A monumental discovery from the heart of Bulgaria shines new light on early Cyrillic writing. A breastplate, unearthed in the ruins of a medieval fortress, bears an inscription that researchers consider among the oldest Cyrillic texts ever found. The team from the Bulgarian National Museum revealed the finding, stressing its significance for understanding how early Slavic scripts spread across the Balkans and beyond.
The inscription was etched on a lead plate that was worn over the chest as a protective charm against misfortune and evil. Its purpose seems practical—a talisman meant to guard the wearer during perilous times—yet its script carries implications for history that are as protective as the plate itself. The artifact’s placement within the fortress and the apparent care taken in its inscription suggest it traveled there with the military presence that once defended the site, likely during the late 9th or early 10th century. The text also records two names, Pavel and Dimitar, who appeared as petitioners, though their precise identities remain a subject of scholarly discussion. Dimitar may have been a member of the garrison or a relative connected to Pavel, but the exact relationship is not fully known. [Source: Bulgarian National Museum]
Scholars place the inscription within the era of Tsar Simeon I, frequently called Simeon the Great, who ruled the Bulgarian Empire from 893 to 927. Simeon’s reign was marked by ambitious military campaigns that expanded Bulgarian influence, especially against Byzantium, reshaping the political map of southeastern Europe. The newly found plate provides tangible evidence of the cultural and political dynamics of that tumultuous period, illustrating how material culture and royal ambition intersected in the lived experience of soldiers and communities along Bulgaria’s frontiers.
The Cyrillic writing system, which later became a cornerstone of literacy in Russia and many other Eurasian languages, traces its medieval beginnings to this broad geographic and historical milieu. Before this discovery, the oldest surviving Cyrillic texts dated to around 921, a few decades after Simeon’s era. The lead plate thus offers a rare, direct glimpse into how early Cyrillic characters were formed and used in everyday items, not only in liturgical contexts but also on practical objects tied to personal protection and daily life. In this sense, the artifact enriches both linguistic history and the broader story of how writing migrated from a sacred or ceremonial sphere into the more practical corners of medieval society. The inscription’s age thus positions it as a crucial piece in the puzzle of Cyrillic development, underscoring the rapid movement of script from a developing scholarly system into common, tangible artifacts of the medieval world. [Source: Bulgarian National Museum]
As researchers continue to study the plate, they emphasize how such discoveries help illuminate the cultural currents that circulated through Bulgaria and the greater Balkan region during a period of intense political change. The text’s references to personal names and the protective purpose of the plate together imply layered layers of social and military life—the kind of detail that helps historians reconstruct the practices of garrisons, family networks, and local beliefs during a transformative era. With every new artifact unearthed, the narrative grows more vivid: the people, the protection rituals, and the scripts that carried memory, faith, and authority across a landscape shaped by war and alliance. [Source: Bulgarian National Museum]
In the broader timeline of Cyrillic literature, this find stands as a bridge between the earliest known texts and the later, more expansive corpus that would come to define literacy across a wide region. By anchoring linguistic history in a concrete, dated object, researchers can trace the spread of written language through material culture as convincingly as through manuscripts. The inscription on the lead plate does not merely push back the clock on Cyrillic writing; it also illustrates how language, protection, power, and daily life were interwoven in early medieval Bulgaria. The continued study of this artifact promises to reveal even more about the people who engraved it, the soldiers who carried it, and the communities that ultimately absorbed such influences into their everyday speech and practices. [Source: Bulgarian National Museum]