The Basarabi-Murfatlar Cave Complex is a

medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...

Christian

monastery A monastery is a building or complex of buildings comprising the domestic quarters and workplaces of monastics, monks or nuns, whether living in communities or alone ( hermits). A monastery generally includes a place reserved for prayer whi ...

located near the

town A town is a human settlement. Towns are generally larger than villages and smaller than cities, though the criteria to distinguish between them vary considerably in different parts of the world. Origin and use The word "town" shares an ori ...

Murfatlar Murfatlar () is a town in Constanța County, Northern Dobruja, Romania. It officially became a town in 1989, as a result of the Romanian rural systematization program. Etymology The name of the town originates from the Turkish word of Arabic o ...

(known as Basarabi between 1924–1965 and 1975–2007),

Constanța County Constanța () is a county (județ) of Romania on the border with Bulgaria, in the Dobruja region. Its capital city is also named Constanța. Demographics In 2011, it had a population of 684,082 and the population density was 96/km2. The degr ...

, Northern Dobruja,

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Moldova to the east, and ...

. The complex is a relict from a widespread

monastic Monasticism (from Ancient Greek , , from , , 'alone'), also referred to as monachism, or monkhood, is a religion, religious way of life in which one renounces world (theology), worldly pursuits to devote oneself fully to spiritual work. Monastic ...

phenomenon in 10th century Bulgaria.

History

The rock churches of Murflatlar, carved into a

chalk Chalk is a soft, white, porous, sedimentary carbonate rock. It is a form of limestone composed of the mineral calcite and originally formed deep under the sea by the compression of microscopic plankton that had settled to the sea floor. Ch ...

hill, were discovered in 1957. The excavations conducted in 1957–1960 uncovered of a complex of cells-dwellings, 4 small and 2 larger churches, crypts and tombs, all dating from the 9th – 11th century. From the late 7th until beginning of the 11th century this territory was part of the First Bulgarian Empire.

Inscriptions

There are many inscriptions engraved on the walls – 2 in the

Greek alphabet The Greek alphabet has been used to write the Greek language since the late 9th or early 8th century BCE. It is derived from the earlier Phoenician alphabet, and was the earliest known alphabetic script to have distinct letters for vowels as w ...

, 2 in the

Old Slavonic language Old Church Slavonic or Old Slavonic () was the first Slavic literary language. Historians credit the 9th-century Byzantine missionaries Saints Cyril and Methodius with standardizing the language and using it in translating the Bible and other ...

(''Bulgarian recension'') using the

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 ...

script and over 30 using the

Cyrillic script The Cyrillic script ( ), Slavonic script or the Slavic script, is a writing system used for various languages across Eurasia. It is the designated national script in various Slavic, Turkic, Mongolic, Uralic, Caucasian and Iranic-speaking co ...

. The most numerous are the runic inscriptions of Turkic type – over 60 have been found so far. The same type of runes have been used on the Pliska Rosette and can be found on building materials and on the 9th century walls of the first Bulgarian capital

Pliska Pliska ( , cu, Пльсковъ, translit=Plĭskovŭ) was the first capital of the First Bulgarian Empire during the Middle Ages and is now a small town in Shumen Province, on the Ludogorie plateau of the Danubian Plain, 20 km northeast o ...

. The Turkic runes in Murfatlar were based probably on the Kharosthi script. The language of the runes is presumably

Bulgar Bulgar may refer to: *Bulgars, extinct people of Central Asia *Bulgar language, the extinct language of the Bulgars * Oghur languages Bulgar may also refer to: *Bolghar, the capital city of Volga Bulgaria *Bulgur, a wheat product * Bulgar, an Ash ...

. According to Romanian researchers, some graffiti, including depicting a

Viking ships Viking ships were marine vessels of unique structure, used in Scandinavia from the Viking Age throughout the Middle Ages. The boat-types were quite varied, depending on what the ship was intended for, but they were generally characterized as bein ...

, were interpreted as

Varangian The Varangians (; non, Væringjar; gkm, Βάραγγοι, ''Várangoi'';Varangian
" Online Etymo ...

. However, they could have been carved by the local monks during the Rus' invasion of Bulgaria. Despite numerous attempts at cracking the Murfatlar script, there still is not a universally accepted decipherment, and it is rather heterogeneous. Nevertheless, it is most likely that local monks drew their inspiration here.The cave and the dyke: a rock monastery on the tenth-century frontier of Bulgaria. Florin Curta, Studia Monastica 41 (1999), no. 1: 129-149; p. 140.

Image gallery

Image:BasarabiComplex5.JPG, Basarabi Cave Complex Image:BasarabiComplex.JPG, View from inside the Complex Image:BasarabiComplex2.JPG, View from inside the Complex File:MurtfatlarCaveChurch2.JPG, Graffiti from the Basarabi Complex exhibited in the History Museum of Constanṭa

References

{{reflist

External links

Basarabi – The Cave Churches Complex
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20110724063056/http://byzantion.shu-bg.net/rashev_bg.htm Съчетанията от графична рисунка и рунообразен надпис в Равна и Мурфатлар. – Културните текстове на миналото, Рашо Рашев, Кн. III. София, 2005, с. 140–148.] (in Bulgarian)
За четенето на един рунически надпис от Мурфатлар – Северна Добруджа, Иван Т. Иванов М. Минкова, Националeн исторически институт с музей при БAН, София 2009. с. 297 – 299
(in Bulgarian, English summary)
Надписи из Мурфатлара,Д-р Живко Войников
(in Russian) * Popkonstantinov, Kazimir 1986: Die Inschriften des Felsklosters Murfatlar. Die Slawischen Sprachen 10, 1986, 77–106.(in Deutsch) Archaeological sites in Romania Buildings and structures in Constanța County Bulgarian Orthodox monasteries Byzantine sites in Romania Cave monasteries Former populated places in Romania Lower Danube Cave Churches Complex Medieval Bulgarian Orthodox church buildings Undeciphered writing systems