Gordinsky Stone of 1323: New Details

The study of the Gordinsky stone (grave slab) discovered by A. P. Smirnov in 1930 in Gordino village of Balezinsky District in Votyak Autonomous Oblast (presently the Udmurt Republic) is represented in the paper. The stone was regarded by scientists as the most northeastern Bolgar epigraphic monument (Ali Rahim, G. V. Yusupov, D. G. Mukhametshin, D. S. Khakimzyanov) and dated by researchers back to 1323. As a monument of archaeology, the stone was studied by local historians and archaeologists (N. G. Pervukhin, P. M. Sorokin, V. F. Gening, A. G. Ivanov, and others), and as a sacral monument of the population of Gordino village and the Tatars of the Cheptsa river basin, it was studied by ethnographers (E. V. Popova). The paper features the history of the slab's appearance in the archaeological fund of the National Museum of the Udmurt Republic named after Kuzebay Gerd. In recent years, new material has appeared (Gordinsky II burial ground was discovered, and another fragment of the slab was found). The grave slab of the early 14th century was located on a mountain near the Gordinsky I (Guryakar) hillfort (9th – 13th centuries) where a cemetery was arranged by the first Besermyan settlers (17th – 18th centuries). The Tatars who arrived in the Besermyan village in the second half of the 19th century (possibly the Besermyans who adopted Islam) according to the Muslim tradition, proclaimed the location of the grave slab as the grave of a “saint”. The discovered fragment made it possible to clarify the text of the epitaph (add the “testimony of faith” text). A tamga mark of the slab's manufacturer was found on the back of the fragment. The grave slab from Gordino village belongs to the Bolgar school of stone carving which has its territorial originality (the northeastern version of the gravestone steles). The paper features an attempt of its reconstruction.