NEW FINDINGS FROM THE CEMETERY OF CHUFUT-KALE (CRIMEA)
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Abstract
The history of discovery of Crimean Karaites epigraphic heritage has been accompanied by scandals and accusations in forgery from the time of the first publications in the 19th c. Since the book of Abracham Firkovich, Avnei Zikkaron (Vilna, 1872) was published, epitaphs from the tombstones of the cemeteries from Crimea have been the subject of polemics. Many authorities accused A. Firkovich in forgery. They claimed that A. Firkovich had forged the dates in the oldest published epitaphs, using much newer tombstones but changing the first letter of the date, usually “he” onto “tav”. In this way he had made the dates 600 years older. On the other hand, many historians used to defend A. Firkovich’s point of view.
Scholars engaged in issue from the both sides of the polemics, like Daniel Khvolson and Arist Kunik, offered to use the Karaite calendar to verify the authenticity of the tombstones checking the dates on them. The idea was that full dates (day of week and day of month) from the forged epitaphs do not coincide with calendar. But only in 1910, when a Karaite astronomer and ardent Firkovich`s paladine from the Russian Empire, Juriy (Iufuda) Kokizov published a Karaite calendar for 2200 years, an instrument for such a check was founded.
Last 15 years were very fruitful in the area of Karaite’s studies, including epigraphic studies in Crimea. All main corps of epitaphs have been disco-vered and published or prepared to be published. The core problems in this field of studies are solved. But it’s hard to exhaust to the end epigraphic material from such fruitful field as the Karaite cemeteries from Crimea, so new findings are still possible, and Kokizov’s calendar could be used to check the dates on epitaphs. Usually, and calendar shows it “black on white”, examining the epitaphs of the 10th–11th c. we deal with tombstones forged by Fir-kovich in the way mentioned above.
How to Cite
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A. Firkovitch, cemetery, Chufut-Kale, forgery, J. Kokizov, tombstones
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