Posting Introduction

Линки

Saka “Golden Warrior”, Issyk kurgan

In 1970, on the outskirts of the Issyk city, located fifty kilometers east of Almaty, the Kazakh archaeologists led by Kamal Akishev excavated one of the Saka royal burial kurgans. Kurgan with diameter 60 m and height 6 m had layered kurgan fill, beneath which was buried a young man. The deceased was later named “golden warrior”, because his helmet, caftan, trousers, and boots, were decorated with gold plates depicting snow leopards, horses, ibex, and argali, pictured in Scythian Animal Style.

He also had a sword with a golden handle. The young man was also accompanied with other items, including ornamented dishes, platters, clay, bronze, and silver bowls. On the outside, that is on the convex side of a silver bowl was found an inscription in Türkic runiform symbols. The finds date from the 6th-5th cc. BC.

The finds in the Issyk kurgan are unique in the number of objects and refined manufacturing technique of the decorations and utensils, and the content of the burial in historical terms is invaluable. The Issyk kurgan is one of the largest Scythian archaeological sites. The scientific and journalistic literature on Issyk kurgan, and its objects has plenty of information. In our case, we address only the reading of the runiform inscription on the silver cup, also known in the literature as “Akishev's bowl”. The inscription consists of two lines of twenty-five runiform symbols, most of which even visually are identified with the Old Türkic runiform characters. Next to the line is drawn a rectangular pictogram, divided into twenty-four compartments. The surface of the bowl is also has a separately etched runiform symbol separated from the two-line inscription.

Silver “Akishev's bowl” with 2600-year-old runiform inscription

There are several versions for reading the inscriptions in the Türkic language, with phonetic reconstructions of the characters slightly different one from another. And the translation, or interpretation of the text, in my opinion have inaccuracies. I present here the versions of the reading, and I think that of all the readings closest to the original is the version presented by the Kazakh Turkologist Altai Amanjolov. Lsater, I am presenting for a critical review my version of reading and translation.

First of all, note that different interpretations, or rather different phonetic reproduction of text are caused by the absence of separation between the characters of the inscription. And in this case naturally may be different phonetic interpretations of the text. Moreover, we deal with a Türkic language of the 2500 years ago. And naturally, slightly different phonetic reproductions can produce different interpretations of the text. Given that the text is very short, which in such cases always impedes a 100% correct reading of the ancient text, such discrepancies should be treated with understanding. But again, the Türkic content of the text is clear, because most of the runiform characters have their counterparts in the Old Türkic runiform alphabet.

To preface reviewing versions of the reading, a few years ago, before deciphering the text, I was only familiar with the versions and interpretations of Oljas Suleimenov and the Uzbek Turkologist Nasimhon Rakhmonov. Other interpretations of the text I learned only later, from the server http://turkicworld.org/turkic/turkicsite.htm. And I was particularly surprised by the same interpretation of the absent in the Orkhon-Eninsei runiform symbology character - r (hard?) independently by me and A. Amanjolov. That gave me some confidence in the correctness of the choice of transcription for this letter. This will be discussed below. In the meantime, following is the transcription given by A. Amanjolov:

A. Amanjolov transcription:

(1) aγa saηa očuq = Aγa, saηa očuq!
(2) bäz čök boqun ičr (?) Ä uzuq ... i = Bez, čök! Boqun ičrä [r?] Azuq! ... I
(3)

Translation:

”The older brother (this is) a hearth for you!”
”Bow, stranger! Posterity [let will have] food!”

Muharrem Ergin transcription:

Agân er / anga er iç / arak
Esiz iç / erik baruk / arakı
E iç itkir / az ök

Translation:

Single (lone, lonely) man / drink of useless man / arak (milk vodka)
Alas, to drink / evil, wild / arack
Be obedient to drink / moderately

The phonetic reproduction of the text by M. Ergin in places is closer to the A. Amаnjolov's transcription, but his semantic interpretation raises many questions.

Selahi Diker transcription:

han o-ng er çarık
siz çirik bar gıl er-ni içigig ketir oz gıl

Translation:

The King Ong-Er, Charik,
You (are) soldiers
Set out!
Volunteer heroes, rise to the heavens,
To reach (the eternal) peace!

Again, there is some consistency with the original text, but the transcription is half not accurate, resulting in a liberal interpretation of the text.

Above, I have cited three versions of the reading, which in my opinion more or less reflect the transcription of the text. Here are few more versions of reading:

Firudin Agasi oglu Jalilov's version  of the reading:

It should be noted that Professor Firudin Jalilov reads both lines from left to right. He interprets the rectangular icon as “home, possession of the clan”.

Transcription:

1. Koçu añısı ağ ebi
Oquz ər içiñ Uqusgü çizib.

Or

2. Koçu añısı ağ ebi
Oquz ər içiñ oqu bəgü çizib.

Translation:

1. In memory of Koch white house
Ugushgu for Oguz chieftain (lit. man) depicted

Or

2. In memory of Koch white house
Bek of clan (or tribe) for the Oguz chieftain (lit. man) depicted

Nasimhon Rahmonov's

Azuq, ochuq at atsar, ash azaq, Utashta qan asu.

Translation:

If food and home are far away, friend is left at the bottom, Utashta Khan will be the owner.

Oljas Suleimenov's proposed transcription:

Han uya üç otuzu (da) yok boltı, utıgsı tozıltı.

Translation:

King's son, at twenty-three (thirty-three), has died
His name and fame turned to dust

As I understand, the reading of the text is reproduced upside down, leading a completely different transcription. I have not followed this version of the reading, because I am convinced that the lines of the inscription are written from left to right.

Kazim Mirshan's version of the transcription:

ögün an
onuy a
öcü ok.
ub oz
uç esitis
oz ötü
onuy oy ekiç ekil
aliz at

Translation:

One whose Majesty you praise
became an arrow belonging to the cosmos.
He is Zeus.
ascending to the leadership like winning a race, (to achieve) cosmic seat
(is) the appellation of adopted name

Generally, the Kazym Mirshan's versions of the Türkic inscriptions' interpretations are usually contested even by the Turkologists.

An extensive analysis of all above versions would take much time. Besides, that is not specifically necessary. Again, all of these versions the most accurate version was proposed by A. Amanjolov. The other authors correctly reproduce separate syllables, but generally  because of the absence of separation between characters, the whole text is reproduced incorrectly.

In that light, I offer for a critical review a version read and translated by me. First, I am giving the phonetic correspondences and transcriptions of the runiform characters on the cup. Then follow the transcription of the text and translation. I use estampage (squeeze) widely present on the web, including that in the Amanjolov's work. The runiform characters on the Akishev's cup largely correspond to the Orkhon-Eninsei characters, but at the same time the inscription is more syllabic than the Old Türkic texts. Anyhow, the time difference between them is a thousand years.

First line. Reads from right to left

1. Character corresponds to the Old Türkic character Ğ (ğ as γ, a glottal fricative, not the Turkish silent ğ), which had a number of similar modifications in the form . The mean depiction standard of this character looks like . A. Amanjolov and M. Ergin reproduced this syllabic character at the beginning of the text as aĞ, following the example of the Orkhon-Eninsei inscriptions. However, I'm sure that in the proto-Türkic period this syllable was read as OĞ, because stylistically this character is fashioned in the form of two bows (oğ/ok - arrow). Later, in the ancient Türkic period, this symbol lost its syllabic phonetic distinction and relayed the consonant -ğ (γ);

2. Character corresponds to the Orkhon-Eninsei vowel sound A/E . In the first line it is used twice. In the second line it was not used;

3. Character corresponds to the Orkhon-Eninsei S (sometimes Ş [SH]) . Usually it was used in conjunction with soft vowels;

4. Character corresponds to the Orkhon-Eninsei eN/iN with different graphical versions in the form  . It was also used in the second line;

5. The fifth character in the sequence is a character , noted in the item 2;

6. The sixth character of the first line corresponds to affricate NG (sağır nun), with the form in the Orkhon-Eninsei table. This character also appear in the second row;

7. The seventh character corresponds to the Orkhon-Eninsei iÇ. The character image stylistically depicts a drinking glass and is associated with the verb İÇ - drink;

8. The eighth character of the first line corresponds to the Orkhon-Eninsei SS ;

9. Finally, the last ninth grapheme of the first line corresponds to the Orkhon-Eninsei KK, which was usually used in conjunction with  the vowel AA;

Second line. Read from right to left.

1. Interpretation of the first character in the second row is somewhat complicated, due to the excessive ovality of its lower graphics. For some reasons it is being associated with the sound of BB. Visually it may resemble R. Still, it is a character S. M. Ergin and S. Diker also detected the phoneme S in this character;

2. The second character corresponds to the Orkhon-Eninsei ZZ, with multiple depiction versions . In the second line this character is also used in the penultimate place;

3. The third and its identical twelfth ,  and the thirteenth characters present difficulties in the interpretation context. The third and twelfth characters the above authors tended to read as iÇ, although in the first row this phoneme is graphically depicted (=  iÇ) in slightly different form. These symbols visually correspond to the sound eG of the Eninsei inscriptions. But it appears that the third and its identical twelfth and thirteenth graphemes correspond to the phonetic sounds eR/iRR in inverted position rather than iÇ or eG. And only in that character I do not find a match in the Old Türkic inscriptions. Certainly, rather similar graphemes are used in the Achyktash Inscription, but the reading of that text has not yet been fully accepted. Apparently, these graphemes can express the upside down phoneme eR (for example, the grapheme iÇ in the Old Türkic inscriptions often appears in an inverted position). The minor variations of these three characters may be due to the convex surface of the bowl, where because of the inconvenience, scratching had to be a repeat action, and so appeared extra strokes like in the ogamic (oghamic) characters (see Ogham);

4. The fourth character corresponds to the Orkhon-Eninsei fricative NG, noted in the 6th paragraph for the first line;

5. The fifth character of the second line corresponds to the Orkhon-Eninsei eG ;

6. The sixth character corresponds to the Orkhon-Eninsei fricative NÇ;

7. The seventh character S was discussed in paragraph 8 ( ) for the first line;

8. The eighth and sixteenth characters are very similar to the vowel phoneme AA (also E, Ə) . Specifically, suggest that this character is slightly modified and was phonetically transmitting the sound of the vowel Ə (Ä);

9. ninth character S was covered above;

10. N The tenth character N was covered in the 4th paragraph for the first line;

11. The eleventh character corresponds to the Orkhon-Eninsei İ ;

12. The twelfth character eR was covered in the 3rd paragraph for the second  line;

13. The thirteenth character eR/iR was covered in the 3rd paragraph for the second line.

14. The fourteenth character visually seems to be more like A/EE covered in the 2nd paragraph for the first line. But in all likelihood this symbol reproduces a soft vowel Ü/Ö ;

15. The fifteenth character Z was covered in the 2nd paragraph for the second row;

16. The sixteenth character Ə (Ä) was covered in the 8th paragraph for the second row.

Thus, has been formed the following scheme:

OĞA ​​SeN ANg İÇ SaK
SöZ eReNg öGüNç SƏS-üNİ eRiR ÜZƏ

Literal translation:

Sak (Saka), imbibe your oath in the name of the people!
Word would carry voice and glory of praising the Eren to the heavens.

Slightly extended translation:

Sak (Saka), imbibe your oath in name (of your) people!
The word (of oath) would raise voice of praise and glory of praising the Eren to the heavens.

Literary interpretation of the meaning:

Sak (Saka), swear by the name of your people!
The solemn word is ascending the voice of praise and Eren's glory to the heaven

Author's Notes

References