The Sacred Tablet from Karanovo

The Sacred Tablet from the village of Karanovo (Nova Zagora District, Bulgaria)*

(Circa 4000 B. C. E. – the Eneolithic / Chalcolithic Era)

The tablet contains two rows of pictographic signs separated by a horizontal line, each one of which, is quite clearly visible upon the tablet’s photograph (exhibit A). The same are presented in computer enhanced versions and in schematic drawings (each), respectively in exhibits B and exhibits C. (N.B. If there have been any other additional signs on the artifact, that are presently not visible or discernable, these have not been taken into consideration for the purposes of our present reading of the text).

Please, note that the signs engraved under the horizontal line are inverted (i.e. head-down) and the tablet needs to be turned 180° around (to full diametrical opposition), so that the reading of the second row of text, (under the horizontal line), can be accomplished. After the above “rotation”, the second row of the engraved pictograms is presented below in its “corrected” upright position, for easier character recognition.

Exhibit A Photograph of the Sacred Tablet
Exhibit B Computer-Enhanced Photograph of the Tablet
Exhibit C Schematic Drawing of Row I of the Sacred Tablet – Early-Thracian version of the Hieroglyphic Script
Exhibit D – (Reading of Row I)
Stylized Hieroglyphic Transcript of Row I of the Tablet – Late-Egyptian version of the Hieroglyphic Script


Now, all of the above identified pictographic signs (in both row I and row II) look exactly like the Hieroglyphic Inscriptions presented in the exhibits D, when they are transcribed, using the stylized later version of the pictographic script, known to us from the pyramid texts of Ancient Egypt, rendered here in its computerized calligraphic print.

Exhibit A
Rotated (180°) Photograph of the Sacred Tablet
Exhibit B Computer-Enhanced Photograph of the Tablet
Exhibit C Schematic Drawing of Row II of the Sacred Tablet – Early-Thracian version of the Hieroglyphic Script
Exhibit D – (the tablet has been rotated for the reading of Row II) Stylized Hieroglyphic
Transcript of Row II of the Tablet – Late-Egyptian version of the Hieroglyphic Script


Upon comparison, it becomes evident that each of the rows of text, displayed on exhibits B, exhibits C and exhibits D, is absolutely one and the same identical text, and that the two calligraphic styles (respectively – the early-Thracian, and the late-Egyptian), represent one and the same identical pictographic script, which has come to us down the ages, in its condition and appearance as seen on Exhibits A.

The evident conclusions, just like in the previous case, are as follows:

1. The Script used in the engravings upon the Tablet of Karanovo, found in the land of Ancient Thrace (present-day Bulgaria) and the Scripts used in similar tablets and in the pyramid texts, found in Ancient Egypt, represent one and the same IDENTICAL Hieroglyphic Script!

2. The Tablet from Karanovo, found in the land of Ancient Thrace, predates similar artifacts found in Egypt by at least one millennium. Apparently this particular type of Hieroglyphic Script had originated and was used first in Ancient Thrace, and was later transferred and introduced in Ancient Egypt.

3. The Early-Thracian version of this Hieroglyphic Script was evidently used quite sparingly – predominantly as the Sacred Language of the Initiated Elite. It doesn’t appear from the findings so far, that it ever reached the levels of wide spread utilization, which it found thousands of years later in its Late-Egyptian version.

The hieroglyphic text upon the Tablet from Karanovo (as transcribed in Exhibits D) can be read either in the right-to-left, or in the left-to-right direction because of the symmetrical position of the pictograms around a central axis. Its translation (following the well-established rules for translating Egyptian hieroglyphic writing) has the following or similar meaning, verse by verse:

The earthly human realm is separated by the Grave and the Guardian (of the Resurrection) between the Living and the Dead, from the fiery divine realm.
Or: Through (the mystery) of Death and Resurrection, the earthly human becomes a divine being.


Falsehood (Lie, Injustice) reigns in the lower (earthly) realm, while Truth (Justice) reigns supreme in the upper (divine) realm.
Or: The one who has been initiated, has exchanged his Crown of the Lower Realm, for the High Crown of the Upper Realm, and has passed from Falsehood into the Truth, ruling with the high Priestly Scepter (of Truth and Justice) now firmly in his hand.


(N.B. Please, note that because of the tablet’s “rotation” (180°) so that the second row of the text could be in its “corrected” upright position, (for easier character recognition), the deliberate original positioning of the pictogram of Falsehood (Injustice) right under the earthly (lower) realm, and of Truth (Justice) right under the fiery (upper) realm (so intended by the ancient engraver of the tablet), has now, in our schematic presentation and reading, been technically altered!)

If we are to put the above text into the everyday lingo of our modern time, it would sound something like this:

(1) Whosoever has been initiated in the Mystery of Death and Resurrection,
he has been born anew and his new nature is Divine.

(2) He has left all Falsehood and has come to know The Truth.
He now reigns in Justice and Truth, with the Scepter and Crown of the Upper Realm,
being the Ruler of both (the Upper and Lower) worlds.

The text of the Tablet from Karanovo inevitably brings to memory the documented text from a couple of other Tablets, written in linear Greek over three thousand years later. They are known as the Orphic ivory Tablets from Olbia (Tablet # 1 and # 2, out of five), discovered in 1951 and carbon-dated around 500 B. C. E.. A detailed description of the Olbia Tablets is found in the book – The Thracian Dionysos, Invocation and Faith (p. 200, New Bulgarian University, Sofia 2002) by prof. Alexander Fol, who wrote the following: “The first one of the five tablets is engraved with the text formula “Life-Death-Life-Truth” and is visible under that formula. Interpreted from its ethnic orphic language, it brings forth the revelation that Life is Death and Death is Life in the Beyond, where True Knowledge (Truth) is to be found, i.e. Death reveals and opens the way to True Knowledge… All hesitation is gone upon examination of the second Tablet. One of its sides reads: “Peace-War-Truth-Falsehood” and below that row – … The revelation is now complete, stating that True Knowledge, found beyond death, is also Peace, in opposition to War and Falsehood, which are contrary to the (Orphic) Teaching…”

More detailed information about The Sacred Tablet from the village of Karanovo and its reading is, of course, found in the First Book of this series “The Thracian Script Decoded – I”, where a more thorough analysis of the text of the Sacred Tablet and its meaning was introduced.

The tablets from Gradeshnitsa and Karanovo, however, are definitely not the only existing artifacts of that nature found on the territory of Ancient Thrace! There are a number of other similar tablets (plates) well known to archaeologists, which date from relatively the same historical period (of 5000 to 4000 BCE) and were found within the borders of the same extended geographical region. Without going into all the technical archaeological details of such finds in this predominantly linguistic research work, it will suffice for us to state, that our analysis conclusively demonstrates, that the tablets found to the north of Gradeshnitsa (Bulgaria) -in the region of Tartaria (modern day Romania), display pictograms of the same Thracian pictographic script, identical to the one already decoded by using the Guide Method, upon the Tablets from Gradeshnitsa and Karanovo (Bulgaria).

* At the time of the First Edition of this book, the original Tablet of Karanovo was in the keeping of the National Museum of Archeology, in the city of Sofia, Bulgaria.

Other Thracian artifacts containing the Thracian Script