The buckled bowl bearing the Buyla inscription. |
|
| Material | gold |
|---|---|
| Created | Middle or Late Avar Period (670 AD – 800 AD) |
| Discovered | 1799 near Nagyszentmiklós (today Sânnicolau Mare in Timiş County, Romania) |
| Present location | Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna |
The Buyla inscription is a text written in Greek letters but in a non-Greek language on a golden buckled bowl from the Nagyszentmiklós hoard,[1][2] now in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna.[1][3] The prevailing opinion is that the language of the text is a Turkic language, however despite many attempts the inscription has not been deciphered.[1][4][2]
Contents |
The Nagyszentmiklós treasure consists of 23 decorated gold vessels weighing around 10 kg.[5][6][3] It was found in 1799 on the banks of Aranca river, near Nagyszentmiklós (today Sânnicolau Mare in Timiş County, Romania),[7][3][8] in the region of Avar settlement in the Carpathian Basin.[9] It was also attributed to the lower Danube Bulgars,[10] but the current view is that the treasure is of Avar origin and closely related to the Avar culture.[11][9][10][12]
The objects were made by specialized craftsmen in the 7th and the 8th centuries[11][13][9] and were hoarded by local lords.[14][15] The treasure was last "used" and buried in the second half of the 8th century or perhaps in the early 9th century.[9][15]
Some of the vessels bear runiform inscriptions. Similar characters can be found on a bone needle case excavated in the Late Avar cemetery of Szarvas (in Békés County, Hungary) and dated to the second half of the 8th century.[5][16] Based on this evidence, some scholars proposed a similar date for the Nagyszentmiklós inscriptions.[5][8]
The Buyla inscription is engraved in Greek letters on the inner bottom of a round buckled bowl (no. 21 in József Hampel's notation), on a flat ring surrounding a lavishly decorated disk.[17][18]
The inscription has the following text, easily readable:[19][20][18]
In lower case:
Some of the letters of the inscription have distinctive shapes. The letters sigma and epsilon have broad arcs.[21] The base line of delta juts out on both sides.[22] Beta has also a prominent base line, a form found in the Greek inscriptions from Bulgaria dated to the early 9th century,[21][23][24] but otherwise it is rarely attested in the Greek-writing world: only[21][23] on several Cherson coins of the Byzantine emperor Basil I (867-886)[23][24][25] and also on one inscription of the same emperor, found in Mesembria (today Nesebar, Bulgaria).[23][26] The shape of alpha is also attested on the 9th century Greek inscriptions from Bulgaria.[21] On the other hand, omega's unusual shape, with a middle vertical line higher than the rounded sides, is specific for the 6th century Greek inscriptions and the oldest forms of the Greek Uncial script.[21][27]
On this inscription there is a free alternation between ε and αι, η and ι, and ο and ω.[28][29] These groups became homophones in Koine Greek, merging to /ɛ/, /i/ and /o/.[28][30] Also ου was read /u/,[30] υ was read /y/,[31][29][30] and οι was read either /y/[31][30] or /ø/.[32]
In late 19th century József Hampel suggested the treasure of Nagyszentmiklós was buried by Gepids in the 4th or the 5th century AD[33][34] and attempted to decipher the text of the inscription using the Greek language. Three words end in -γη, which was read by Hampel as the Greek γῆ = "land, country". He concluded the inscription records two Gepid princes, Bouila and Boutaoul, and the three lands they ruled, Tagro, Etzi and Dygetoi.[35][36][37] The last toponym was connected with the Getae of the Classical Antiquity.[38][37] This interpretation was sharply criticized by Vilhelm Thomsen and Gyula Németh, showing the language of the inscription cannot be Greek, but an old Turkic language.[39][40]
Today almost all scholars share the view that the text was written in a Turkic language,[1][41][2] but it has not been deciphered and the exact classification of the language has been a subject of debate.[1][4] It has been often compared with the Turkic Bulgar language of the First Bulgarian Empire,[29][4][24] attested on several 8th-9th century inscriptions found in north-eastern Bulgaria and written in Greek letters.[42] More recently Eugene Helimski argued the language is close to Proto-Tungusic,[43] but this proposal was rejected by Marcel Erdal as far-fetched.[44]
It is generally agreed that the first word is the Turkic title buyla or boyla (also spelled boila[45]) which is attested on several Old Turkic and Danube Bulgar inscriptions[46][47] and also mentioned by some 9th and 10th centuries Byzantine authors.[46][48] Some scholars proposed that Buyla should be read as a personal name in this text.[2][46]
Butaul is usually read as a personal name.[2][49][50] It may be interpreted as "son of Buta" with the final -ul being a development of the Turkic oğul = "son".[49][51] This etymology was challenged based on the observation that according to the predominant model of construction of Turkic patronymics, the possessive forms oğlu or oğli are expected.[49][52] Based on the names attested on Old Turkic inscriptions, Erdal posited the reading But Aul.[49]
In 1900, Karl Brugmann derived the Common Slavic *županъ from župa "district, small administrative region",[53] an etymology that was accepted by many linguists.[54] However, others suggested the opposite evolution; župa as a back formation from župan, a title brought from Central Asia to Eastern Europe by Avars and Bulgars.[55][54][49] One hypothesis assumes an Iranian origin, from the etymon *fsu-pāna- that evolved to šubān in Parthian and šupān and šubān in Persian; all these words meaning "shepherd".[54][56] The 11th century scholar Mahmud al-Kashgari recorded the Middle Turkic word čupan denoting a minor official, which was considered evidence for a borrowing from Iranian to Turkic languages.[57][56]