CHELAREVO

(7th--11th century)--archeological site with a medieval graveyard near the Danube in Yugoslavia. The settlement that nourished the graveyard has not been found. It is not known exactly who is buried in the Chelarevo graveyard, but it bears clear signs of the Avars, yet the objects found inside the graves show a Persian influence, and menorahs (Jewish seven-branched ceremonial candlesticks), other Jewish symbols, and the odd Hebrew inscription have been found inside as well.

MENORAH FROM CHELAREVO

Preserved at the Kerch site in the Crimea are tiles with the same type of menorah as those found at Chelarevo. All this has led experts to conclude that the Novi Sad area (where the Chelarevo site is located) there are finds that differ from the usual Avar remains, suggesting that we should perhaps consider the existence of some other substratum, which moved to the Pannonian plains prior to the arrival of the Magyars. There are preserved writings to confirm this. An anonymous notary of King Bela, Abdul Hamid of Andalusia, and Cinnamus all believed that this area along the Danube was settles by a people of Turkish origin (Ismailians) who claimed to be descendants of settlers from Khorezm. All this seems to show that the ancient burial site in Chelarevo belonged in part to the Judaized Khazar. Dr, Isailo Suk, an archeologist and Arabist from this region, who worked on the excavations at Chelarevo in their earliest stages, left a note not discovered until after his death. The note concerns not only Chelarevo, but his opinions on it. It reads: "Regarding the issue of who is buried at Chelarevo, the Magyars would like them to be Hungarians of Avars, the Jews would like them to be Jews, the Moslems Mongols, but no-one wants them to be Khazars. Yet they most probably are . . . . The cemetery is full of broken menorah-decorated pottery. To the Jews, a broken pottery dish is the mark of and undone, lost person, and this is a graveyard of undone and lost people, which is what the Khazars were at this place and perhaps at this time."

"They lie in family tombs scattered in disarray along the banks of the Danube, but in each the heads are turned toward Jerusalem. They lie in double graves with their horses, they and the animals squint at opposite sides of the world; they lie underneath their wives, who are curled up on their stomachs, but in such a way that they do not see their faces, only their thighs. Sometimes they are buried vertically, terribly aged and almost disassembled from constantly staring up at the sky; they have with them bricks with the name Jehovah or the word shahor--black--scratched on them. They light fires in the corners of the tombs, keep foot by their feet, and a knife at their waist. From grave to grave different animals lie by their side: in one it will be a sheep, cow, or goat, in another a hen, pig, or deer, and in the children's graves they put eggs. Sometimes their implements, sickles or forging and goldsmith tools, lie next to them. Their eyes, ears, and mouths are lidded with pieces of tile bearing the image of the seven-branched Jewish candlestick; the fragment of tile is of Roman origin, dating from the 3rd of 4th century, and the picture on it is from the 7th, 8th, or 9th century. They etched the pictures of the candlestick (the menorah) and other Jewish symbols on the tiles with pointed tools, clumsily, as though in a great hurry, perhaps secretly, as if they dared not make them too good. Or as though they had only a vague memory of the object they were etching, as though they had never seen a candlestick, a shovel for ashes a lemon, the horn of a ram, or a palm, but rather, were drawing them from somebody's description. The carved lids for the eyes, mouth, and ears, warded demons and shedim away from their graves, but these tiles were strewn all over the cemetery, as if some tremendous force, the tide of earth's gravitation, had scattered then to the winds and no single one is nay longer in place to stand guard. It might even be supposed that some undefined subsequent burning need had brought these lids for the eyes, mouth and ears here from other graves, opening up the way to some demons and closing it off to others. . . ."