The Sinaia lead plates () are a set of lead plates written in an unknown language or constructed language. They are alleged to be a chronicle of the Dacians, but are considered by some scholars to be modern forgeries. The plates were written in the Greek alphabet with a few other character additions.

History

The origin of the Sinaia lead plates is obscure. The first known mention of them was when the 200 lead plates were discovered in the warehouse of the Bucharest Museum of Antiquities, Romania, in the 19th century. Of the 200 pieces originally in the collection of plates, only 35 are known to remain today, but there are some photos of some of the rest.

According to a dubious "oral tradition", the lead plates are in fact copies made at the Nail Factory of Sinaia in 1875 from the originals, which were allegedly made of gold, and they were kept for a while at the Sinaia Monastery.

An analysis made at the in Măgurele concluded that the composition of the plates is very similar to printing lead manufactured in the 19th century. According to the director of the Institute of Archaeology, Alexandru Vulpe, it is obvious they were made in the 19th century and this was the opinion of both Vasile Pârvan and the archaeologists who studied them after him, some believing they were created by Bogdan Petriceicu Hasdeu, who is known to have made other forgeries as well.

According to Vulpe, the tablets include only what was known before 1900; for example, it uses the spelling "Comidava" for a Dacian town, although now it is known that the correct spelling is "Cumidava", as found in 1942 in an honorific inscription dedicated to Julia Mamaea.

See also

  • Tărtăria tablets
  • Gradeshnitsa tablets
  • Lead Books of Sacromonte, forged inscriptions on lead plates

References

Bibliography

  • Dumitru Manolache, Tezaurul dacic de la Sinaia – legendă sau adevăr ocultat?, Editura Dacica, 2006
  • Bucurescu, Adrian, Tainele tăblițelor de la Sinaia, Editura Arhetip, 2005
  • Romalo, Dan, Cronica apocrifă pe plăci de plumb?, Arvin Press, București, 2003
  • Romalo, Dan, Cronica getă apocrifă pe plăci de plumb, Editura Alcor, București, 2005
  • Velcescu, Cornelia, Inscripții rupestre din Munții Carpați, Editura MIRACOL, Burești, 2002
  • Horia Turcanu (Formula AS): "Misterul tăblițelor de plumb"
  • Academia Republicii Popular Romîne, Documente privind istoria Romîniei: Introducere, 1956
  • Emil Vîrtosu, Paleografia româno-chirilică, Ed. Științifică, 1968
  • Horace Gray Lunt, Old Church Slavonic Grammar, Walter de Gruyter, 2001
  • Isaac Taylor, History of the Alphabet: Aryan Alphabets, Kessinger Publishing, 2003 (1899)
  • Isaac Taylor, Greeks and Goths a Study on the Runes, Kessinger Publishing, 2004 (1879)
  • Winfred Philipp Lehmann, Historical Linguistics: An Introduction, Routledge, 1992 (1962)
  • Photo Gallery at Bibliotheca Dacica [broken link]
  • A possible Dacian royal archive on lead plates
  • Dacian Lead Tablets and Codex Rochonczi, Fake or Real?
  • Din tainele istoriei: misterul plăcuţelor de la Sinaia (in Romanian, with photos of the plates)
  • 100 de placi din aur inscriptionate intr-o limba necunoscuta descoperite la Sinaia (in Romanian, with pictures of more than 20 of the plates)
  • Placute plumb (in Romanian, with photos)