Bar-BurgazyII (A-21)

Description

Thewew is an inscription on a stele which is situated in the center of a stone enclosure of the early Iron Age which is a memorial place. Later, in VI–VIII. centuries, it was turned into a memorial of the Turks Tükü when balbals were put in front of it. Later, the balbals fell down on the ground.

This stele was discovered by V.D. Kubarev. In his publications, he wrote that there is a tamga on the stele, but there is no indication to an inscription (1979). Later, the stele was studied by the archeologist V.A. Koceev who discovered a runic inscription in 1980. He showed the inscription to D.D: Vasil’ev in 1981, and to I.L. Kyzlasov in 1994.

This stele is situated not far from the famous stele Bar-Burgazy I, in the same valley. It is a vertical inscription consisting of 5 signs that are carved inside the tamga. The length of the line is 6,3cm, the height of the characters is 1,9–2,2cm, the direction of writing is from bottom to top.

Reading of I.L. Kyzlasov

Transliteration: t²u(o)t²u(o)k

Transcription:  tutuq

Translation: His heroic name is Tutuk.

(Kyzlasov 2002: 45–48)

Comments of the authors

According to I.L. Kyzlasov, the runes render the only word tutuq, which is the title of the military administrator of a region, or is used as a part of proper names. Reading tutuq is problematic because all the consonants in the word are consonants used in words with front vowels.  This happens often that front consonants are used in words with back vowels, but this happens in the context of the vowel ï or the consonant y that palatalize the surrounding consonants.

Reading of L.N. Tybykova, I.A. Nevskaya and M. Erdal

Runic transliteration:

Transliteration: t² U/k² t² U r¹/k²/^ïk

Comments

The second, fourth and fifth signs are not quite clear, so we cannot exclude a different reading that the one offered by Kyzlasov.