BELLS FROM DZVGISY-DZUAR SANCTUARY IN EUGENIA PCHELINA'S MANUSCRIPTS
Eugenia Georgievna Pchelina (1895-1972) made a great contribution to the study of history, archeology and ethnography of the Ossetian people. Most of Pchelina's manuscript heritage is yet to be published, so it is a pressing issue to study it thoroughly and introduce into scientific discussion. The proposed publication contains Pchelina's work on two ancient bells from the Ossetian sanctuary of Dzvgisy-Dzuar. These items have donation inscriptions made by Georgian kings, which sheds some light on the history of Ossetian-Georgian relations in the late 1600s. One of the bells was donated by King George XI of Kartli. As for the other one, there had been no exact information about it for a while. As can be seen from the published records, Pchelina managed to find that bell and established that the donation inscription on was made by King Archil II of Imereti and Kakheti. Pchelina identified the differences between the bells and drew a conclusion about the bell inscribed by Archil II having been made in Russia, while the one donated by George XI was definitely made in Georgia. Pchelina noted the need to analyze the metal the bells were made of. Although the inscriptions on the bells have been translated many times, none of the translators, who were using copies of varying degrees of accuracy, was an expert in Georgian paleography or saw the bells and the inscriptions with their own eyes. Therefore, a further comprehensive study of these inscriptions could provide some new insights into what we already know about the bells and their historic environment.