A history of documentation and research on Old Turkic runic inscriptions

of the Altai Mountains

1.1. Discovery of Altai runic inscriptions

The Danish researcher D.G. Messerschmidt, who was sent by Peter the Great to Siberia in order to gather information on its geography, natural resources and population, was the first to discover ancient inscriptions in runiform characters on a stele in 1721. The stele was located in a picturesque valley of the small Uibat river in Khakassia. As it turned out later, the stele had an epitaph in Old Turkic.

More than a hundred years later, a runic inscription was found in the Altai Mountains. This discovery was made by G. I. Spasskij, the well-known researcher of Siberia, on a cliff beside the river Čaryš, an inflow of the Ob. Unlike the already known inscriptions made with runic characters on steles in Khakassia, the inscription found in the valley of the Čaryš river was engraved on a rock. In 1818, G. I. Spasskij wrote his famous book «Notes on Siberian Antiquities»; it had an appendix where he published a copy of this runic inscription. He also gave a description of the place where he found this inscription: a rock on the left bank of the Čaryš river near a streamlet named Poperečnyj (Spasskij 1818).

The discovery relay was passed from G. I. Spasskij to V.V. Radlov, who began his research career as Turcologist while serving as a teacher for German at the Barnaul Mine Training school. In the beginning of his field research in Altai in 1865, he came across unknown writing for the first time while excavating ancient graves near the village of Katanda (Radlov 1889). At the bottom of an excavated silver vessel there was an inscription made in runiform signs, but he did not pay much attention to it. Only in 1891 did V.V. Radlov start to work on decoding the Orkhon monuments of Mongolia simultaneously with V. Thomsen who finally decoded the script. After these advances, the famous Turcologist P. Melioranskij, a former student of V.V. Radlov, was able to read the inscription on the bottom of the silver vessel from Katanda (Melioranskij 1903).

1.2 Runic research in the Altai Mountains in the 1930s

In 1935, the Sayan-Altai expedition of the National Historical Museum, Moscow, and the Academy of History of Material Culture worked in the Altai Mountains and did research on archeological sites that could be affected by construction of the Chuja Highway. The expedition headed by V. Kiseljov was divided into two groups: the first group included V. Kiseljov, L. A. Evtjuxova and N. A. Mal’ceva and did excavations in the Kuraj steppe, while the second group, consisting of M. Sergeeva (the director of the Oirot State museum in Gorno-Altajsk) and A. P. Markov (the director of the Bijsk museum) worked in the vicinities of the Tuekta village (Kiseljov 1936: 282).

As a result of the excavation of sepulchral graves in the vicinities of the Tuekta village in the Ongudaj district and of the Kuraj village in the Koš-Agač district, two silver pitchers were found that had  runic inscriptions on their bottoms. Alongside the silver pitcher in the Kuraj burial site, there was a silver belt set with gilding; on the underside of a massive metal plate there was an Old Turkic inscription (Evtjuxova & Kiseljov 1941: 103-104).

1.3 Runic research in the second half of the 20th century

In post-war years, especially in the 1950s and 1960s, the study of Altai runic inscriptions was very intensive. In the Ongudaj district, in 1951, the first runic inscriptions on the Biciktu-Boom mountain were discovered by the cameraman A. I. Minorskij while making photographs of petroglyphs which were on the same rock. Most inscriptions are located on the mountain ridge nearest to the village with the same name, Bičiktu-Boom, adjoining it from the west. This very ridge later suffered most during a road construction; quite a number of inscriptions were destroyed when parts of the rock were exploded for widening the road. These inscriptions were subsequently studied by B. H. Kadikov in 1959, A. P. Okladnikov in 1962, Е. M. Toščakova in 1962, K. Sejdakmatov  in 1964 and E. I. Ubrjatova in 1974.

A scholar from Kirghisia, K. Sejdakmatov, with the help of a local teacher T. I. Sabaeva, found three further Bičiktu-Boom inscriptions and published their copies and readings as well as a photo of a general view of the rock (Seidakmatov 1964). Later, Ė. R. Tenišev published his own interpretations based on K. Sejdakmatov's copies (1966).

In 1969, the already known Old Turkic inscriptions were included into a list of sources of the Old Turkic Dictionary (1969). In the early seventies, because of the destruction of a part of the rock, a fragment of one inscription with three runic lines was brought to the National Museum of the Altai Republic named after A. V. Anoxin which is situated in Gorno-Altaisk; the other two inscriptions were not destroyed by explosions and remained in their place.

In the sixties, another place where runic inscriptions  are concentrated was discovered in the Ust’-Kan district. Runic inscriptions on a low rock in the vicinities of the Mendür-Sokkon village (in Altai it means ‘damaged by hail’) in the flood-bed of the Čarys river on its left bank in the area Ajry-Kodögor were found by B. H. Kadikov, a senior scientific employee of the Bijsk museum of Local Lore, in 1960. For their interpretations, their copies and photos were given to K. Sejdakmatov and N. A. Baskakov. Judging by Kadikov's copies, the rock had up to six inscriptions and the seventh inscription was located on a rock fragment.

Kadikov's copies of these inscriptions without their interpretations were published by K. Sejdakmatov in the above mentioned paper (Sejdakmatov 1964). In 1966, N. A. Baskakov gave his interpretations of the inscriptions of Mendür-Sokkon in the article «Three runic inscriptions from the Mendur-Sokkon village of the Gorno-Altajsk autonomous region»; he was leaning on B. H. Kadikov's copies (Baskakov 1966).

Ė. R. Tenišev gave a transcription, translation, and interpretation of the inscriptions found near the Mendür-Sokkon village in his paper «Old Turkic epigraphy of Altai,» published in 1966; he referred to K. Sejdakmatov's article (Tenišev 2006). These inscriptions are now irrevocably lost: while constructing a road in the Mendür-Sokkon village, the rock with inscriptions was blown up. Only one inscription was preserved on this rock; it was engraved on a separate small stone of brown slate which was near the end of the rocky ridge. In 1960, this stone was brought by B. H. Kadikov to the Bijsk Museum of Local Lore and thus avoided destruction.

The search for new inscriptions in this area was renewed in the 1980s and yielded interesting finds.

Epitaphs on steles are not characteristic for Mountainous Altai, as they are in Khakassia and Tyva; therefore, a discovery of steles with epitaphs became a very significant event. In 1968, V. D. Kubarev found an inscription on a vertically standing stele on the left bank of the Bar-Burgazy river in the Ak-Koby area, 35 km to the east of the Koš-Agač village. This stele has been studied by several generations of Turcologists: by Е. M. Toščakova in 1969, V. M. Nadeljaev in 1970, D. G. Savinov in 1971, D. D. Vasil’ev in 1983, I. V. Kormušin in 1992, I. L. Kyzlasov in 1994 and 2003, I. A. Nevskaya and L. N. Tybykova during the period from 2003 till 2006, and by M. Erdal in 2006.

In August of 1976, V. N. Elin and B. H. Kadikov discovered a rock painting 20 km from the Inja village on the Adyr-Kaja rock; V. M. Nadeljaev studied this painting in situ in 1978.

In August 1978 V. D. Kubarev, A. S. Smirnov, and L. M. Čevalkov, the members of the Eastern Altai archaeological group of the Institute of History, Philosophy, and Philology (IHPP) of the Siberian Branch of the Academy of Sciences, discovered an inscription on a rock on the right bank of the Taldu-Ajry river, a right inflow of the Bar-Burgazy river, near its mouth.

In 1979, while excavating kurgans of the Old Turkic period in the upper reaches of the Bar-Burgazy river, V. D. Kubarev found remnants of a belt set with a short runic inscription.

In June 1980, V. D. Kubarev found two runic inscriptions on a hill locally known as Žalgyz-Tebe (‘Lonely Hill’), in the Čuja steppe, 10-12 km from the Koš-Agač village. These were first studied by V. M. Nadeljaev (Nadeljaev 1984).

The field season in the summer of 1980 appears to have been a very successful one for the petroglyphic-archaeological expedition of the IHPP of the Siberian Branch of the Academy of Sciences working in the Altai Mountains, as far as epigraphic research is concerned. E. A. Okladnikova and P. P. Labeckij, while copying rock paintings of the lower circle of paintings on the Kalbak-Taš mountain situated near the mouth of the Čuja river, found numerous runic inscriptions copied by V. M. Nadeljaev later the same summer (Nadeljaev 1984). In 1987, V. D. Kubarev, while documenting rock paintings on the Kalbak-Taš mountain, discovered eight further lines of Old Turkic inscriptions (Kubarev, Jacobson 1996). A number of articles by D. D. Vasil’ev (1993, 2004) were devoted to the Kalbak-Taš runic inscriptions.

In 1980 and 1983, during expeditions organized by the Gorno-Altajsk Institute of History, Language and Literature (GAIHLL), D. D. Vasil’ev and A. T. Tybykova studied Old Turkic inscriptions in the vicinity of the Bičiktu-Boom village. These inscriptions were named Bičiktu-Boom I, Bičiktu-Boom II and Bičiktu-Boom III. The inscription Bičiktu-Boom I, known as ’the left inscription’ according to K. Sejdakmatov, was probably destroyed during the road construction. The inscription Bičiktu-Boom III survived and remained in situ. At the same time, two more inscriptions were found and were by the D. D. Vasil’ev given the numbers Bičiktu-Boom IV and Bičiktu-Boom V. Unfortunately, they have not yet been published; only their copies made by A. T. Tybykova were preserved. Judging by A. T. Tybykova's copies made in 1983, there were a number of inscriptions containing several lines written in the runic alphabet. As these finds were not published, the numbers Bičiktu-Boom IV and Bičiktu-Boom V were not associated with them.

A. T. Tybykova also made copies of Bičiktu-Boom inscriptions in the Tibetan and Old Mongolian scripts. The Tibetan inscription with a freely executed image of Buddha was located on the next ledge of a rock next to the inscription Bičiktu-Boom II. The inscriptions in the Tibetan and Old Mongolian scripts apparently have not survived till now; we have only A. T. Tybykova's copies of them.

D. D. Vasilyev’s and A. T. Tybykova's expedition also documented discoveries of runic inscriptions in the Ust’-Kan district. Two further inscriptions in the vicinities of the Mendür-Sokkon village were found on a low rock approximately 5-6 km from the northeast of the village, in the Ustügi-Karasu ravine on the southern slope of a small mountain ridge. The inscription was discovered by A. T. Takysova, the school principal of the Mendür-Sokkon high school, in 1980; she showed it to the expedition members D. D. Vasilyev and A. T. Tybykova in 1983. This inscription was rediscovered by V .A. Kočeev in 1997. Another rock inscription was found in the Ustügi-Karasu area by a local resident, M. B. Takysova, in May 1983. This inscription was documented in 1983 by A. T. Tybykova.

In September 1987, the secondary school student E. Bultušev found a horn plate with an Old Turkic inscription among fallen rocks in the Ker-Keču area near the mouth of the Big Il’gumen river. Later he gave this artifact to V. M. Monosov, his history teacher, for the school museum. In 1991, the latter handed the find over to the National Museum of the Altai Republic named after A. V. Anoxin.

In 1988, Е. P. Matočkin and V. N. Elin found one more inscription on the left bank of the Katun river opposite the Kujus village near the mouth of the small Karban river. This inscription was almost simultaneously rubbed by V. N. Elin and Е. P. Matočkin (Matočkin 1990; Elin & Sojonov 1990; Kljaštornyj & Matočkin 1991).

Another short inscription consisting of two lines was discovered in 1989-1990 by Е. P. Matočkin in the Teke-Turu area on the right bank of the Argut river, 1.5 km from the natural boundary of Keme-Keču on the Koksa – Karagem – Argut route (Kljaštornyj & Matočkin 1994).

In 1989, an archeologist of the Kemerovo State University E. A. Miklaševič, while inspecting petroglyphs and graffiti on the southeast mountain ridge near the Tuekta village, found two rock paintings (Martynov & Miklaševič 1995; Miclaševič 2006: 219). On this rocky surface, there is a graffito alongside runic inscriptions, which presents a very interesting composition and is an impressing sample of Old Turkic art. Very subtle, hardly visible, carved lines depict images of a horseman shooting with a bow, a walking archer, dogs running with protruding tongues, and a roe deer pierced with an arrow.

By the beginning of the 1990s it became obvious that the Altai, along with Khakassia, Tyva, and Mongolia, is a region with a great number of Old Turkic written monuments. The archeologists’ efforts during the previous period have enabled us to identify three bigger centers of concentration of written runic monuments of the Old Turkic period. First of all, there is the Kalbak-Taš rock with the largest number of runiform inscriptions in Russia. The two other areas are, firstly, the Karakol valley in the Ongudaj district with the vicinities of the Bičiktu-Boom, Booči, Kulada and Tuekta villages and, secondly, the vicinities of the Mendür-Sokkon village in the Ust’-Kan district.

Research conducted in the second half of the last century supposed that Mountainous Altai would promise new discoveries. These expectations were justified. The arrival to Altai of the archeologist and runologist I. L. Kyzlasov in 1994 gave rise to a renewal of exploration work.

In 1994, during V. A. Kočeev's and I. L. Kyzlasov’s joint trip to the mountain Kalbak-Taš, the inscriptions on this rock were copied and documented and new inscriptions were discovered, so that the number of discovered lines reached thirty-one (Kyzlasov 2002). During the same epigraphic trip, L. V. Openyšev and I. L. Kyzlasov discovered an Old Turkic inscription which was located 60 m to the south of the inscription Bičiktu-Boom-I. It was written in the signs of the Orkhon branch of the Old Turkic runic alphabet; its publication followed in Kyzlasov 1997. Later, in 1996, E. E. Jamaeva discovered a so called «inscription in a crevice» situated to the north of the Bičiktu-Boom village at the bottom of the Art mountain (Bičiktu-Boom VII). In the same place, approximately 70 m from the bottom of the Art mountain, a new inscription was found in 2001 by A. T. Tarbanaev, a resident of the Bičiktu-Boom village, and student of the Gorno-Altaisk State University. He showed it to Old Turkic inscriptions’ researchers during an expedition in 2003. This inscription was probably also discovered by D. D. Vasil’ev, who has not, however, published it till now.

During the field seasons of 1995 and 1997, an expedition consisting of V. A. Kočeev, E. E. Jamaeva and O. V. Majčikov and funded by the foundation Türk Bičik found and copied two hitherto unknown inscriptions: The first was copied by E. E. Jamaeva in 1995 in the Manyrlu-Koby ravine, 10 km to the south of the Kulada village, the second one 13 km to the south west of the Kulada village in a ravine called Sogodek on the top of the mountain. Between the villages Boočy and Kulada, in the area Tekpenek E. E. Jamaeva discovered a short inscription in 1995. In 1996, she found one more inscription in the area Semisart on the rock Kara-Boom 4 km to the southwest of the village Jelo. In 1997, A. T. Urbanov found an inscription in the ravine of Üstügi Sary-Koby, 3 km to the west of the village Bičiktu-Boom.

In one of his papers, D. D. Vasil’ev mentions inscriptions found by him in 1995, one incised on a stele of a burial site in the vicinities of the village Booči, the other on a stele with an inscription on the burial site Bašadar 4.5 km from the Kulada village (Vasil’ev 2004). Our inspection of this area in 2010 showed that these inscriptions have probably not been preserved. We found only single and badly preserved carvings resembling runes on a small stele near the village Booči in the Ongudaj district.