In the present article, we argue that two eleventh-century phrases inscribed many times on the walls of the St. Sophia Cathedral in Novgorod (коуни рони and парехъ мари) are of Semitic provenance. We will provide the linguistic arguments which support the claim of a Hebrew source for коуни рони and a Syriac one for парехъ мари. In addition, we offer a reconstruction of the historical pragmatic context in which the phrases can be situated. We will propose that the коуни рони inscriptions are a citation from the Book of Lamentations of the Hebrew Bible (verse 2:19) and that they can be connected with the seizure of Novgorod and the plundering of St. Sophia by Vseslav of Polotsk in the year 1066. They should be regarded as the oldest tangible proof of contact with Jews and Hebrew in Rus'. In the case of the парехъ мари inscriptions, we will put forward the hypothesis that the author was a certain Efrem, a local citizen, possibly a clergyman, who carried the nickname 'the Syrian', because he may have been a Syrian by descent. ни и парехъ мари. Приводятся лингвистические аргументы, доказывающие древнеев-рейский характер первого граффито и сирийский-второго. Реконструируется также историко-прагматический контекст обеих надписей. Надписи коуни рони, атрибути-руемые как цитата из ветхозаветного Плача Иеремии (2:19), связываются с захватом Новгорода и разграблением Софийского собора в 1066 г. Всеславом Полоцким. В них можно видеть древнейшее осязаемое свидетельство славяно-еврейских контактов в Древней Руси. Автором надписи парехъ мари мог быть новгородский клирик Ефрем, носивший прозвище Сирин и, возможно, имевший сирийские корни.
The abbey of Saint-Gilles-du-Gard near Arles in the south of France was one of the most prominent pilgrimage sites in medieval Europe. Recent archaeological investigation has shown that construction of the abbey church, one of the most significant Romanesque pilgrimage churches in southern France, began ca. 1170/1180. The lower church (crypt) with the tomb of St. Giles (Lat. Aegidius, Fr. Gilles) and some of the walls of the upper church belong to that period. A well-preserved Cyrillic graffito was discovered on a pier of the upper church, close to the spot where the tomb of St. Giles is located in the crypt below. The text contains a prayer with a common formula: GI POMЪZI | RABU SVЪ|EMU SЬMKЪ|VI NINOSLA|VICHIU ‘Lord, help your servant Semko, son of Ninoslav.’ Palaeographic and linguistic analysis shows that the graffito is of Russian origin. It was probably made at some time between 1180 and 1250 by a pilgrim travelling from Russia to Santiago de Compostela, and it is the most geographically remote Old Russian graffito inscription discovered so far in western Europe.
The present paper deals with a long inscription which was uncovered in the autumn of 2015 on the external wall of the southern apse of the 12th century Transfiguration Cathedral in Pereslavl-Zalessky. It contains an almost fully legible list of assassins of the Vladimir-Suzdal prince Andrey Yuryevich, who was murdered in Bogolyubovo on June 29th, 1174. The writer places a curse on the murderers and wishes eternal memory to the prince. The graffito probably dates from 1175–1176 when Andrey’s younger brother Vsevolod Yuryevich ruled in Pereyaslavl. It is the oldest inscription from the North-Eastern Rus’ to have a fairly precise dating. The discovery corroborates the general accuracy of the chronicles in respect to the murder and serves as a source for the study of Old Russian princely titles and other terms of social hierarchy. Andrey Yuryevich is called the grand prince and his murderers are collectively given the pejorative name of parobki (servants) despite the high social status of at least some of them. As the first example of anathematising state criminals in Rus’, the inscription has relevance for church history as well. Valuable new information is provided by the list of assassins. It includes the names of 11–13 individuals. The list indicates that the main conspirator, the boyar Kuchcko's son-in-law named Peter was the son of someone named Frol. That Frol may have been the founder of the Church of Saints Florus and Laurus in the Moscow Kremlin. The patronymic of the third of the murderers Yakim Kuckovičь is spelled with a c., which may be an indication of Kuchko's Novgorodian origin. The fourth on the list is Ofrem Moizich. The authors accept the Arabic origins of Ofrem’s patronymic suggested by V. S. Kuleshov. The latter traces it back to the name Muʕizz which could have belonged to a Muslim from Volga Bulgaria. The fifth conspirator Dobryna Mikitich is tentatively identified as the Rostov boyar Dobryna the Tall. He played a prominent role in the feud triggered by the assassination of Andrey Yuryevich and perished in the Battle of Yuryev Field on June 27th, 1176. The last person on the list bears the rare Slavic name Styrjata which elsewhere is attested only in the 12th century graffiti inscriptions from the Annunciation Church at Gorodische near Novgorod. From the standpoint of linguistics the inscription demonstrates an advanced stage of the yer-shift. In this respect it is similar to the Novgorod birchbark letter No. 724 which dates from the same period. The inscription was read with the help of a three-dimensional model created by the RSSDA Lab. (https://rssda.su/ep-rus).
In the present article, we offer a detailed reply to alternative interpretations of our explanation of two eleventh-century phrases inscribed many times on the walls of the St. Sophia Cathedral in Novgorod: коуни рони and парехъ мари. According to our previous article in this journal, the phrases have a Semitic origin: Hebrew qūmī ronnī and Syriac /barrek mār/, respectively. In both instances new empirical evidence is provided by S. Ju. Temčin. In the case of коуни рони we argue that his alternative hypothesis cannot be maintained for a number of compelling reasons; our interpretation stands as it is. In the case of парехъ мари we basically agree with Temčin and provide evidence that sheds further light on its path of transmission into Slavic. Аннотация В настоящей статье дается подробный ответ на альтернативные трактовки выражений коуни рони и парехъ мари, многократно записанных в XI в. на стенах новгородского Софийского собора. Ранее эти выражения были объяснены нами как семитские: от древнееврейского qūmī ronnī и сирийского /barrek mār/. После этого новые факты по обоим вопросам привлек С. Ю. Темчин. В случае с коуни рони мы The contribution of A. A. Gippius and S. M. Mikheev was supported by a grant from the Russian Science Foundation (project no. 19-18-00352).
Резюме В данной заметке рассматриваются два древнерусских граффити: надпись Маръкова жана добра 'Маркова жена -добрая / хорошая' конца XIII или на ча ла XIV века со стены Спасо-Преображенской церкви Спасо-Евфросиниевско го монастыря в Полоцке и надпись Ежьковъ ножь а иже и ѫкрадеть проклѧтъ . . . 'Ежков нож. А кто его украдет, проклят . . .' конца XI -XII века на костяной ру кояти ножа, происходящей из раскопок в Дрохичине (древнерусском Доро гычине) на востоке Польши. Обе надписи уже публиковались ранее, однако их прочтение требует нескольких уточнений, а их палеография и язык -более обстоятельного комментария. Как показано в заметке, полоцкая надпись, ин тересная своей восхваляющей формулой, содержит ранний пример отраже ния яканья, белорусской фонетической особенности. Дрогичинская же над пись выделяется весьма нестандартной палеографией. Ключевые словаБелоруссия, Полоцк, Спасо-Евфросиниевский монастырь, Спасо-Преоб ражен ская церковь, Польша, Дрохичин (Дрогичин), археология, эпиграфика, надписи-граффити, палеография, древнерусский язык, история белорусского языка, XI-XIV века 312 | Slověne 2015 №1On Two Old Russian Inscriptions from Belarus and Poland Abstract Two Old Russian graffiti inscriptions are examined in the present paper. The first one, dating back to the late 13th-early 14th centuries, is located on one of the walls of the Savior Transfiguration Church in the St. Euphrosyne convent in Polotsk, Belarus. It reads Marъkova žana dobra 'Mark's wife is good.' The second graffito was inscribed on a knife handle excavated in Drohiczyn, Eastern Poland (Old Russian Dorogyčinъ), and dates to the end of the 11th through the 12th centuries. The inscription reads Ežьkovъ nožь a iže i ukradetь proklętъ . . . 'Ezhko's knife. Whoever steals it, be cursed . . .' Although both inscriptions have been published, the present study adds more in-depth paleographic and linguistic commentary and suggests corrected readings. The laudatory inscription from Polotsk is particularly interesting because it contains an early example of a spelling reflecting yakanye, a trait of Belarusian phonetics, whereas the interest of the Drohiczyn inscription lies in its unusual paleographic features.
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