The rosette was discovered during archaeological excavations in 1961 in the embankment above the southern basin of the great cistern in the palace quarter of Pliska. It is dated to the 7th-9th century. The rosette is a bronze medallion with a diameter of 38 mm. It has the shape of a seven-rayed star, with two proto-Bulgarian runic signs carved on each ray. In the middle of its upper part there is an eye for hanging a string, and on its reverse side is carved the mark IYI. This probably pagan sign continued to be used for about a century even after the conversion of the Bulgarians as a symbol equivalent to the Christian cross.
***The rosette is currently kept in the National Archaeological Museum in Sofia and can be seen in the permanent exhibition.***
Despite the numerous existing theories, the researchers are adamant that the "Rosetta from Pliska" is closely related to the life and beliefs of the ancient Bulgarians. The number of rays of the "rosettes" are equal to seven, which is the number of celestial lights - planets, known to the Old World, which worshiped them as gods.
Originally, the signs and rays were assumed to be associated with the seven planets, Jupiter, Saturn, Mars, Venus, and Mercury, to which the Sun and Moon were traditionally added. Similar bronze seven-ray rosettes with a double solar circle in the center, but without preserved signs, were found in Bactria as well as in FYR Macedonia.
The signs on the Pliska star are superbly illustrated, with the ends of each segment marked with perpendicular lines. Geometrically, the star is very precisely calculated and dimensioned. This careful delineation of the signs and rays, as well as the level of production technology used (matrix casting of the star from molten bronze) speak in favor of the notion that the star is a product of mass and high-quality production.
According to the cosmological ideas of some ancient, so-called Sapean peoples of the Old World (Babylonians, Persians, Indians), the heavenly bodies are fixed (stars) and mobile (planets). According to these peoples, the planets are actually gods who govern the lives of people and events on Earth. The then visible planet-gods are 7 - the Sun, the Moon, Jupiter, Venus, Mars, Saturn and Mercury. According to these ideas, each planet moves in its own celestial circle at a different distance from the Earth. On the highest seventh circle (seventh heaven) stood the Sun. Sapien astronomers (then called astrologers) often depicted the seven planets as the rays of a seven-pointed rosette.
With the help of this rosette, Sapien astrologers determined which planet-god ruled a given hour of a given day, and with this they tried to guess what would be the outcome of a given future event - a battle, a deal, a birth, and so on. A tool outwardly similar to the Pliska star was used in ancient India.
Many Bulgarian and foreign researchers have searched for the meaning of the rosette from Pliska. All researchers accept that there are two signs on each ray of the star of Pliska. On this basis, many but so far inconclusive attempts have been made to decipher the signs on the rosette. Some authors suggest that the signs are runes that serve as letters. Others liken these signs to ideograms, a cryptogram with Greek letters, and so on.
The hypothesis that the name or the beginning of the name of the corresponding planet is written in runes on each ray of the rosette from Pliska was expressed by P. Dobrev.
Most of the signs on the bronze rosette from Pliska are also found on a found lead amulet from North-Eastern Bulgaria with proto-Bulgarian signs. The famous signs of the Sun, Venus and the Moon from the rosette stand out quite clearly on the medallion as well.
From the examples presented above, it is clear that the indicated signs on the Pliska rosette were widely known and used on a significant part of the territory around the main centers of pagan Bulgaria. These signs correspond to the main planetary gods of the proto-Bulgarians headed by the Sun.
The rosette from Pliska is undoubtedly an artifact that is closely related to our Bulgarian essence, a legacy from our ancestors and understandings of the world and the universe that existed in the society of that time. To this day, many Bulgarians wear copies of the Pliska rosette made of a different metal - most often silver - as decoration. In this way, they testify to their connection with the ancient heritage of their distant ancestors and become guardians of traditions and of that divine energy and power that guided the great Bulgarian people and protected them in days of severe trials.