PREHISTORIC
PART 1
– Ch.VIII
The giant plough furrow of Novac (Osiris)
A monument commemorating the introduction
of agriculture
There still exists
in the countries of
Along the Romanian
–country (TN – Tara Romaneasca, meaning
This huge trench
appears in the Mehedinti district, near the great turn of the
[1. According to the accounts we have,
the traces of this “Furrow” (Brasda) are still apparent in the following
localities: in Mehedinti district,
on the territory of the villages Hinova, Broscari, Poroinita, Orevita, Padina
mare si mica, Corlatel, Dobra, Gvardinita, Balacita, Clenov and Terpedita,
where it also exists, as it is told, the earth table and chair of Novac. In Dolj district: in the village Bresta,
In a suburb of
In Dambovita district: on the territory of the villages Brosceni,
Morteni and Puntea-de-Greci. From Puntea-de-Greci this ditch cannot be followed
with certainty under the name of “Furrow”. On “Charta Daciei Romane” of Tocilescu though, the continuity of
this furrow is noted “as explored” also at the villages Finta and Manesci
(Danbovita district), as well as westwards and eastwards of Ploiesci. At the
western part of
One of these
trenches, troianul de jos (TN – the
lower trench), begins near Prut river at Vadul-lui-Isac, from where, following
its eastwards direction, crosses the river Cahul north of Vulcanesci, and the
river Ialpug at Tabac (north of Bolgrad), and from here continues at the
village Catlabug, passes by the village Troianul-vechi near Chitai lake, cut
across the territory of the village Spanscaia and continues to the lake Cunduc,
south of the village Borizsovka.
At Troianul-vechi, it is obvious
that the excavated earth is thrown towards
south.
The second trench, troianul de
sus (TN – the upper trench), begins at the north-east part of the town
Leova, and continuing its run along the territory of the villages Saracina,
Ialpuzel, Blagodati-Gradiesci and Baimaclia, crosses the river Botna above
Salcuta, continues north of Causiani and on the territory of the village
Ursoia, and it disappears near the village Chircaiesci, south of Bender, near
Nistru. This latter line appears with Cantemir
as a continuation of the trench which comes from the Romanian-country and
continues to the Don. In truth, this “troian” from upper Basarabia seems to
have once being part of the same line as the “troian” from near Galati, because
from the little town Leova (along the lower Prut), to Vadul-lui-Isac from the
former district of Cahul, there are also seen the remains of an earth wave (Arbore, Basarabia, p.379).
We have to note that in close
vicinity with this furrow, which stretches from Mehedinti towards Nistru, there
are two localities with the name of “Ursoia”, one in Olt district, the other in
Basarabia. As Helanic tells us (Fragm.154),
Osiris had also the name “Usiris with the Egyptian priests].
Romanian folk
traditions call this furrow “Brasda lui
Novac” (TN – the Furrow of Novac).
The furrow of Ostrea-Novac (Osiris), on the territory of the village Soparlita (Romanati district,
(From a photograph from the year
1899).
The traditions
about the Furrow tell us that:
“This furrow is
made across the middle of the earth.
It comes right from where the sun sets
and ends where the sun rises. This
furrow is made by Novac, the Emperor of
the Jidovi (TN – Jews), who came out to plough with a big, very big plough,
which he pulled with his own hands,
or it was pulled by two yoked black
buffaloes, or two big black oxen,
or two giant white buffaloes, or two oxen with a white line over the middle;
that this furrow is made right through
the bed of the river Olt, and
that the water of this river makes even now waves at the place where it hits
this earth wave; that this big furrow is made as an example of how to plough and to provide food; that it is made
for remembering, or to keep its
memory alive as long as the world and the earth will endure; that the Romanians have learnt to plough since
the time when Novac has made this big furrow; and that the soil of this
furrow is thrown towards south, as a sign that towards south we should pray” [2].
[2. The soil excavated from this
ditch, being thrown towards south, gives this dug out line the shape of a wide
furrow, made from west to east. (The Annals of the Academic Society, Tom.X.
2.p.187).
Similarly, with the Romans, after an
ancient agrarian rite, the demarcation line called decumanus limes was drawn from west to east (Lachmanni, Gromatici veteres, p.108).
These folk traditions have a particular importance in regards with the
origin and primitive function of this furrow, so we publish them here
extensively, as they were communicated to us by the village teachers:
We are told from the village Maldar,
Olt district: “Novac drew this furrow near the village Urluieni from Arges district,
and at the village Tampeni from Olt district. This furrow was drawn by Novac
with a plough, which he dragged with his own hands. Novac and Iorgovan were
friends. Novac, it is told, was the emperor
of the Jidovi (giants), the big people”.
From the village Visina, Vlasca district: “At the village
Brosceni in Dambovita district,
upstream of the river Nejlov, can be seen the traces of a big plow furrow, long
and wide. The elders of the village say about this furrow: Novac came out to
plough, with a big, very big plough, pulled by 12 oxen with big horns, with
tall legs and gigantic power … He ploughed in length and width. He had a very
beautiful daughter, called Sorina”.
From the village Vertop, Dolj district: “The Furrow of the Troian, drawn by Novac, helped by a nephew from sister
and a nephew from brother. This furrow is drawn on the middle of the earth from
the sundown to the sunrise. The trench made by this plough is as an example how to plough and provide food,
and the furrow thrown to the right means that to the right we should worship”.
From the village Slobozia-Mandra in Teleorman district: “There is the
furrow of Novac. The elders tell that this furrow was made for remembrance, by a brave man, called Novac, with a plough pulled
by two buffaloes. About Novac it is also told that he fought with a gigantic
serpent until he defeated it”. From the village Odobesci, Dambovita district: “It is told that a furrow might have been made
by Novac, with a plough with two oxen, from the sunrise towards the sunset, to be for remembrance, as long as the world and the earth will endure”.
From the village Galiciuica, Dolj district: “The Romanians, it is
told, have learnt to plough since Novac has made the big furrow …”
In an incantation from Dolj district, published in the
magazine “Romanian Youth”, Vol.II.p.218, it is said:
A big, black man rose …. made a big, black plough,
Yoked
two big, black oxen, drew a big, black furrow …
Apis and Mnevis, the two bulls consecrated to Osiris,
which, according to Egyptian traditions, helped him to plough the earth, were
black (Herodotus, III. 29; Plutarch, Is. C. 34).
From the village Clenov, Mehedinti district: “This giant (Novac)
began to draw a furrow through the navel of the earth. He yoked two buffaloes
to the plough, a maiden drove them, and he hold the horns of the plough. He
started to draw the furrow from the sundown
to the sunrise. When the sun was at
Diodorus Siculus (I.18) writes: “Osiris was a lover of feasts, he liked music and dances. So, he took with him
in the expedition a troupe of musicians, among who were also nine maidens adept
at singing”.
We also find the following tradition
in the collection of Odobescu (Dosare
archeologice, jud. Olt. P.487): “The trench, the furrow of Novac, is made with
two oxen, at the time of the Jidovs”.
A.Treb. Laurian writes regarding this legendary furrow: “One of the peasants answered
me: Ler emperor, when he passed from the
sundown towards the sunrise, drew this furrow with the plough; others say
that he drew it with the spear, and
that it stretches eastwards right to Jerusalem” (Magazin istoric, II.p.102).
About this “Ler emperor” we hear the following important tradition from the
village Avramesci, Tutova district:
“Lerui Domne” was a great emperor
from the Sunrise, who had crossed
many countries and seas until he arrived here with countless armies, but evil
and disobedient, so that wherever they passed they left only seas of tears;
they were so evil with the Romanians,
but God took their minds, and they ran
wherever they could, until they gathered back together, one by one, there,
far away, in the country of Relian”.
With the Greeks, in mysteries and
religious rites, Osiris figured also under the name of Dionysos (Herodotus,
II.144). And with the Romans, this Diosysos had the name of Liber pater (Macrobius, Saturn. I.18). So, “Ler
emperor”, known by the Romans under the name of “Liber pater”, was the same legendary figure of Osiris of the
Egyptians].
The width and depth
of this furrow or trench varies today, depending on the different locations
where its traces can still be seen.
The profile of the Troian or the Furrow of Novac (From Archaeol.– epigr. Mitth. IX Jahrg. p.212,
216).
At the point where it crosses the
Roman On the
territory of the village Tulucesci,
north
road, which goes along the banks of
the of the city of
river Olt, towards Turnul-rosu (Vladuleni)
In some places, as
the country teachers report, around 1871 its width was 9 feet, and the height
of the earth on the side of the ditch was almost 6 feet (The Annals of the
Academic Society, Tom. X. Sect.II.p.336).
According to Laurian (Magazin, II.103), this trench
had in some parts of Oltenia a width of 8 steps. In the Olt district “the
furrow of Novac has in many places a width of over 2.00m and a height of 1.50m”
(Alesandrescu and Sfintescu, Dict. Geogr. Jud. Olt,
p.157).
On the territory of
the village Soparlita in Romanati district, where I have examined in person, in
1899, the shape and dimensions of this furrow, the bottom of the ditch has a
width of 4.25m, its depth is 0.60m and the height of the excavated earth is
0.48m. A little further east, at the village Vladuleni near the village Greci,
this furrow has been measured in 1885 by the German archaeologist Schuhhardt (Walle und Chausseen im
sudlichen und ostlichen Dacien, in Archaeol.-epigr.Mitth. Jahrg.IX p.212). Here
the depth of the ditch was 1.00m, and the height of the earth thrown out was
0.80m.
Prince Dimitrie Cantemir, Domn (TN – Ruler of
a Romanian principality) of
In order to realize
though the age and the original character of this furrow, a special importance
is presented by Romanian folk traditions. According to these historical
reminiscences preserved in the countries of ancient
The origin of this
furrow goes back therefore to the primitive times of human civilization, when
for the first time, on the extensive plains, occupied by pastoral tribes,
agriculture was introduced in an official and solemn form, although the
beginnings of agricultural activity had been much older with the Pelasgian
people.
Basically, this
folk tradition agrees wholly with the accounts of the ancient writers about the
life and deeds of Osiris, who, wishing to facilitate the mode of subsistence of
the human genus, had wandered through Asia and Europe accompanied by a powerful
army, teaching the people everywhere to cultivate the wheat, barley and to
plant the grape vine.
To Osiris was
attributed in antiquity the discovery of the first type of plough. It was said
that he drew the first furrows and that he was the first one to throw the seed
of the cereals in the still virgin earth (Tibulus,
Eleg. Lib. I.7.v.29).
The trench or the
furrow of Osiris is mentioned even in the ancient papyri laid together with the
Egyptian mummies. Osiris, these hieroglyphic manuscripts tell us, is the one
who “has opened the trench in the
region of the north and the region
of the south”, words which in
Egyptian theology meant the vast territories from the northern and southern
parts of the
From a historical
point of view, the fact is positive that this huge earth construction had
existed on the
We find an
ante-Roman tradition about the furrow of Osiris from the north of the
Even in the times
of Herodotus (lib.IV.c.3), existed
in the Crimean peninsula an ancient
trench, long and wide, which stretched from the Tauric mountains to the Meotic
lake. Herodotus also mentions some ancient earth
waves in
So the folk
tradition communicated by Stephanos
Byzanthinos (Taurike), that
Osiris yoked one or two oxen and ploughed the earth of this peninsula, referred
to this prehistoric trench of
Finally, the
ancient furrow of
We find the
following in a text written by a Jew from Egypt around 160bc about the Erythrean Sybil: “And there will be
shown again to people tremendous and terrible omens, because the deep river Tanais (Don) will leave the Meotic lake,
and in its deep bed will be seen the
trace of the fruit furrow” (Friedlieb,
Oracula Sibyllina, lib.III.v.337-340). Here the Sibyl mentions in a prophetic
form an old folk belief, that a miraculous furrow passed through the deep bed
of the river Tanais, tradition similar to the Romanian legend about this
gigantic furrow of the ancient world, which crosses right through the bed of
the river Olt, which even today makes big waves at the place where it hits this
earth wave.
When prince
Cantemir tells us therefore in Descriptio Moldaviae, that the ancient and long
trench stretched from the Romanian-country,
The reign of Osiris
and of his first successors over the northern regions of the
The Scythians, as Herodotus tells us, worshiped Apollo, or the god of the sun, under
the name Oetosyros (lib.IV c.59).
This Oetosyr-os, by his name, as well as by his divine character, was none else
than Osiris, “the god of light”, Osiris, “the one with the white crown on his
head, who ordered the sun’s travel”, “Osiris, the sun god”.
Archaic and deep
traces of Osiric religion appear also in the lands of ancient
Tacitus, the great Roman historian, relates the
following important fact, when describing the mores of the German tribes: “A
part of the Svevi” (or the Germans
who dwelt between
In truth, the
thorough research made in our century by the renowned German philologist and
writer Iacob Grimm, on the
ante-Christian German divinities and beliefs, has reached the conclusion that
in a very obscure antiquity the German peoples worshiped a divinity of the sun,
or of the light, under the name of Ostara
or Ostar, word, which by its origin
is not German.
The Germans
celebrated the principal feast day of this divinity in spring and it had become
so popular with all the German nationalities, that the fathers of the Christian
Catholic church could not suppress, despite their apostolic zeal, from the list
of German holy days, the pagan name of Ostara
or Ostar (Grimm, Deutsche Mythologie, 267).
The Germans call
even today the Christian Easter, which is celebrated in April or at the end of
March, Oster and Ostern. And we have to note that the
great feasts of Osiris, his marriage with Isis, and the finding of the body of
this worshiped king of the ancient world, “God of the sun”, were celebrated in
antiquity around the beginning of spring.
In Greece, the cult of Osiris also appears
as an inheritance from very obscure times.
Apart from Apollo,
the Pelasgian god of light, and apart from Uranos, Saturn and Gaea, one of the
great figures of ante-Olympic Greek religion was Dionysos, and this Dionysos of the Greeks, as Herodotus himself acknowledges, was the same divinity as Osiris
(lib. II. c.144).
In Crete, the dominant religion in
prehistoric times was that of Zeus asterios, who represented the
Lord of the sky, the sun and the stars, and the symbol of this Cretan divinity
was a bull (Preller, Griech. Myth.
II, 1854, p.80). Similarly in Egyptian religion Apis was consecrated to Osiris,
and venerated as the image of this divinity of the sun. The origin of this
Cretan religion, characterized by the sacred name of Zeus asterios, was
therefore connected to the cult of Osiris, the personification of light,
according to the Egyptian doctrines.
In Dacia, the memory of the expedition and
deeds of Osiris has been preserved in traditions and legends. But Osiris, the
king of the Egyptians, did not have a particular cult with the Pelasgian
population of Dacia. In the historical memories of this country, he has neither
the role of Oetosyros from the north of the Black Sea, nor that of Ostara or
Ostar from the ante-Christian religion of the Germans. He is only a simple
“emperor of the Jidovi” (or the Egypto-Semites), a foreign hero, arrived from
the southern countries, without divine attributes and without worship [3].
[3. Novac or Ostrea-Novac,
the emperor of the Jidovi, who, according to legends, fought with the dragon
and made the great furrow, is a prehistoric personality entirely distinct from
“Novac the old”, or “Mos Novac”, celebrated so much in our
heroic songs, who was by origin from “those
old Latins” (Corcea, Folk
ballads, p.81,90). We will talk about “old Novac” in the chapters relating to
the first Pelasgian empire. In some parts of Romania, especially in Oltenia,
the word Novac has also the meaning
of “giant”, or “brave man from the ancient times”.
In Slavic languages though, “novac” means young (Hasdeu, Marele
Dictionar, II.2262). But the origin of the work is not Slav. In modern Italian
language “novell” or “nouvell” means also “young”, or “recently born” (Banfi,
Vocabolario Milanese-Italiano).
In ancient Greek legends, Saturn had also the epithet neotatos,
the youngest (Apollodorus, lib.I.1.8; Hesiod,
Theog.v.132). Also as neotatoi were considered by Greeks Hercules, Dionysos (Osiris) and Pan (Herodotus, II. 145). The Greek epithet neotatos seems therefore
to be only a translation of an archaic folk form of novac.
In Roman nomenclature, the name of
Novac appears in a literary form as Novatus
(Suetonius Augustus c.51).
We must state here also that Novac
of the Romanian legends has nothing to do with Noe (Noah), the Jewish
Deucalion, although the Hebrew tradition has borrowed for its Noah some
attributes from the legend of Osiris, like the planting of the grape vine].
One of the most glorious events of the
prehistoric epoch was the introduction of agriculture.
To this great event
in the life of mankind, as Romanian folk traditions tell us, is connected the
wide furrow, of an extraordinary length, whose traces are still apparent today
on the plains of Romania, southern Russia and Hungary; a furrow which, by its
character, was made by Ostrea-Novac as an example of how to plough and to
provide food, and as remembrance for all future generations [4].
[4. In Hungary there are also numerous traces of earth waves and ancient
trenches, whose origin has remained unknown to this day. Part of these earth
constructions appear in the documents of Hungary under the name of “Brasda” (furrow). In a document from
1086 (Cod. Dipl. Arpadianus cont.I.p.32) is mentioned a “Brasda lui Buheu”, which passed on the periphery of the counties
Iaurin, Vesprim and Castrul-de-fer. Other two
prehistoric trenches of Hungary, which folk traditions also consider as being
gigantic plough furrows, appear on
the fertile and extensive plains between the Danube and the Tisa. One of these
primitive constructions begins near Godollo, northeast of Pesta, takes an
eastern direction and passes by the villages Sz.Laszlo, Fenszaru,
Tarna-Sz.-Miklos and continues to K.Kore near Tisa. A second line, parallel
with the former, was observed on the territory of Heves county
(Arok-Szallas-Dormand). Both these trenches are called by the Hungarian people Csorsz or Cszosz-arka.
According to the folk traditions
from Hungary, the ditch called Csorsz-arka, which passes through the counties
Borsod and Heves, forms a ploughed
furrow, which has been made with a gigantic plough (Gyarfas, A Iasz-Kunok tortenete, I.p.564).
The name Csorsz-arka of these two
trenches has remained unexplained to this day in historical literature.
Hungarian traditions attribute the
origin of these trenches to a national hero called Csorsz, Curz or Curzan (Romer, Mouvement archeologique, p.39).
This name though belongs incontestably
to prehistoric times. One of the ancient cities of Pannonia, situated at about
the place where today is Royal Alba, had in the Roman epoch the name of Herculia, probably because some old
remains of trenches, furrows, canals or roads existed there, which tradition
attributed to Hercules. The same city, Herculia, appears in Itinerarium Antonini (Ed. Parthey,
p.124) with the name Gorsio sive Hercule,
and the variants gorcio, gursio, cursio
and corsio.
The furrow from the Bretagne peninsula. At the north-west corner of France (Aremorica during Roman times),
stretches from south-east to north-west a long chain of hills, bearing the
enigmatic name of Sillon de Bretagne,
meaning the furrow of Bretagne.
Probably a folk tradition, similar
to that from Romania and Hungary, about a giant furrow, had once existed there,
and maybe still exists today. In the district Romanati (Romania), on the
territory of the village Dobrun, the furrow attributed to Novac is made also
across a hill (Annal. Soc. Acad. X.2.187). And in the extreme western corner of
this Bretagne peninsula there is the city and port called Brest. Also in Oltenia (Dolj district, Romania), a village near
which the furrow of Novac passes, is called Bresta.
It is probable that the origin of
the name of the locality Brest from Bretagne peninsula is reduced to an archaic
Pelasgian word, brasda or bresta (bresda in Transilvania). We still note here that a gulf near the
city Brest bears the name of Canal d’Is,
probably a port dedicated to the goddess Isis in ancient times, as we also find
‘Isiachon
limen at the north-west corner of the Black Sea (Anonymi Periplus, 61),
Isidis portus on the shores of
Ethiopia (Pliny lib.V.34.5), the
village called Isalnita, situated near
the furrow of Novac in Romania, and Vadul-lui-Isac
near the Troian or Brasda Basarabiei.
The Furrow (Brasda) in Italy. In
Italy also existed an antique tradition about a gigantic furrow made on the
fertile plains of the river Pad. Here though this furrow was attributed to Hercules, exactly as in some parts of
Oltenia the furrow of Novac bears also the name of “brasda lui Iorgovan” (Spineanu,
Dict. Geogr. al jud. Mehedinti p.46. 112)].
By examining the
primitive conditions of human society in those times, the furrow attributed to
Ostrea Novac or Osiris, appears to have had also a social-economic function.
The beginnings of
agriculture were in fact much older than the times of Osiris. Even towards the
end of the Quaternary epoch the importance of the cereals, especially wheat and
barley, had become known to the human genus. The progress of this new branch of
activity of mankind had remained though very limited during the Neolithic
epoch. In those primitive times of history, the big and powerful class of the
population, especially in Europe, was formed by the pastoral tribes. To this
social hierarchy of the ancient times was added a new circumstance though. The
whole Neolithic epoch is characterized by an extraordinary multiplication of
the population, and there existed a big inequality in possessions.
Saturn, the father of Osiris, had already begun
the big task of reforming the human social life. Under the reign of this wise
monarch, the matter of agriculture was considered for the first time as a state
affair. Saturn appears as the person who introduced
and protected the whole agricultural activity, and he bears with the
Pelasgian populations the title of the
beginner of a better way of life (Macrobius,
Saturn.I.7).
But under Osiris
appears for the first time in the history of humankind the great agrarian matter of the ancient world, the necessity that
the state should ameliorate the situation of the poor, who lacked possessions
and were not part of the pastoral class.
Apart from this
economic reason, under the reign of Osiris appears also the fight for power, or
for ethnic domination, between the two groups of enemy populations, the
southern races and the northern Pelasgians, from the lands of Europe.
The possession of
land in those remote prehistoric times was concentrated mainly in the hand of
the Pelasgian race. Even from the beginning of the Neolithic epoch, the
Pelasgian pastoral tribes, crossing rivers and mountains, had spread with their
infinite flocks over all the lands of Ellada, of western Asia, and in Egypt,
right to the upper parts of the Nile, and with the possession of land their
national power also grew.
Osiris appears in
the history of the ancient world as the first Egyptian king who started the
fight against the territorial domination of the Pelasgian pastoral tribes, who
had occupied the mountains and plains right to the deserts of Africa. After the
successful war with Typhon, Osiris, empowered by victory and conquest, wrested
away from the vast domains of the pastoral tribes extensive uncultivated
territories, and distributed them to the farmers.
We can conclude
therefore that the primitive function of the furrow attributed to Osiris had at
the same time a character of public usefulness; it served to mark in a visible
and durable way the land distributed to the class of the farmers. This explains
why this furrow is drawn in various agricultural regions, and sometimes even on
the crests of the hills.
These are the
principal political and economical events of the epoch of Osiris.
We summarize,
saying that this furrow, to which all the ancient and new traditions attribute
an agricultural character, constitutes, by its age, as well as by its special
importance, one of the most memorable prehistoric monuments of Europe [5].
[5. The physical execution of this
huge furrow, as with all the big and difficult works in prehistoric times, was
most definitely done by an enormous multitude of public slaves.
In Romania, this ditch bears also in
some places the name of “Brasda
jidoveasca”, meaning, executed by Jidovi (Locusteanu, Dict. Geogr. al jud. Romanati, p.137). Also, the wide
trench in the Tauric peninsula, which was attributed to Osiris by some
historical traditions (Herodotus,IV.3;
Stephanus Byzanthinus, Tauriche;
Tab. Peut.), it was considered to
have been made by slaves.
This earth work called “Brasda lui
Novac” doesn’t have at all the character
of a Roman earth wall, regularly built and fortified with castra. As for
the nature of the terrain on which this furrow passes, it has no defensive
importance at all].
(TN – I take the liberty to add a
map sketch with the location of the furrows / ditches, trenches/ as given. The
two upper and lower “troiane” in Basarabia - today the