MANY centuries ago, proto-Bulgarians developed a calendar system, which has the potential to be employed throughout the world today, historians believe.

The subject was widely discussed during a scientific conference entitled "Bulgaria in World History and Civilisation: Spirit and Culture", held at the end of November.

Engineer Georgi Krustev from Montana (North-western Bulgaria) presented a standard calendar design developed by him on the basis of the proto-Bulgarian system. In this system, the first day of the year is considered "zero day". It falls on December 22 of the modern Western calendar, the day that proto-Bulgarians called Eni. The first day of the first month, therefore, corresponds to December 23. The year consists of 12 months, with 30 or 31 days to each month - the second month, for example, has 30 days.

The essential characteristic of this system is that every date always falls on the same day of the week. This is achieved by assigning one of the days of the solar year (or two of the days, if it is a leap year) to a special "detached" or "zero" category and leaving it out from the table of correspondences between the days of the week and the days of the twelve months. The remaining 364 days within the year are neatly "attached" to the days of the 52 weeks (52 x 7 = 364).

The advantage of this system is that the week/date correspondences are the same every year and relatively easy to memorise, so there is no need to compile a separate calendar for each year.

The system is said to be very convenient for the modern era of globalisation. It could easily be adopted in computer networks; the process would only involve changes of digital correspondences.

Such a calendar can be used as a base pattern, which may be modified by every religious or ethnic community to serve its specific needs, and every community can use its own set of names to designate the elements, Krustev said. He is planning to present his project to the United Nations.

During the Great Migration of Peoples the proto-Bulgarians asserted their importance as a factor in the history of Central and Eastern Europe. Now, it looks like they could turn into something significant for modern mankind.

According to distinguished Bulgarian medieval historian Professor Vassil Zlatarski, the proto-Bulgarians contributed to "the organisational structure and the name of the state and the ethnos" of the Bulgarian state, while the Slavs provided "the human resources and the basis for power".

The proto-Bulgarians belonged to the Turko-Altaic language group and their native land is thought to have been Western Siberia, along the valley of the Irtish River. During the first century CE they migrated in the direction of Eastern Europe and settled in the region north of the Caucasus. There the proto-Bulgarians established contact with the local native tribes of Iranian origin, whose cultural achievements and social hierarchy had a substantial impact on their further development. The proto-Bulgarians were mentioned and called by their own ethnic name (Bulgars - there are numerous speculations as to its meaning) for the first time by a Roman chronographer in 354 CE.

At the end of the sixth century CE the proto-Bulgarians were conquered and included in the composition of the powerful Western Turkic Khaganate, whose vast territory extended from China in the east to the Volga River in the West. However, the proto-Bulgarians refused to be subjugated by a foreign rule, and in 632 CE established a powerful military-nomad confederation, called "the Ancient Great Bulgaria" by its Byzantine authors. The confederation's creator, Khan Kubrat of the Dulo family, had spent many years in Byzantium, and was rumoured to have been sympathetic to the Christian faith. He established friendly relations and a military union with the Byzantine Empire, and was granted the title of a patrician - the greatest title and honour ever awarded to foreign rulers by Byzantium. Khan Kubrat established the citadel of Phanagoria on the Taman peninsula as his capital.

After Kubrat's death around 665 CE, power was transferred to his oldest son Batbayan. However, the internal conflicts between the various tribes weakened the confederation. The neighbouring Hazar khaganate seized the window of opportunity and conquered Batbayan's lands. Khan Kubrat's second son, Kotrag, together with a part of the proto-Bulgarians withdrew to the rivers of Volga and Kama, where they and the local tribes created a state called Volgo-Kama Bulgaria, converted to Islam during the 10th century CE. The third son, Asparuh, together with the last remnants of the proto-Bulgarians withdrew to the west and settled in the area known as the Ongul in the delta of the Danube river, in what is today Bessarabia.

The proto-Bulgarian religion was monotheistic and was characterised by the amalgamation of numerous beliefs and cults. The supreme deity's name was Tangra (which in translation means "sky"), the creator of the universe and master of all things and creatures. Tangra was worshipped in shrines, where he was offered sacrifices, accompanied by fortune-telling and other rituals. The supreme priest of Tangra was the khan. The dead were buried with their bodies always oriented north-south, along with food and some of their favourite possessions; sometimes their weapons and their horse would be buried with them.