Archaeology, Ethnology & Anthropology of Eurasia 52 (4) 2024   doi:10.17746/1563-0110.2024.52.4.125-130

Annotation:  The Peopling of Tajikistan by Homo sapiens denisovan Raptorial Birds as Taphonomic Agents for Small Mammal Remains in Pleistocene Deposits at Tsagaan Agu A New Approach to the Study of Flaking Sequence Integrity Based on the Chagyrskaya Cave Assemblage, Industry of Okladnikov Cave Layer 3 in the Context of the Sibiryachikha Complexes of the Altai Mount Rocks and Their Sources in the Upper Paleolithic of the Altai: Relevance to Bifacial Technologies The Afontova Gora IV (Ovrazhnaya) Site: An Analysis of a Complex with “Ocher” in the Structure of th Human Remains from a Neolithic Burial at Krokhalevka-5 on the Upper Ob: Physical Type and Origin Excavations of a Neolithic Dwelling at Pod Lipami, Primorye, in 1976 Clay-Plaster “Masks” from Mound-Vault Skalnaya 5, Khakassia The First Results of Remote Sensing Studies of Mounds with “Mustaches” in Northern Kulunda, Southwes An Old Mongolian Inscription near the Second (Small) Sulfate Lake in Northern Khakassia as Evidence The World of Migrants from Ryazan in the Post-Reform Period: Methods of Studying Migration and Local Textiles as Product and Symbol. Ritual Gift Exchange Among the Karakalpaks and its Central Asian Par   

An Old Mongolian Inscription
near the Second (Small) Sulfate Lake in Northern Khakassia
as Evidence of Cultural Contacts in the Region
in the Middle Ages and Early Modern Age

S.G. Skobelev¹, D.D. Vasiliev ², and V.Y. Butanaev ³

¹Novosibirsk State University, Pirogova 1, Novosibirsk, 630090, Russia

²Institute of Oriental Studies, Russian Academy of Sciences, Rozhdestvenka 12, Moscow, 107031, Russia

³Katanov Khakass State University, Pr. Lenina 90, Abakan, 655017, Russia

We describe a rare Old Mongolian inscription carved on an outcrop of Devonian sandstone near the Second (Small) Sulfate Lake in northern Khakassia. Tentative translation, dating, and cultural attribution are provided. The condition of the inscription and adjacent representations of humans, animals, and tamgas are described. Three groups of signs of which the Old Mongolian inscription consists are identified. Variants of translation to modern Mongolian and Russian are proposed. One group of signs renders the text: “In the Year of the Snake, the second winter month, the 21st day..." Other graphemes, translated from Mongolian, mean: master, elapsed, horseman, give, herd, steppe (talo). Certain words are indistinct and illegible. The lower and upper chronological limits of the inscription are 1204 to early 1720s. Horsemen figures are carved in the same technique. Old Buryat parallels suggest a rather recent date. Pre-Mongolian tamgas are pecked rather than carved. The script belongs to the latest instances of Old Mongolian epigraphy in the region.

Keywords: Northern Khakassia, Second (Small) Sulfate Lake, rock outcrop, petroglyphs, old Mongolian inscription, reading, dating