The article ‘On Religious Alphabets’ by N.V. Briullova-Shaskolskaya (1911) contains data on classical epigraphy, i.e. on alphabets found in certain forms on various objects: vases, marble and stone boards, potsherds, papyri, as well as on walls of some buildings. By the time of that publication, there were only few works in German explaining the religious nature of those alphabets. The short article by B.-Sh. was an attempt to clear some unresolved problems of epigraphic findings, to characterize peculiarities of religious alphabets, and to introduce a method of their classification.

The article offers a description of some Roman alphabets which were classified by the author into three types: 1) those connected to certain divine forces (the cult of Jupiter Dolichenus, for instance); 2) those uncertain in their function, but supposed to be of the religious character; 3) those of magical purposes. The author stressed that the most part of researches in the field refused the magical purposes of the alphabets inscribed on various objects or walls and ‘contemptuously’ called Kritzeleien — ‘scratches’. The author described those inscriptions as a manifestation of a belief in magic and supernatural forces.

The research approach of B.-Sh. was based on the separation between religion and magic, and in some cases it helped her to characterize the meaning of certain inscriptions. A sloppy writing style of inscriptions on some common objects was a testimony that it was a manifestation not of a state official religion, but of some private beliefs closely connected to magical ideas, while other, intricately made inscriptions cut in stone were of some religious, not magical purposes.

Thus, the research set a number of questions in the field of classical religion, which could be solved only under the comparative studying archaeological findings.