The Humac tablet ( sh-Cyrl-Latn, Хумачка плоча, Хумска плоча, separator=" / ", Humačka ploča, Humska ploča) is an
Old Slavic epigraph in
Bosnian Cyrillic
Bosnian Cyrillic, widely known as Bosančica is a variant of the Cyrillic alphabet that originated in medieval Bosnia. The term was coined at the end of the 19th century by Ćiro Truhelka. It was widely used in modern-day Bosnia and Herzegovin ...
script in the form of a stone tablet, believed to be variously dated to between the 10th and 12th century, being one of the oldest Bosnian preserved inscriptions.
It is the oldest Cyrillic epigraph found in Bosnia and Herzegovina. It was found in the village of
Humac in
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bosnia and Herzegovina ( sh, / , ), abbreviated BiH () or B&H, sometimes called Bosnia–Herzegovina and often known informally as Bosnia, is a country at the crossroads of south and southeast Europe, located in the Balkans. Bosnia and H ...
. It is kept at the museum of the
Franciscan friary in Humac. It was first noted by a French diplomat at the
Bosnia Vilayet.
There is disagreement over the dating; Yugoslav epigrapher and historian
Marko Vego dated it to the end of the 10th or the beginning of the 11th century; linguist
Jovan Deretić
Jovan Deretić ( sr-Cyrl, Јован Деретић; 22 January 1934 – 16 June 2002) was a Serbian historian and author of Serbian literary history. His work ''Istorija Srpske književnosti'' (1983) is the standard work in Serbian literary his ...
to the 10th or 11th century; historian
Dimitrije Bogdanović Dimitrije Bogdanović ( sr, Димитрије Богдановић; October 11, 1930 in Belgrade – June 14, 1986 in Belgrade) was a Serbian historian and member of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts. He is considered one of leading scholars ...
to the 12th century.
The text of the tablet tells about the act of raising a church dedicated to the Archangel
Michael by Krsmir (also rendered Uskrsimir or Krešimir) and his wife Pavica. The tablet is quadrangle in shape (68x60x15 cm), and the inscription is carved in form of a quadrangle in Cyrillic script among which five
Glagolitic
The Glagolitic script (, , ''glagolitsa'') is the oldest known Slavic alphabet. It is generally agreed to have been created in the 9th century by Saint Cyril, a monk from Thessalonica. He and his brother Saint Methodius were sent by the Byzan ...
letters (four
E-like letters resembling Ⰵ and a Ⱅ letter alongside a conventional Cyrillic Т) occur.
Text
Transliteration and the interpretation of the text differs among Slavicists and
paleographer
Palaeography ( UK) or paleography ( US; ultimately from grc-gre, , ''palaiós'', "old", and , ''gráphein'', "to write") is the study of historic writing systems and the deciphering and dating of historical manuscripts, including the analysi ...
s.
References
Sources
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{{Commons category, Humac tablet
History of the Serbo-Croatian language
Ljubuški
Texts of medieval Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bosnian Cyrillic texts