| The Buyla Inscription | |
|---|---|
 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 Timiș County, Romania) |
| Present location | Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna |
The Buyla inscription is a 9-word, 56-character inscription written in the Greek alphabet but in a non-Greek language. It is found on a golden buckled bowl or cup which is among the pieces of the Treasure of Nagyszentmiklós[1][2] which are now in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna.[1][3] The bowl is 12 cm in diameter and weighs 212 g, and has a handle or buckle, perhaps for hanging on a belt. The inscription is found around the outside of a circular design in the middle of the bowl. In the place where the inscription begins and ends, there is a cross. The inscription reads: ΒΟΥΗΛΑ·ΖΟΑΠΑΝ·ΤΕϹΗ·ΔΥΓΕΤΟΙΓΗ·ΒΟΥΤΑΟΥΛ·ΖΩΑΠΑΝ·ΤΑΓΡΟΓΗ·ΗΤΖΙΓΗ·ΤΑΙϹΗ.[4]
Prevailing opinion is that the language of the text is the West Old Turkic (and thus distinct from both Old Turkic and the ancestor of the modern-day Common Turkic languages),[5][6] and several translations have been proposed, but it has not been deciphered and the exact classification of the language has been a subject of debate.[1][7][2] Vilhelm Thomsen translated the inscription: "Boila zoapan finished this bowl [this drinking cup], which Boutaoul zoapan made suitable for hanging up."[8] Nikola Mavrodinov translated it: "Bouila zoapan made this cup; Boutaul Zoapan made this cup suitable for drinking from."[8] Gyula Németh translated it: "Boila chaban's bowl, which was made to his order; Boutaoul had a buckle made for it, and this is his bowl."[8] Paul Lazăr Tonciulescu translated it: "Jupan Buila [has] all rights, jupan Butaul [has the right of] entering [in] all towns.[9]
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Main article: Treasure of Nagyszentmiklós |
The treasure of Nagyszentmiklós, of which the bowl is a part, consists of 23 decorated gold vessels weighing around 10 kg.[10][11][3] It was found in 1799 on the banks of the Aranca river, near Nagyszentmiklós (today Sânnicolau Mare in Timiș County, Romania),[12][3][13] in the region of Avar settlement in the Carpathian Basin.[14] It was also attributed to the lower Danube Bulgars,[15] but the current view is that the treasure is of Avar origin and closely related to the Avar culture.[16][14][15][17]
The objects were made by specialized craftsmen in the 7th and 8th centuries[16][18][14] and were hoarded by local lords.[19][20] The treasure was last "used" and buried in the second half of the 8th century or perhaps in the early 9th century.[14][20]
Some of the vessels bear runiform inscriptions. Similar characters can be found on a bone needlecase excavated in the Late Avar cemetery of Szarvas (in Békés County, Hungary) and dated to the second half of the 8th century.[10][21] Based on this evidence, some scholars proposed a similar date for the Nagyszentmiklós inscriptions.[10][13]
The Buyla inscription is engraved in Greek letters on the inner bottom of a round buckled bowl (no. 21 in József Hampel's list), on a flat ring surrounding a lavishly decorated disk.[22][23]
The inscription has the following text, easily readable, and uses a C-shaped glyph for sigma:[24][25][23]
The lower case equivalent is:
The transliteration is:
Some of the letters of the inscription have distinctive shapes. The letters sigma and epsilon have broad arcs.[26] The base line of delta juts out on both sides.[27] Beta has also a prominent base line, a form found in the Greek inscriptions from Bulgaria dated to the early 9th century,[26][28][29] but otherwise it is rarely attested in the Greek-writing world: only[26][28] on several Cherson coins of the Byzantine emperor Basil I (867-886)[28][29][30] and also on one inscription of the same emperor, found in Mesembria (today Nesebar, Bulgaria).[28][31] The shape of alpha is also attested on the 9th century Greek inscriptions from Bulgaria.[26] 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.[26][32]
In this inscription there is a free alternation between ε and αι, η and ι, and ο and ω.[33][34] These groups became homophones in Koine Greek, merging to /ɛ/, /i/ and /o/.[33][35] Also ου was read /u/,[35] υ was read /y/,[36][34][35] and οι was read either /y/[36][35] or /ø/.[37]
In the late 19th century, József Hampel suggested that the treasure of Nagyszentmiklós was buried by Gepids in the 4th or 5th century AD,[38][39] 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 that the inscription records two Gepid princes, Bouila and Boutaoul, and the three lands they ruled: Tagro, Etzi and Dygetoi.[40][41][42] The last toponym was connected with the Getae of the Classical Antiquity.[43][42] This interpretation was sharply criticized by Vilhelm Thomsen and Gyula Németh, who showed that the language of the inscription cannot be Greek, but an old Turkic language.[44][45]
Today almost all scholars share the view that the text was written in a Turkic language,[1][46][2] but it has not been deciphered and the exact classification of the language has been a subject of debate.[1][7] It has been often compared with the Turkic Bulgar language of the First Bulgarian Empire,[34][7][29] attested on several 8th-9th century inscriptions found in north-eastern Bulgaria and written in Greek letters.[47] More recently Eugene Helimski argued the language is close to Proto-Tungusic,[48] but this proposal was rejected by Marcel Erdal as far-fetched.[49]
It is generally agreed that the first word is the Turkic title buyla or boyla (also spelled boila[50]) which is attested on several Old Turkic and Danube Bulgar inscriptions[51][52] and also mentioned by some 9th and 10th centuries Byzantine authors.[51][53] Some scholars proposed that Buyla should be read as a personal name in this text, as titles were often taken as personal names.[2][51] There are more vessels in the treasure of Nagyszentmiklós that mention the name Buyla, such as a goblet.
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Main article: Butaul |
Butaul is usually read as a personal name.[2][54][55] It may be interpreted as "son of Buta" with the final -ul being a development of the Turkic oğul = "son".[54][55] 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.[54][56] Based on the names attested on Old Turkic inscriptions, Erdal posited the reading But Aul.[54]
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Main article: Župan |
In 1900, Karl Brugmann derived the Common Slavic *županъ from župa "district, small administrative region",[57] an etymology that was accepted by many linguists.[58]