannot say that it is not contained in the Cyrillic alphabet only because we do not know the secret of it – or the key, which I think is the core of all spiritual knowledge contained in the teachings of the Orphic Mysteries.
44
This inscription is very similar to the Demotic script on the Rosetta stone, and if we apply the key as provided by the professors Tentov and Boševski, we can read a message: (in original) "VO JE BOGO VO A VOI NAROTO E NAPIJ"; (in modern Macedonian) "OVA E BOGOT VODA - A VIE NARODE NAPIJTE SE"; (in English) "This is the God of Water - and you people drink of it..."
The Demotic Script45
(Dreamtime…) There was a time when the Word of God sounded from all that was, and the people could hear it coming even from the rocks. They started breathing those sounds, one breath – one word, and the world bathed in light. Some sounds were as rigid as stones, others were as soft as the wind, and together they formed the posts to hold the stairway to Heaven, taking their spirits aloft across the Great Ocean into the unknown Mystery of all existence. The people were given lines-and-dashes46 to mark each ladder of the stairway. Each symbol marked two sounds - one rigid, one soft. Thus the way was safely paved to reach the stars and know the Truth from behind the veil. This script was created to keep the Sacred Word alive. And it was given to the People of the Word to mark their existence across the world with it. So mote it was… (Awakening…) 45
The following study has been conducted from various sources, based on the research paper by Aristotel Tentov and Tome Boševski, Tracing the Script and the Language of the Ancient Macedonians. 46
Chernorizec Hrabar in his apologetic text titled “On the letters” (О писменех), provides information critical to Slavonic palaeography with his mention that the pre-Christian Slavs employed "strokes and incisions" writing (Old Church Slavonic: чръты и рѣзы, črъty i rězy), translated as "lines and dashes" in the text above. This earlier script according to the text, was not able to reflect the spoken Slavic language of the time, thus the Cyrillic script was imposed as a proper script. Chernorizec Hrabar must have thought of the script we now call Demotic, since both archeological evidence and its resemblance to lines-and-dashes allows us to say that the Demotic was in public use ever since ancient times, with the language of the Slavs, or the an ancient Macedonians, for that matter. Since the Demotic was a syllabic script and the Slavic language spoken in Macedonia at that time had already deviated from the syllabic morphemic system of the earliest isolating language of Neolithic Macedonia, it was most appropriate to introduce the phonetic script as the most suitable one for the Slavic of the middle ages. The phonetic script seems to have been the secret script of the initiated into the Mysteries, which had survived in the inner circles of the mystics until the middle ages, and has been reformed into what we today know as Cyrillic script.
Before we indulge into cracking the Demotic text of the Rosetta stone, I would like to make a short presentation of what Demotic47 stands for. As a linguist myself I make a clear distinction between a language and a script. For example, the Latin script today is in use by many languages such as: Polish, English, Spanish... And many times single languages have used different scripts, like in Yugoslavia both the Latin and the Cyrillic scripts were in official use with the Serbian, Macedonian and other languages. The most dominant script in use today in the world is the Latin. The Demotic, with capital D, is a script, which was referred to as "document writing" by the population of Egypt, and which the Second century scholar Clement of Alexandria called ἐπιστολογραφική "letter writing", while early Western scholars formerly referred to it as Enchorial Egyptian. The script was used for more than a thousand years, and during that time a number of developmental stages occurred. Demotic studies today recognize three stages of its development: Early Demotic, Middle (Ptolemaic) Demotic, and Late (Roman) Demotic. All of these stages vary in style, form, content and most probably in the language used with the script at a particular stage. The Demotic script was first detected in Egypt, where other scripts were in use too. The most prominent was the Egyptian Hieroglyphic48 script which was seen as sacred, or the script of the priesthood. Another script that developed from the Hieroglyphic was the Hieratic49, which was a cursive50 script. The Demotic obviously developed as a separate script, since it bears no resemblance to the hieroglyphic script, whatsoever.
47
Demotic (from Greek: δηµοτικός dēmotikós, "popular") refers to either the ancient Egyptian script derived from northern forms of hieratic used in the Delta, or the stage of the Egyptian language following Late Egyptian and preceding Coptic. The term was first used by the Greek historian Herodotus to distinguish it from hieratic and hieroglyphic scripts. By convention, the word "Demotic" is capitalized in order to distinguish it from demotic Greek. (Wikipedia) 48
The Egyptian Hieroglyphs is among the old writing system in the world. Unlike its contemporary cuneiform Sumerian, Egyptian Hieroglyph's origin is much more obscure. There is no identifiable precursor It was once thought that the origin of Egyptian Hieroglyphs are religious and historical, but recent developments could point to an economical impetus for this script as well as push back the time depth of this writing system. (http://www.ancientscripts.com/egyptian.html)
49
Traditionally Egyptologists divided Hieroglyphs into three types based on appearance: hieroglyphic, hieratic, and demotic. Hieroglyphic is almost always inscribed on stones in large scale monuments. Hieratic is the "priestly" script extensively used on manuscripts and paintings, and really is just a rather cursive form of monumental hieroglyphics. And finally, demotic is a highly cursive script that replaced hieratic as the script for everyday use from 600 BCE onward. In fact, some demotic signs translate into more than one hieratic or hieroglyphic signs, so there isn't a one-to-one correspondence between demotic and the other two systems. (http://www.ancientscripts.com/egyptian.html) 50
While the hieroglyphic remained the same, the hieratic became increasingly cursive, and an increasing amount of ligatures come into usage. Eventually the most cursive form of hieratic became the demotic which gives no hint of its hieroglyphic origin. By 600 BCE, the hieratic, which was used to write documents on papyri, was retained only for religious writing. The demotic became the every-day script, used for accounting, writing down literature, writings, etc. The demotic inscription above is from the famous Rosetta Stone. It bears no resemblance
Now, at the time of the Ptolemy rule in Egypt, the Hieroglyphic script was in parallel use with the Demotic script. However, we should note here that the Demotic was used for document writing and administrative purposes, while the Hieroglyphic was the sacred language of the Egyptians. Document writing, issuing decrees, administration was all part of the ruling class of Egypt, which at that time was of Macedonian descent. Prior to the Macedonian conquest of Egypt, the country was ruled by the Persians, who must have used the same script to issue decrees in their own language, later to be translated into Egyptian. This is the only explanation to justify the change of style and form that occurred between the Early and Middle (Ptolemaic) Demotic. The Demotic script has not been fully deciphered yet, despite the ongoing attempts of nearly 200 years of research. The Chicago Demotic Dictionary51, which is the leading institution in this field, had managed to transliterate52 the majority of the Demotic texts, deriving from a wide cultural and periodical context, and has managed to decipher merely 14 symbols, based on comparison with other texts written in Greek, since the Demotic in most of the cases appears with a translation into Greek, or Egyptian represented with the Hieroglyphic script. By comparing two texts written in two languages with the same content, word by word, one can detect the names for example, how many times they appear in the known text, in our case the Greek, and thus make an attempt to transliterate the unknown text, in our case the Demotic. However, a wiring or a transcription soundby-sound has not yet been achieved, at least when it comes to the Demotic of the Rosetta stone. There have been many attempts, but since the Demotists observe the Demotic script as purely Egyptian, they seem to encounter a series of problems that distract them from achieving the goal. The VinÄ?a inscriptions, as well as that of the village of Opila in Kumanovo area, show that the Demotic script had a wider range of use, which implies that it was used with other languages as well, besides that of the Egyptians. whatsoever to the hieroglyphic script. In fact, it is so cursive that it resembles more like the Aramaic scripts used around the Fertile Crescent at this time. (http://www.ancientscripts.com/egyptian.html) 51
http://oi.uchicago.edu
52
Transliteration is the practice of transcribing a word or text written in one writing system into another writing system or system of rules for such practice. From a linguistic point of view, transliteration is a mapping from one system of writing into another, word by word. Transliteration attempts to be exact, so that an informed reader should be able to reconstruct the original spelling of unknown transliterated words. To achieve this objective, transliteration may define complex conventions for dealing with letters in a source script which do not correspond with letters in a goal script. Transliteration is opposed to transcription, which specifically maps the sounds of one language to the best matching script of another language. Still, most systems of transliteration map the letters of the source script to letters pronounced similarly in the goal script, for some specific pair of source and goal language. If the relations between letters and sounds are similar in both languages, a transliteration may be (almost) the same as a transcription. In practice, there are also some mixed transliteration/transcription systems that transliterate a part of the original script and transcribe the rest. (Wikipedia)
Since the earliest Demotic developed in Lower Egypt during the later part of the 25th Kushite Dynasty53, which followed the Libyan54 period of the 21st-24th dynasties, while the Vinča inscription in Demotic precedes both the Libyans and the Kushite in Egypt, we may assume that the Demotic script had reached Egypt via the Semitic Phoenicians, who again must have taken it from the Phrygians in Asia Minor. Nevertheless, the Demotic script had been present in Egypt ever since the Kushite Dynasty, and since then it had suffered drastic changes particularly during the Ptolemaic period, which can only be explained with the fact that the Macedonians had already used this script with their own language prior to their conquest of Egypt. The Demotic script had also been used by the Persian conquerors, which makes it a civilizational script, used at least with the language of the Phoenicians, Libyans, Nubians, Assyrians55, Persians, Egyptians as well as the Macedonians. When it comes to the Rosetta stone, it was Champollion who deciphered the Egyptian hieroglyphs with the help of groundwork laid by his predecessors: Athanasius Kircher, Silvestre de Sacy, Johan David Akerblad, Thomas Young, and William John Bankes. Champollion translated parts of the Rosetta stone in 1822, showing that the written Egyptian language was similar to Coptic, and that the writing system was a combination of phonetic and ideographic signs. His interest was primarily in the Hieroglyphic 53
Egypt was split after the fall of the New Kingdom in 1075 B.C. The northern part was ruled by a series of ever-weaker dynasties, while the south was ruled over by the high priest of Amun in Thebes. After a time a new state arose in the upper reaches of the Nile, governed by local Nubian tribal chiefs. This state was called the kingdom of Kush, from the ancient Egyptian name for Nubia. It lay under the shadow of a solitary table mountain, known today as Gebel Barkal, with its capital the city of Napata. It became a major centre during the New Kingdom. The mountain was revered as the home of the god Amun, who in his southern appearance has the form of a ram. Inspired by the priests of the deity the Kushite rulers believed themselves to be the 'sons' of Amun, destined to become kings over the land of Egypt. (http://www.jacobins.mairie-toulouse.fr/expos/pharaons/anglais/textes/kushite.htm) The kingdom of Kush survived longer than that of Egypt. In the 8th century BC, under the leadership of king Piye, Kush invaded and controlled Egypt itself for a period (the Ethiopian dynasty). They held sway over their northern neighbors for nearly one hundred years. Eventually the Kushites were defeated by the invading Assyrians. They retreated farther south and established their new capital at Meroë. (Wikipedia) 54
During the greater part of the eighth century, when the Libyan Dynasty of Osorkons and Shoshenks ruled over Egypt, the kings of this country vied with the kings of Assyria for influence in Palestine and Phoenicia. (http://www.varchive.org/tac/libyans.htm) 55
Assyria was originally (in the Middle Bronze Age) a region on the Upper Tigris river, named for its original capital, the ancient city of Assur (Akkadian: Aššur; Arabic: روشأAššûr; Hebrew: שּׁוּרAššûr, Aramaic: Ashur). Later, as a nation and empire that came to control all of the Fertile Crescent, Egypt and much of Anatolia, the term "Assyria proper" referred to roughly the northern half of Mesopotamia (the southern half being Babylonia), with Nineveh as its capital. The Assyrian kings controlled a large kingdom at three different times in history. These are called the Old (20th to 15th c. BC), Middle (15th to 10th c. BC), and Neo-Assyrian (911–612 BC) kingdoms, or periods, of which the last is the most well known and best documented. The Assyrians are an ethnic group whose origins lie in what is today Iraq, Iran, Turkey and Syria. Culturally and linguistically distinct from, although quite influenced by, their neighbours in the Middle East - the Arabs, Persians, Kurds, Turks, and Armenians - the Assyrians have endured much hardship throughout their recent history as a result of religious and ethnic persecution. (Wikipedia)
Egyptian script. He identified 7 signs from the Hieroglyphic script, which had survived in the Coptic alphabet, and was thus able to draw a parallel between the Coptic and ancient Egyptian language. The Demotic script on the other hand remained a mystery, until not long ago. The research work of the two scientists Aristotel Tentov and Tome Boševski brought forth an interesting issue. Apparently, they managed to decode the middle text from the Rosetta stone (commonly treated as Demotic), using the same approach that Champollion used to decode the Egyptian hieroglyphs from the first text. Champollion used Coptic to decode the language of the Pharaohs, as the closest link to the ancient Egyptians, while the two scientists used Macedonian as the closest logical link to the language of the living masters of that time. We know that the Pharaoh that erected the stone was Ptolemy V, who was a general in the army of Alexander the Great. He was also related to the Macedonian conqueror. The fact that the two scientists could determine not only the script, but the phonetics as well, and match it to the modern Macedonian language, shows that the ancient Macedonians were not illiterate barbarians, but a nation with its own language and script. However, let us proceed with the research work of Aristotel Tentov and Tome Boševski: According to the perception of contemporary science, as well as the text being written in three scripts, two languages had been used: ancient Egyptian (written with hieroglyphs and in the demotic script) ancient Greek (written in ancient Greek script) A basic assumption of our research is that in writing the text on the Rosetta Stone three scripts were used, but in three languages: ancient Egyptian, written in the hieroglyphic script, ancient Macedonian, written in the demotic script, and ancient Greek written in the ancient Greek alphabet. It should be mentioned that one of the most significant and leading works in the field of study of the demotic script as well as the language, the new Egyptian language as it is called, is the Dictionary and Grammar of the Demotic Language, The Oriental Institute of Chicago, USA. Although it is clear and generally accepted that a syllabic script is in question, in this significant publication the authors point out that they are not capable being read sign by sign (syllable after syllable), but they suggest the text is written word after word, and at the same time supposing an absolute language identity in the forming of sentences, phrases and all the names of rulers and gods in the text in ancient Egyptian with the ancient Greek text. The basic assumption of our analysis was that in the middle text of the Rosetta stone a syllabic script of only the consonant - vowel type is used. This assumption means a new direction in studying the demotic script and syllabic scripts from that period, unlike the concept of current scholarship of the wiring for sound of only the syllabic signs with consonants, while at the same time ignoring the vowels.
The research to date has resulted into identification and wiring for sound of the syllabic symbols for 26 consonants and 8 vowels. Although we do not consider that we had found out all the secrets of the analyzed script and moreover learnt the used language, we can say with great assurance that the middle text of the Rosetta stone was written in a script and language of the masters of Egypt at that time, i.e. the ancient Macedonians. This text refers to the same event as the two other texts on the stone, but no identity should be sought and the identity cannot be founded. We can say this because we have concluded, by deciphering the order written in the last line of the text, that the records were written in scripts and languages of 3 social circles, the Supreme Priests, the Alive Masters and the Danaos. From our point of view and findings, in the scripts and languages of the ancient Egyptians, ancient Macedonians and ancient Greeks. A very large consideration from the findings from the reading of the ancient Greek text, especially in the wiring for sound of the personal names of the rulers and gods, may lead to a misunderstanding which makes it impossible to obtain correct findings. The Greek names of the rulers and gods do not exist in the language of the ancient Macedonians nor, most probably, in the language of the ancient Egyptians either. They are only descriptive translations of the symbolic meaning of the name from the language of the ancient Macedonians into the language of the ancient Greeks. The script and the language of the ancient Macedonians was the official script and language of the Macedonian Empire or as it is known in contemporary scholarship, the 'script and language in which the laws and the official documents were written.' The mistake in current scholarship is that to learn the middle text of the Rosetta stone it prefers the ancient Egyptian language (called new Egyptian in the available literature) and the area of Egypt, but not ancient Macedonian language and the area of the Balkans. Let us now proceed with an example to demonstrate the ancient Macedonian language in the Demotic text of the Rosetta stone. The Demotic script comprises of signs which are syllabic meaning they are pronounced as consonant-vowel pair. The direction of writing is from right to left; here are no punctuation marks in today's sense; there are no capital letters; there is no division of words and use of blank space, it is written in an unbroken string; the script used is the syllabic from the type consonant-vowel, with a minimal use of determined signs from pictographic writing. There are asymmetrical syllabic signs, symmetrical syllabic signs, inclined syllabic signs, specific syllabic sign, signs for isolated writing of consonants, and signs for isolated writing of vowels.
The characteristic of the asymmetrical syllabic signs is it they can be written using 8 different dispositions:
Each position assigns a different vowel after the consonant. Therefore we get in the first and the second position JO and JOO, in the 3rd JU, and then JEE, JE, etc. The professors Tentov and Boševski identified 13 asymmetrical signs in the analyzed text. They are the following:
The phonemic transcription, i.e. the pronunciation of the consonants is given in [brackets]. The following chart shows the consonant P in all positions and the vowels it receives. Thus if the sign appears in the position shown in the square to the top, facing left with its tip, the syllable should be pronounced PO, if it rotates to mirror the first, then it reads PE. Subsequently, eight syllables derive by rotating the letter in all directions.
The following charts provide the key for basic reading of the Demotic script, in a syllabic form. There are 13 asymmetrical signs which appear in 8 positions, thus creating a total of 104 syllables.
ASYMMETRICAL SIGNS (PRONUNCIATION): In the 1st row we get: JO, JOO, JU, JEE(long), JE(short), J∂(schwa56), JA, JI. In the 2nd row we get: RO, ROO, RU, REE, RE, R∂, RA, RI In the 3rd row we get: GJO (as in Italian giocare-to play), GJOO, GJU, GJEE, GJE, GJ∂, GJA, GJI. In the 4th row we get: ŽO (the as in English television), ŽOO, ŽU, ŽEE, ŽE, Ž∂, ŽA, ŽI. In the 5th row we get: ZO, ZOO, ZU, ZEE, ZE, Z∂, ZA, ZI. In the 6th row we get: DZO, DZOO, DZU, DZEE, DZE, DZ∂, DZA, DZI. In the 7th row we get: PO, POO, PU, PEE, PE, P∂, PA, PI. In the 8th row we get: TO,TOO, TU, TEE, TE, T∂, TA, TI. In the 9th row we get: SO, SOO, SU, SEE, SE, S∂, SA, SI. In the 10th row we get: TSO, TSOO, TSU, TSEE, TSE, TS∂, TSA, TSI. In the 11th row we get: SHO, SHOO, SHU, SHEE, SHE, SH∂, SHA, SHI. In the 12th row we get: SHTO, SHTOO, SHTU, SHTEE, SHTE, SHT∂, SHTA, SHTI. In the 13th row we get: CHO, CHOO, CHU, CHEE, CHE, CH∂, CHA, CHI.
56
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schwa
CHART 1: ASYMMETRICAL SIGNS
There are also 6 symmetrical signs that appear in four positions. The phonemic transcription of the consonants is given in [brackets]. [B] also [F], [V], [M], [H], [G], [DZH] (as in Jungle). The next in line are the inclined signs which also appear in four positions, as well as the specific syllabic signs: Symmetrical signs
Inclined signs
Specific syllabic signs
SYMETRICAL SIGNS (PRONUNCIATION): 1.
BO, BOO, /, /, BE, B∂, /, /
2.
VO, VOO, /, /, VE, V∂, /, /
3.
FO, FOO, /, /, FE, F∂, /, /
4.
MO, MOO, /, /, ME, M∂, /, /
5.
HO, HOO, /, /, HE, H∂, /, /
6.
GO, GOO, /, /, GE, G∂, /, /
7.
DZHO, DZHOO, /, /, DZHE, DZH∂, /, /
8.
DO, /, /, /, DE, /, DA, DI
9.
L(R)O, / , L(R)U, /, L(R)E, /, L(R)A, /
10. LJO, LJOO, /, /, LJE, LJ∂, /, / - (LJ as in milieu [mēlyə]) 11. NO, / , NU, /, NE, /, NA, / 12. KO, / , KU, /, KE, /, KA, / 13. KJO, / , KJU, /, KJE, /, KJA, / (KJ as in peculiar [pi-kyül-yər])
CHART 2: SYMMETRICAL, INCLINED and SPECIFIC SIGNS
There are also pictographic signs such as the following: , which implies the word for GOD, either in nominative or dative case. The vowels are usually implicit with the position of the consonants. However, there are cases when they appear independently in the text, usually as joining words, or prepositions:
Now, if we take the following inscription which is the descriptive name of the pharaoh, the Macedonian Emperor of Egypt, and if we read it from RIGHT to LEFT then we will get:
TO-J[ə] BOGA-MO DI-VE-JE-I Let me explain: 1. The first sign to the right is the sign for T, which we can find in the 8th row of CHART 1, in the first position, which implies that the vowel that follows is O - TO! 2. The second sign is the sign for J, which we can find in the 1st row of CHART 1, in the sixth position, which implies that the vowel that follows is the schwa [ə] - J[ə]! So far we get TOJ, which is a word used as a personal pronoun for the 3rd person singular, denoting male – in English it would be HE! The same form is used in modern Macedonian –TOJ! 3. The next sign is a pictographic denoting GOD, or in Macedonian BOGA. 4. The next sign is the sign for the consonant M, which we can find in the 4th row of CHART 2, in the first position, which implies that the vowel that follows is O – MO! So far we get TOJ BOGAMO, meaning HE whom the GOD(S), the form in Macedonian would be TOJ komu BOGOVITE! 5. The next sign is a specific sign which can be found in the 8th row of CHART 2, pronounced as DI!
6. The next sign is the sign for V, which can be found in the 2nd row of CHART 2, in the fifth position pronounced as VE. 7. The next sign is the sign for J, which can be found in the 1st row of CHART 1, in the fourth position, pronounced as JEE. 8. And the last sign is the sign for I, as an independent vowel. Thus we get DI-VE-JEE-I or DIVEJEI, in English TO ADMIRE, in modern Macedonian DIVEAT. All together the informal name of the pharaoh would be – - In ancient Macedonian: TOJ BOGAMO DIVEJEJ, -
or in English: HE whom THE GODS ADMIRE,
-
or in Macedonian: TOJ komu BOGOVITE mu se DIVEAT,
-
or in ancient Greek: who is beloved by the gods.
- Deoi Epiphanois, meaning The one
Here is another example: The family name of the emperor (pharaoh), i.e. the name of the dynasty was recognized in the expressions (read from right to left):
Translated into contemporary Macedonian for the name of the dynasty was obtained in a descriptive form: naiceneto naisemejstvo od grad na karpa izgradeniot [naitseneto naisemeistvo od grad na karpa izgradeniot] (equivalent to English the most respected the most family from town on the stone built). The following expression was used for translation in the ancient Greek text: ΠΤΟΛ Ε ΜΑΙΟΥ. Which is read by present day scholarship in succession as one word ΠΤΟΛΕΜΑΙΟΥ. The first word ΠΤΟΛ is a term for town, E is a preposition, and ΜΑΙΟΥ is a goddess of (the) earth of the ancient Greeks.
This practically means that the term ΠΤΟΛ Ε ΜΑΙΟΥ means in ancient Greek town of the goddess of (the) earth, which coincides completely with our reading of the corresponding term in the middle text of the stone. The text from the Rosetta stone is a complete match to the Hieroglyphic text and the Greek text, with the exception that it is more detailed, since it was the original text in which the decree was recorded, and then translated in the language of the priests. Both the Greek and Hieroglyphic text offer diversity in lexical indexes, however the semantic composition is quite the same. This is due to the fact that translation in the ancient times was more of a literary work that allowed the freedom of interpretation according to the stylistic standards of the language in use by the translators, rather than providing correct translation on lexical level, meaning word by word, which is a practice developed in modern day translation. Let us take a look at the following translations, or better say, interpretations of the Rosetta decree: - The last line in the Demotic text states: "To be inscribed (the original word "embroidered" is used, which is to this day figuratively used for writing in some dialects of the Macedonian language) on a hard stone, in the script of the HIGH PRIESTS, the LIVING MASTERS, and the DANAANS."57 This implies that since Ptolemy V was of Macedonian descent, and since he used the Demotic script for that specific purpose of document writing and giving orders, as well as decrees, as did the Persians before him, he used his own language to issue the decree! In it he calls the Egyptians high priests, and accordingly he calls the Hieroglyphic script as the script of the high priests. We cannot expect for him to have used the term "hieroglyphs" since the term was introduced much later, in modern science, as a commonly accepted term for the pictographs, which became known to western science after Napoleon's conquest of Egypt. Ptolemy V calls the Demotic script (again a term adopted in more recent times, from "Demos" meaning "of the people", since it was falsely believed in Champollion’s time that the Demotic script was a cursive form of the Hieroglyphic script, used by the common people - now we know that it wasn't so, since the cursive form of the Hieroglyphic script is known as Hieratic), listed as the script of the living masters in the Demotic text of the Rosetta stone. In the Demotic text from the Rosetta stone, the script we call Greek today is listed as the script of the Danaos, the name used in the Hellenistic time for the Greek speakers, or the Semitic people who were the founders of the Hellenic culture. - The last line in the Hieroglyphic text states: 57
http://rosetta-stone.etf.ukim.edu.mk/EN/analysis_of_the_second_order.html
"This decree shall [be inscribed] upon a stele of hard stone in the writing of the WORDS OF THE GODS, and the writing of the BOOKS, and in the writing of HAUI-NEBUI (i.e., Greeks)"58 Now to the Egyptian translator of the time, what was the script of the high priests for Ptolemy V, translated into the words of gods to the Egyptians, and what was the script of the living masters, translated into the writing of the books (or the administrative script) in Egyptian, while what was the script of the Danaos to the Macedonian ruler, translated into the writing of HAUI-NEBUI. According to Wallis Budge, the term ‘haui-nebui’ is a very old term used for the Greeks in Egypt, which implied “lords of the north”, or “lords of the marshes [in the Delta]”59. Could this refer to the Hyksos colonizers of northern Egypt, who were the predecessors of the Danaos? It seems that an equation can be put between the Semitic Hyksos, and the Danaos, later known as Hellenes, or Greeks to the modern scholars. - In the Greek text of the Rosetta stone the last line goes like this: "This decree shall be inscribed on a stele of hard stone in SACRED and NATIVE and GREEK characters."60 This shows that the Greek translator saw the language of the Egyptian priests as a sacred language, but would not use the phrase: words of gods, since the Egyptian gods were not the same for the Danaos, or what we call Greeks today. The Greek translator used the term native for the language of the living masters, as decreed in the original, since the Demotic script was used with the native language of the living masters, meaning the ancient Macedonian language, which has a strong linguistic, phonetic and syntactic similarity to the modern day Macedonian. And finally the Greek translator used the term Greek or Hellenic for the language he used, since that is what the Danaos saw themselves as: Hellenes, meaning our people61. 58
http://www.sacred-texts.com/egy/trs/trs07.htm
59
Decrees of Memphis and Canopus by E. A. Wallis Budge
60
http://pw1.netcom.com/~qkstart/rosetta.html
61
Since the time of Homer, Greeks have called themselves Hellenes (Έλληνες). They have also been known by a number of different names throughout history. Homer, Herodotus and the later Greek authors identify the first usages of the word "Hellenes" as an ethnic name-umbrella under which the Achaians and the rest of the Greek allies sailed for the city state of Troy under Agamemnon's leadership. Up to that point "Hellas" (Greek: Eλλάς) and "Hellenes" was the name of the tribe (also called "Myrmidones") settled in Thessalic Phthia having Achilles as their leader. Various etymologies have been proposed for the word Hellene, with the most researched being the one that deconstructs the word "(H)el-las" (Greek: Ελλάς) to e- or es- (ours or our own) and -laos (Greek: λαός) (people, nation) or laas (Greek: λάας) (stone),[citation needed] giving the meanings "our people", "our nation" or "our people of stones" linked semantically with the Greek deluge myth, after which Deukalion and Pyrrha as instructed by Zeus were throwing stones on the ground from where people appear. Hellenes in the wider meaning of the word appears in writing for the first time in an inscription by Echembrotus, dedicated to Heracles for his victory in the Amphictyonic Games, and refers to the 48th Olympiad (584 BC). It
From all that was exposed in this chapter, several conclusions can be drawn: a) The ancient Macedonians used the Demotic script with their own language, being a form of pre-Slavic of the Indo-European family of languages. All of the sounds identified in the Demotic script can be found in modern Macedonian too. b) The ancient Greeks were the descendants of the Hyksos, known as the “lords of the north” to the Egyptians, and Danaos to the ancient Macedonians. c) The Demotic script has its origins in the Balkans as the Vinča inscriptions suggest. d) The Demotic script was not used with the Egyptian language at all, at least during the Ptolemy rule. e) The Demotic script is a syllabic not a phonetic script, which was suitable for the ancient Macedonian isolating language.
The Ruenica, Glagolitic, and Cyrillic Scripts 1.
appears to have been introduced in the 8th century BC with the Olympic Games, and permanently established itself by the 5th century BC. After the Greco-Persian Wars an inscription was written in Delphi celebrating victory over the Persians and praising Pausanias as the leading general of the Hellenes. Awareness of a pan-Hellenic unity was promoted by religious festivals, most significantly in the Eleusinian Mysteries, in which prospective initiates had to speak Greek, and almost as importantly through participation in the four Panhellenic Games—including the Olympic Games—in which participants were recognized by tribal affiliation. Neither women nor non-Greeks were allowed to participate; the occasional exception in later times, such as that made for Emperor Nero, was a sure sign of Roman political hegemony. In the following centuries, Hellene gained a broader meaning, coming to signify civilized people in general, and typically contrasted with barbarian, representing the uncivilized. The Greek tribes quickly noticed that they did not speak the same tongue as their neighbors, and used the term "βάρβαρος" ("barbarian") for them, with the meanings "uncultured", "uncivilized" or "speaker of a foreign language". The term βάρβαρος is thought to be onomatopoeic in origin: "bar-bar"—i.e. stammering—may have been how the speech of foreign peoples sounded to Greek speakers." This is also true for the Egyptians, who, according to Herodotus "named barbarians all those who spoke a different tongue", and in later years for the Slavs, who gave the Germans the name nemec, which means "mute", while calling themselves slověnski or "people of the word". The term (barbarian) eventually picked up a derogatory use and was extended to indicate the entire lifestyle of foreigners, and finally coming to mean "illiterate" or "uncivilized" in general. Thus "an illiterate man is also a barbarian". According to Dionysius of Halicarnassus, a Hellene differed from a barbarian in four ways: refined language, education, religion, and the rule of law. (Wikipedia)
2.
1. Top: Prehistoric Macedonian Scripts (letters A-Nj); bottom: Contemporary Macedonian Script (letters A-Nj) 2. Top: Prehistoric Macedonian Scripts (letters O-Ps); bottom: Contemporary Macedonian Script (letters O-Ps)62
(Dreamingâ&#x20AC;Ś) Listen to me brothers and sisters, and listen well. This is the Holy Truth that I will reveal unto you, as it was revealed to me by those who inherited it from the Source. The Sacred Word that I 62
Contributed by Vasil Iljov: http://www.unet.com.mk/ancient-macedonians-part2/index.html
will bestow unto you is sacred not because of its meaning, but because of its primal intent. It was the intention of the Source to create all things, both visible and invisible, with the Power of the Word, thus it is the Word that will unchain the stairway to God, the Ultimate Mystery, who dwells within you. The Sacred Word holds the key to unlocking the Mystery that will spring like a flight of steps across the Cosmos to reach the very Source, out of which all Life emerged. Your bodies are the Temple, and your thoughts are the Spirit of God - the two pillars on which rests the everlasting Dome of Heavens. It is through the Sacred Word that you assemble the stairway to the Dome of Heavens, the Sacred Word being the scaffold to help you construct the Temple where the Spirit of God dwells. Each sound that shapes your thoughts is another ladder, and each word that you utter is the post that holds that ladder upright, preventing it from falling apart. Many will come to dismantle your construction, but you must work diligently and preserve with care the design that I will now bequeath to you. You shall keep in secret the very core of the Word, which is the Spirit of God, and has been given to you in the following order63:
Repeat the prayer hidden in these sounds and you will ascend the stairway to the Dome of Heavens with no effort at all: I see the Sacred Script, and the Word is fit. I live the light on Earth as in Heavens - and as a child of God I see salvation but in Him. I hold the Word firmly, the Knowledge bestowed by God, and thus I raise the Temple where His Light resides.64
63
The Old Slavic Cyrillic alphabet: www.orbilat.com/General_References/Alphabets/The_Old_Slavic_Alphabet_and_Pronunciation.html
64
An improvised interpretation of the Cyrillic alphabet:
Until approximately 1900, mnemonic names inherited from Church Slavonic were used for the letters. They are given here in the pre-1918 orthography of the post-1708 civil alphabet. The great Russian poet Alexander Pushkin wrote: "The letters constituting the Slavonic alphabet do not produce any sense. Аз, буки, веди, глаголь, добро etc. are separate words, chosen just for their initial sound". But since the names of the first letters of the Slavonic alphabet seem to form text, attempts were made to compose sensible text from all letters of the alphabet. Here is one such attempt to "decode" the message: аз буки веди
I know letters
глаголь добро есть
"To speak is a beneficence" or "The word is property"
Hear thou righteous, this is the Spirit of God that breathes the Light of this world through you. Hide it from the foul and keep it clean in your hearts, so that you may see God’s grace in the Highest. The primal words that were given to the people, much before they were revealed to you in the Script, were sacred too. They were the pillars of light to uphold your stairway to the Dome of Heavens. Each breath - one Word, each Sound - one ladder closer to God. The Truth was thus revealed to many, and the people hoisted the ladder from lines-and-dashes, spreading the thin fabric of Universe across the land with their words and letters. The lines-and-dashes revealed the sacred words, but the Sacred Script revealed the Mystery within. The lines-and-dashes sustained the Temple, while the Sacred Script sustained the Spirit of God in it. Thus the work was done in accordance to the Great Design of Creation.
живете ѕело земля и иже и како люди
"Live, while working heartily, people of the Earth, in the manner people should obey"
мыслете наш он покой
"try to understand the Universe (the world that is around)"
рцы слово твердо
"carry the knowledge ("word" here refers to "knowledge") firmly"
ук ферт хер
"The knowledge is fertilized by the Creator, knowledge is the gift of God"
цы червь ша ер ять ю
"Try harder, to understand the Light of the Creator"
In this attempt words only in two first lines somewhat correspond to real meanings of the letters' names, while "translations" in other lines seem to be fabrications or fantasies. For example, "покой" ("rest" or "apartment") doesn't mean "the Universe", and "ферт" doesn't have any meaning in Russian or other Slavonic languages (there are no words of Slavonic origin beginning with "f" at all). The last line contains only one translatable word "червь" ("worm"), which, however, was not included in the "translation". Another version of "the message", incorporating the letters phased out by mid-1750s, reads: "А(в)се буквы ведая глаголить - добро есть. Живет зло (на) земле вечно и каждому людину мыслить надо о покаянии, речью (и) словом твердить учение веры Христовой (в) Царствие Божие, чаще шептать, щтоб (все буквы) (вз)ятием этим усвоить и по законам божьим стремиться писать слова и жить" Transcribed into English language Roman letters is: A(v)sye bukvy vyedaya glagolit' - dobro yest'. Zhivyet zlo (na) zyemlye vyechno i kazhdomu lyudinu myslit' nado o pokayaniyi, ryech'yu (i) slovom tverdit' uchyeniye vyery Khristovoy (v) Tsarstviye Bozhiye, chashchye sheptat', shchtob (vsye bukvy) (vz)yatiyem etim usvoyit' i po zakonam bozh'im stremit'sya pisat' slova i zhit' Which can be translated as: "Knowing all these letters renders speech a virtue. Evil lives on Earth eternally, and each person must think of repentance, with speech and word making firm in their mind the faith in Christ and the Kingdom of God. Whisper [the letters] frequently to make them yours by this repetition in order to write and live according to laws of God." (Wikipedia)
The time has come for many to see the light, since there were those who shook your pillars and tried to bring the Temple down. But the Spirit of God has descended from the Heavens above and has revealed this secret to you. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of time. Amen.65 (Awakening…) The Cyrillic script seems to be the earliest secret script associated with the ancient mysteries, which were most probably passed in the inner circles of the initiated few, as part of a legacy that has its origins back in the Neolithic culture of the Balkans, as the Vinča script confirms. While the Demotic was the syllabic script used with the pre-Slavic ancient Macedonian language, which was used as a public script among the people, and later spread across other cultures to become a civilizational script, the Cyrillic, as it seems, was a secret script used within the mysteries associated to the Dionysus creed in ancient Macedonia. This script has survived in this region ever since the Neolithic era, and has been revealed to the masses only after the mission of the Slavic teachers Ss. Cyril and Methodius, who thus appear to be the next-in-line of the initiated into the Orphic Mysteries. We can only assume what forced these people to reveal the mystery. However, having in mind the Hellenic and Latin influences that were trying to assimilate the pagan cultures, primarily by imposing their language and script as sacred, we can suggest that Ss. Cyril and Methodius were aware that the Slavic language, which they considered sacred, would perish if not given a proper script to represent its structure in a natural way and thus protect it from oblivion. They must have known the secret script which was used on rocks since ancient times, and moreover, they must have been familiar with its implication in the mysteries. The Cyrillic alphabet and the message it contains is just a glimpse into the possible uses of the script as part of certain initiations or even revelations that were hidden behind symbols, which were incomprehensible to the outsiders. The Cyrillic script is not an invention as it seems, but an ancient code of symbols, which was reformed to suit the requirements of the Slavic languages of the time. There were earlier attempts to reform this script, such as the Ruenica script. The text is carved on a wooden book dating from the 6th century AD, which is three centuries before the Cyrillic script was officially released. It is signed by Trp Ruen, who was a learned man and an educator in the court of Lady Coja [Tzoia]. According to the text, Trp Ruen had carved this book “in the year 6075 from the creation of the world or in the year 567 A.D”66.
65 66
The Holy Bible (Matthew 28 v 19-20) Contributed by Vasil Iljov: http://www.unet.com.mk/ancient-macedonians-part2/spomenici3-e.htm
Facsimile on the wooden bar no.15 from the wooden book from 567 A.D. with the author's name and surname Trp Ruen.
The text clearly states that the book was “carved at Lady (daughter-in-law) Coja’s, by Trp Ruen, a learned man from this court”, and is clearly legible in modern Macedonian.
“RECKANO E 6075 KAJ SNAATA COJA. TRP RUEN - (U)^EN OD OVOJ DVOREC” This clearly shows the continuum in the use of the Cyrillic alphabet in Macedonia. However, the only inconsistency rises when we observe the Glagolitic67 alphabet, which according to conventional science preceded the Cyrillic. There are other scholars who point at the possibility
67
The Glagolitic alphabet or Glagolitsa is the oldest known Slavic alphabet. It was created by brothers Saint Cyril (827–869 AD) and Saint Methodius (826–885 AD) in 855 or around 862–3 in order to translate the Bible and other texts into Slavic. The name of the alphabet comes from the Old Slavic glagolŭ, which means utterance (and is also the origin of the name for the letter "G"). Since glagolati also means to speak, the Glagolitsa is poetically referred to as "the marks that speak". There are multiple popular versions concerning the authorship of Glagolitsa and the etymology of its name. There are alternative names as well. (Wikipedia)
that the Glagolitic alphabet was not an invention of Ss. Cyril and Methodius, but St. Jerome68 in the 4th century.
Baška tablet (Croatian: Bašćanska ploča) written in Glagolitic This indicates that the Slavic brothers, who were the first to claim that the inhabitants of Salonika spoke pure Slavic, borrowed a foreign script to serve their Slavic mission. The Glagolitic script, as it seems, had been used with non-Slavic languages as well. The question that rises is: what was the reason that the Salonika brothers used the Glagolitic script for their Moravian mission, when their students had already had the Cyrillic reformed and ready to use with the Slavic language spoken in Macedonia, as well as Bulgaria where they first installed it? Could it be that the brothers used a more familiar alphabet to the Roman church (since St. 68
The tradition that the Glagolitic alphabet was designed by Saint Cyril and Saint Methodius has not been universally accepted. A less common belief, contradicting allochtonic Slovene origin, was that the Glagolitic was created or used in the 4th century by St. Jerome, hence the alphabet is sometimes named Hieronymian. In the Middle Ages, Glagolitsa was also known as "St. Jerome's script" due to popular mediaeval legend (created by Croatian scribes in 13th century) ascribing its invention to St Jerome (342-429):
Till end of the 18th century, a strange but widespread opinion dominated, that the Glagolitic writing system which was in use in Dalmatia and Istria with neighbor islands, as well as the translation of the Holy Scripture, owe their existing to the famous church's father St. Jerome. Knowing him as author of Latin "Vulgata", considering him - as a Dalmatia-born - a Slav, and especially a Croatian, the home-bred Slavic intellectuals in Dalmatia very early began to ascribe him the invention of Glagolitsa: possibly on purpose, with the intention to more successfully defend both Slavic writing and Slavic holy service against prosecutions and prohibitions from the Rome hierarchy's side, thus using the honorable opinion of the famous Latin holy father to protect their church rituals which were inherited from the Byzantines Cyril and Methodius. We don't know who was the first to put in motion this based on nothing scientific tradition about St. Jerome's authorship of Glagolitic script and translation of the Holy Scripture, but in 1248 this version has come to the knowledge of Pope Innocent IV. The belief in St. Jerome as an inventor of Glagolitic script lasted many centuries, not only at his homeland, i.e. in Dalmatia and Croatia, not only in Rome, due to Slavs living there… but also in the West. To the Czechia, the legend was brought in the 14th century by Croatian monks-glagolitas, and even the Emperor Charles IV got believed them. (Wikipedia)
Jerome was already considered a saint at the time of Pope Nicholas I69), to persuade the Pope that the Slavic can also be written with the Hieronymian script, thus enabling the Slavic to be recognized as a liturgical language? Could it be that the brothers instilled the Glagolitic alphabet in the Ohrid Literary School, where it survived until the 12th century besides the Cyrillic, while their students spread the Cyrillic alphabet in Bulgaria, protected from the persecution by the Franks70? Could it be that the Glagolitic alphabet was merely a political tool to serve as a cover for the true sacred script that the Slavic teachers wanted to promote among the Slav speaking population - the script that has existed among the Slavic mystics in its secret use ever since mythical age, which became known as the Cyrillic? Is it possible to think that the brothers, aware of the pressure from Rome, had cunningly devised a whole agenda how to decoy the attention of the Latin priesthood with the Glagolitic, while introducing the reformed ancient script to the Bulgars of Khan Boris I71, persuading him that in that way he would avoid the Byzantine influence, which they also saw as a threat for the reformed ancient script, since the Greek priesthood also did not favor the Slavic literacy mission? Interestingly, the Bulgars of Khan Boris I never accepted the new script and language, even though the majority of the population in Bulgaria, being Slav speaking, accepted the script and became the breeding ground for Slavic literacy in Cyrillic. I assume that the brothers had managed to persuade the Khan to convert into Christianity, since that would sustain his rule, and to accept the Cyrillic as an official script for his country along with the Slavic language, which was spoken widely in Bulgaria, despite the fact that the Bulgars were of Tatar origin and spoke a different language from the majority of the population. The Cyrillic, if revealed to the Byzantine or Roman priests, would have been condemned as pagan, which would have jeopardized the overall Christian mission of the brothers. Thus, the brothers managed to perform a double mission, on one side to spread the Byzantine influence by spreading Christianity among the pagans, and to preserve the language of the Slavic people by promoting an ancient secret script to record it, on the other. If we assume that Ss. Cyril and Methodius were among the initiated into the ancient mysteries, which they held as the most sacred legacy of the culture they belonged to, then we might say that by â&#x20AC;&#x153;revealing the secret scriptâ&#x20AC;? they managed to preserve the ancient secret contained in the language of the People of the Word. So mote it wasâ&#x20AC;Ś
69
In 867, Pope Nicholas I invited the brothers to Rome. Their evangelizing mission in Moravia had by this time become the focus of a dispute with Theotmar, the Archbishop of Salzburg and bishop of Passau, who claimed ecclesiastical control of the same territory and wished to see it use the Latin liturgy exclusively. (Wikipedia) 70
In 886, an East Frankish bishop of Nitra named Wiching banned the script and jailed 200 followers of Methodius (mostly students of the original academy). They were then dispersed or, according to some sources, sold as slaves by Franks. Many of them (including Naum, Clement, Angelarious, Sava and Gorazd), however, reached Bulgaria and were commissioned by Boris I of Bulgaria to teach and instruct the future clergy of the state into the Slavic languages. After the adoption of Christianity in Bulgaria in 865, religious ceremonies and Divine Liturgy were conducted in Greek by clergy sent from the Byzantine Empire, using the Byzantine rite. Fearing growing Byzantine influence and weakening of the state, Boris viewed the introduction of the Slavic alphabet and language in church use as a way to preserve the independence of Slavic Bulgaria from Greek Constantinople. As a result of Boris's measures, two academies in Ohrid and Preslav were founded. (Wikipedia) 71
In the modern historiography Boris is called with different titles. Most historians accept that he changed his title after the conversion to Christianity. According to them before the baptism he had the title Han[3] or Khan, and after that Knyaz or Tsar. (Wikipedia)
The Codex Zographensis - an illuminated manuscript Gospel Book in Glagolitic, from the Zograf Monastery on Mount Athos dating from the late 10th or early 11th century