За древнобългарските знаци от Шудиково, Черна гора
About an Proto-Bulgarian Monument Found in the Shudikovo Region of Montenegro

Summary/Abstract: The paper describes an Proto-Bulgarian stone monument, estimated to be about 10 centuries old. It is a parallelepiped shape with approximate sizes 94 by 87 by 54 centimetres. The stone was found in the remains of an old church in Shudikovo region of today’s Yugoslav Republic of Montenegro. The artifact has been examined since 1923, but it is not well known to most Bulgarian historians, yet. The monument is remarkable for peculiar signs depicted on its five faces. We make an attempt to identify them by comparing with other old Bulgarian characters of Pre-Christian time that were found on objects in the north-eastern Bulgarian region of Pliska, Preslav, and Madara. Like the way we followed in our previous study about the Pliska Rosette, we give arguments for an assumption that the signs hold an astrological meaning. Using this conjecture, we derive several combinations of how the planets were placed within the zodiacal constellations that seem to be rendered on the stone. Then, by the help of our own computer programme implementing contemporary methods of astronomical celestial mechanics, we find moments in time, when the chosen distributions of planets actually occured in the stellar sky. The obtained results are used as a supposition for dating. As an additional hypothesis, the possibility that an ancient chronicler could make a record on the stone block noting a total solar eclipse is considered and a relevant date is computed. It follows from our method that either 1469 or 1232 was probably the year when the stone monument was created.

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