Gnezdovo inscription
A single Cyrillic word scratched on a Crimean amphora, found in a barrow at Gnezdovo near Smolensk and dated to the second quarter or middle of the 10th century, is the oldest known Old East Slavic inscription.
- Date
- between 925 and 960exact date unknown: an interval is given
- Place
- Gnezdovotoday: Gnyozdovo, Smolensk Oblast, Russia · Eastern Europe
- Participants
- East Slavs, Varangians
- Threads
- Eastern Europe and Rus’ before the Baptism (1st–10th c.)
- Also known as
- Gorouchna; Горушна; Гороухща; Gnyozdovo amphora
Found by Daniil Avdusin in 1949 in barrow 13 of the Lesnaya group, the inscription has been read as gorouchna or goroukhshcha, “mustard” or “spice”, as “fuel”, or — as many linguists now prefer — as a possessive form of the personal name Gorun, “Gorun’s (jar)”. Its date shows that Cyrillic writing was known in Rus’ well before the official conversion of 988, although some scholars allow that the jar may have come already inscribed from the Black Sea region.
Gnezdovo itself, just west of Smolensk, was one of the largest settlements on the route from the Varangians to the Greeks: its vast barrow cemetery, with rich Scandinavian burials, and hoards of Arab and Byzantine coins reflect a mixed Slavic–Scandinavian trading community that declined in the early 11th century as Smolensk rose.
Connections
Related events
- Constantine VII describes the Rus’ route to Constantinoplebetween 948 and 952 · Eastern EuropeGnezdovo lay on the Dnieper route described by Constantine VII
Same participants
- Oleg takes Kyiv882 · Eastern Europevia East Slavs
- Ibn Fadlan’s embassy to the Volga Bulgars21 June 921 – 12 May 922 · Eastern Europevia Varangians
- Feud of the Sviatoslavichi977 – between 978 and 980 · Eastern Europevia Varangians
Same place
- Capture of Smolensk (1514)between 30 July and 1 August 1514 · Eastern Europe
Adjacent events in the thread
- Igor’s campaigns against Byzantium11 June 941 – 944 · Balkans and Anatolia
- Rus’–Byzantine Treaty of 944between 944 and 945 · Balkans and Anatolia
Meanwhile in the world
Other regions, within a year of this event
Western and Central Europe
- First Althing at Þingvellir930
- Battle of Lechfeld10–12 August 955
- Abd al-Rahman III proclaims the Caliphate of Córdoba16 January 929
Balkans and Anatolia
- Igor’s campaigns against Byzantium11 June 941 – 944
- Rus’–Byzantine Treaty of 944between 944 and 945
- Olga’s visit to Constantinople and her baptism9 September – 18 October 957
- Golden Age of Bulgaria under Simeon I893 – 27 May 927
The same period
Sources
- Wikipedia (English): Gnezdovo
- Wikipedia (Russian): Гнёздовская надпись
- Wikipedia (Russian): Гнёздово (археологический комплекс)
- Авдусин Д. А., Тихомиров М. Н. Древнейшая русская надпись // Вестник Академии наук СССР. — 1950. — № 4. — С. 71–79.
- Wikidata: Q4140819