ISSYK  (SAKA) INSCRIPTION

(from Chapter 25) 

Fifth-century B.C. Issyk Inscription (1) (Pl. 24), written on a flat silver drink­ing-cup, was found in 1970 in a royal tomb located within Esik, a small town in Kazakistan near Lake Issyk (Issiq) which is in Kirghizistan in Central Asia. In the tomb were found the bones of a man dressed with a magnificent attire from head to toe with his clothes, jacket, pants, socks, and boots all made of attached pieces of pure gold, amounting to 4800 in numbers, greatest ever found in a tomb excepting that of Pharaoh Tutankhamon. His tall cone-shaped crowning hat extending down to his ears and neck contained golden arrows on top. On his belt he carried a sword on the right side and on the left a knife, both in their shields. Beautiful reliefs of animal design ornamented the shields, the belt and the front of the hat. Radio-carbon tests determined the age of the finds as belonging to the fifth century B.C. (2).

 

TRANSLATION OF THE TEXT

 

Alphabetical letters found in the Issyk inscription are located in their proper positions in the Table of Ancient Alphabets in the Appendix where the hard consonants (used with deep or back vowels) are shown with bold letters. The number of signs in the Issyk text is generally accepted in the lit­erature as twenty six, some of which are actually compound letters formed in most cases by overlaying the vertical lines that are common to each letter. We have observed the following seven compound letters. In the upper line, Nos. 4 and 5 together read o+ng where ng itself is derived from Aramaic letters n and g; and in the lower line, No. 13 (ç+i), 18 (g+ı+l), 22 (ç+g), 23 (g+k+t), 24 (i+r), and No. 26 which is same as 18. We may add to these the No. 20 which, although read as a single letter by earlier investigators, is in fact made up of two separate normal letters n and i. The consonants g (in 18 and 26), k (No. 10), and the letter h (No. 1) represent hard consonants used with deep (back) vowels, and the consonants g (in 22 and 23) and k (in 15 and 23) indicate soft consonants used with high (front) vowels. The consonants ç (8, 13), z (12, 25), n (3, 20), and r (9, 14, 17, 19, 24) have both sounds in the text. The vowels, a (2) and e (6) have the identical sign; so have the phonemes i (13, 20, 21, 24) and ı (18, 26). The compound letter 4-5 can also be read as n+ıng = nıng, where however the letter n is questionable, being smaller in size than those observed in Nos. 3 and 20.

 

In this Issyk alphabet, as can be seen from our Table of Ancient Alphabets, the letters a, b, hard g, z (possibly), i, k and k, l, n, o, ç (tsade), r, s, and t are direct descendents from the Aramaic-Canaanite alpha­bet. With some additional improvements, the alphabet forms the basis of the later Kök-Türk alphabet which shows further advances particularly in vowels and in the soft and hard consonants. Issyk people were within the sphere of the Turanians of the Shahname and together with them were in close contact with their adversaries in Iran beyond the Oxus. We see this in the resem­blance of their alphabets. Especially the Issyk letters a, i, l, n (reversed), o, r, s, and t show close similarities with those of the Achaemenid Aramaic, the script of the Persian royalty in Iran. However, the Issyk alphabet is more advanced than both the Achaemenid Aramaic and the Parthian alphabets because of the additional letters to differentiate between soft and hard consonants.

 

Finally, we must observe that, the scribe of the Issyk text did not use a free hand, but employed a template to mark each of his letters, and then used a sharp-pointed instrument to make his engravings on the silver cup. Thus, all letters indicating a single phoneme are exact duplicates of each others as one can easily find out by tracing one and applying the tracing paper on the others. Notice especially the perfect shape of the letter r in Nos. 7, 9, 14, 17, 19, and 24. Same is true for all others. Consequently, it should be impossible to mistake one letter for another.

Thus, the text can be transcribed as:

or:

han o-ng er çrk

 

sz çirk br gıl r-ni içgg ktir z gıl 

 

which makes 26 signs add up to a total of 36 letters with compound signs opened up, except the letter ng which, as in the Kök-Türk alphabet, is taken as a single letter. Thus, total single letters of the Issyk alphabet in this text amount to nineteen: a, b, g, g, e, z, h, i, ı, k, k, l, n, o, ç, r, s, t, and ng.

 

Putting in the silent vowels (bold letters), we have: 

 

han o-ng er çarık

siz çirik bar gıl er-ni içigig ketir oz gıl 

 

or 

 

Han Ong-Er, Çarık,

Siz çerik,

Bargıl!

Erni içigig kötir,

Ozgıl! 

 

which translates, literally, as: 

 

King Ong-Er, Çarık,

You soldiers,

Do depart!

The heroes as willingly-joined volunteers, raise up to heaven,

Reach (eternal) peace!. 

 

or, in clearer English: 

 

King Ong-Er, (of) Çarık (Nation),

You soldiers,

Do depart!

 

Raise up to heaven the heroes who have volun­tarily joined you, (and)

Reach (eternal) peace!. 

 

The noun içigig acts as a past participle, because it follows an accusative word, also a noun. Thus, er-ni içik-ig kötir "raise the men who are volunteers" may be compared to a more intimate Turkish phrase, erni tanık kötir "take away with you the men who are witnesses."

 

In Turkish, the name usually precedes the title. Thus, the form such as our `Han Ong-Er' where the word Han precedes the name is rare (3). The name `Han Ong-Er' "King Blessed Hero," can also be read as `Han Ongar' "King Healer; King Happiness-Giver," where the name is drived from ongar- "to make happy" (Crim Tr., ÜlDKT 18); "to cure, to heal; to put in order" (UYG). Similarly, it can also be read as `Öngi-Er' "Different Hero," with öngi "different" (DLT; UYG), or `Öng(ü)-Er' "Sprouting Hero; Growing Hero," from a verb ön-/ün- "to grow, to sprout, to come into existence" (DLT; UYG), and -gü/-gu, noun and adjective-making suffix. Such a name, Öngü, actually exists in Uighur texts (UYG 151). Another name Öng-Er is also a possibility, approximately meaning "front-man; foremost-man," with öng (Mod. Tr. ön) "first, before; front, foremost; east" (DLT; UYG; REDH).

 

Although, a phoneme z is given for the sign No. 12 and 25, it is possible that this sign may actually correspond to a dual letter n/z, as it seems to contain the Aramaic letters z and n. If this is true, the words siz and oz! can be read as sen "you," and on! "reach a good end!" respectively:

 

The text is most significant in that it gives a first-hand archaeological information on the nature of such ancient burial customs. We have already touched the subject in Chapter 7 when discussing the Scythians and pointed out that their burial customs, described so well by Herodotus, were almost exactly identical with those of the later Turkish nations, especially the nomadic groups such as the Huns, Avars, Cumans (Cumanians), Guz (Oghuz) and Turco-Mongols. Now we see that, contrary to the belief of many scholars, the men or women buried with the kings or the princes were not killed or sacrificed against their wills, but they voluntarily and happily accom­panied the royalty to the next world where another life waited them. The word içigig in the text definitely proves the case, which is also supported by archaeological evidence from a Sumerian royal tomb in ancient Ur, as reflected by Herbert J. Muller (MulLH 83):

 

"Women, who had gone to the grave with their king and queen, had been gaily dressed in crimson robes, and richly ornamented; wore elaborate gold headdresses, ... the composure of the bodies and the good order of the headdresses indicate they had not been felled... We may assume that they were willing victims, possibly even proud of their sacrifice, or happy in the privilege of accompanying their royal masters to the Beyond."

 

Prof. Ernst Diez indicates that tombs similar to those of the Sumerians were later found during the "Median and Achaemenian periods in the tombs of Luristan (Iran)" (DiAWOA 25).

 

The practice of furnishing the dead (4) with gifts of food, weapons, were observed in several other localities, in South Russia, Cyprus, Syria and Pales­tine, and in Iran, to count only a few.

 

Mongait gives information on the burial customs of the primitive man in South Russian steppes covering periods earlier than 10,000 B.C.: "In the Upper Palaeolithic Period (40,000 to 10,000 B.C.) a proper burial ritual was in use, connected with the formation of primitive religion and expressing a belief in life after death" (MonAU 98).

 

In Cyprus, in the earliest known culture around the sixth millennium B.C., burials (single contracted burial) were made among the houses or below the floors with objects deposited with the dead including stone bowls and rich burial gifts for the women which may show they were man's equal. Similar contracted burials were found in Syria and Palestine inside the settlements with gifts of pottery and weapons (MelECNE 54, 58).

 

Prof. Diez reports that, in Sialk excavated in Iran, in two levels, one the oldest strata representing the fifth millennium B.C., and the other represent­ing the tenth century B.C., the dead were buried in tombs supplied with weapons and food `necessary for the life beyond, since they believed in life after death.' In the shallower level, the men, who were now horsemen, were buried with their bronze weapons, rarely made of iron (DiAWOA 17, 20).

 

PAST TRANSLITERATIONS OF THE INSCRIPTION

 

There has been several attempts to decipher the inscription. Olcas (Oljas) Süleymanof from Kazakistan transliterated and translated the text as follows:

 

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

"The son of the king, at twenty three (three-thirty), died,

His name and fame became dust" (5).

 

The above transliteration, as I can see, assumes a phoneme y for our let­ter ng (in No. 4-5), a phoneme u (o, ü) for our s (No. 11) and for our r (7, 9, 14, 17, 19, part of 24), t for our k (10) and our ni (20), k for our k (15), g for our g (22). Equating his u (part of No. 4-5) with Nos. 7, 9, 14, and others, and all these with No. 11 are rather forced. Nos. 10 and 20, his t, are entirely dif­ferent signs. His solution as -ltı of identical Nos. 18 and 26 is reliable except that the t here, a reversed ı, does not correlate with his t of No. 10. Letters g and k in No. 24 are completely ignored. From our point of view, he correctly read the letters h (1), a (2), n (3), ç (8), z (12), k (15) but called it a hard k, b (16), l (in 18 and 26), i/ı (21), and g (22) but called it a hard g.

 

Another Attempt is that of Prof. Musabayev (6) who has produced a total of 17 words against our ten (or eleven), and against Süleymanov's eight words. His transliteration calls for some explanation on his part and without it, it is hard to enter into any discussion of his translation.

 

The best phonetic analysis of the text, from which we have also benefited, is done by Kemal A. Akishev (7) who however read the letter h (No. 1) as (a)g, our ni (No. 20) as (a)k which Süleymanov read t. He read our gıl in Nos. 18 and 26 as auk and aok respectively, read our g in No 22 as aa, and ignored it completely in No. 23. His other phonemes conform very well with the Kök-Türk script, which we are also in general agreement except for his attach­ment of the vowels to the consonants as the integral part of the phonemes. He missed completely the letters g, h, l, and o.

 

M. Erçin (8), based generally on Akishev's phonemes, transliterated the text as follows:

 

Agân er / anga er iç / arak

Esiz iç / erik baruk / arakı

E iç itkir / az ök 

 

which he translated as:

 

Lonely person / worthless person drink / arak

Alas drink / evil wild / (the) arak

Do be obedient drink / just a little   

 

Kazım Mirşan (9), using his own Proto-Turkish! alphabet and phonetics, has the following transcription and translation: 

 

(1) ÖGÜN AN (2) ONUY A  (3) ÖCÜ OK . (4) UB OZ (5) UÇ ESİTİS (6) OZ ÖTÜ (7) ONUY OY EKİÇ EKİL (8) ALIZ AT

 

(1) "Him whose majesty you are praising" (2-3) "is an arrow which became of the cosmos". (4) "He The Zeus", (5-6-7) "by passing to lidership as if winning a race, (to reach) to the seat of the cosmos" (8) "(is) the name taken".

 

Lately, Sergei V. Rjabchikov (http://public.kubsu.ru/~usr02898/sl6.htm), has tried to read the inscription in the Slavonic language, and tried to prove the inscription to be of "Indo-Arian one"; but he unfortunately made an error, often done in the Runic (or Kök-türk) inscriptions, by reading the lines from left to right instead of from right to left.  

 

The Issyk Glossary below gives details of all the words and the grammatical syntax involved in our translation of the Issyk inscription. 

 

ISSYK GLOSSARY

 

-gıl amplifier of the imperative verb of 2nd person singular (REDH; KT). See: bargıl, ozgıl.

 

-ig Turkish noun-making suffix attached to verbs. See: içigig.

 

-ni     accusative suffix (generally passive case). Some examples: M. Tr. ol erni ök keldür "bring that man himself" (DLT I, 71); O. Tr. biz-ni "us" (ErOA, Ty I:E3). 

 

bar-  (Mod. Tr. var-) to go, to depart; to reach, to arrive (ErOA; DLT; REDH).

 

bargıl  an imperative form of the verb bar-, meaning "do go!; do depart!." See: bar- and -gıl.

 

Çarık/Çaruk   name of the Issyk people, which may be the source of the Turkish clan mentioned in DLT where Çaruk (Çarık/Çarıg) is mentioned by Mahmud Kashgari as being the name of one of the twenty Turkish clans, who, together with "Kirghiz, Kiptchak, Oghuz, Tokhsi, Yaghma, Çigil and Ughrak, speak only one language, that is, pure Turkish" (DLT I, 30). They lived in the city of Barçuk (DLT I, 381) which Kashgari says was the city of Afrasiyab (Alp Er Tonga), the ancient king of the Turanians (Turks) in the Shahname. This city was located east of Kashgar and south of Aksu in Eastern Turkistan (ToUTTG 422, 428), the region being only about 250 miles away from the town of Esik where the inscription was found. Çaruks are also mentioned under the name of Çaruk-lu ("belonging to the Çaruk") as being one of the 22 Oghuz tribes (DLT I, 58). Their colonies seem to have lived in Khwarezm, Crimea, and Caucasus under the name of Çagruq/Çıgrak (ToUTTG 51, 428). The name is also mentioned in Uighur texts found by M. A. Stein, Hungarian-born British archaeologist, in Tun-huang in Cen­tral Asia, where Çarıg is one of the ten (royal) clans, and one of the five of the Tarduş group (western part) of the Kök-Türk empire. The age of the Uighur texts is accepted to be not later than A.D. 8th cen­tury [probably much earlier] (ToUTTG 421).

 

çirik  Tr. çerik/çerig "soldier, soldiers, troops, a line of soldiers, army" (UYG; DLT).

 

er man, men, brave man, hero (DLT I, 468; REDH). Example: O. Tr. er (written with single r) "man" (Kt:N12); tokuz erig (active accusative, written as tkuz rg) "the nine man" (Kt:N6).

 

içigig/içikig     (içgg) "(one) joined willingly or voluntarily," used as past participle of the verb içik-, or "(one) who joins voluntarily; [(a) willing (man), volunteer]," used as ver­bal noun formed with the noun-making suf­fix -ig/-ik attached to the verb içik-. The word is written, almost exactly, in Bilge Kaghan's inscription where it appears together with its verb. Thus, Kök-Türk expression içkg-me içk-di (içikig-me içikdi), budun boldı "(those) if willing (or being willing), joined (and) became (part of) the nation" (BK:E37), the meaning of the suffix -me being apparently "to be; being," or -me/-ma "if" (UYG). Actually, the Issyk içgg (içigig) conforms better with the Turk­ish harmony in spoken language than the Kök-Türk içkg (içikig) which is grammati­cally the correct form in writing.

 

içik-  (içk-) to enter in, to join [voluntarily] (UYG; ÇaTL 60); to surrender willingly or voluntarily (to the other side and then fight in their ranks) (DLT I, 192). O. Turkish example: Han birtim, hanıngın kodup içikding "I gave you (a) king, (but) you have joined (the enemy)" (Ty I:W2-3).

 

han   king.

 

kötir-/kötür-/köter-   (ktir) to raise, to raise above (ErOA, BK:E10; CdCum 118.37; UYG).

 

on-?  "to reach a good end"; an alternate word for oz-, assuming the sign for z is a dual letter n/z.

 

ong   (part of the name of the king) "good, safe; abundant, fruitful, fertile; [happy; blessed]" (Crimean Tr., ÜlDKT 61); "freedom; security, safety; soundness [(divine) peace; throne, God?, Heaven?]" (CdCum 113/4 and 119/43, 44). Ong was a Turkish title given to the Nestorian Tughril (Tughrul) Khan, king of the Kerait Turks (SHM:104), and a century before him, was the name of one king, Ong Khan of the infidel (non-muslim) Turks (of Khitai and Khotan) of the East. See: Ong Khan in glossary of Chapter 5.

 

Ong-Er           name of the king, meaning "Blessed Hero."

 

oz-    to be saved, to find salvation, to reach safety, [to reach peace] (DLT; UYG). The word is a synonym of Tr. on- "to reach a good end; to make secure, safe; to cure, to be well" (UYG; PaÇŞS 25; ÜlDKT).

 

ozgıl  an imperative form of the verb oz-, meaning "do find salvation!; do reach (eternal) peace!." See: oz- and -gıl.

 

sen?  (1) (Normal Turkish) "you" singular, said to people younger and of lower rank; an alternate word for siz, assum­ing the sign for z is a dual letter n/z.

 

sen?  (2) (Oghuz Turkish) "you" singular, said to elders. See also: siz (3).

 

siz     (1) you (plural).

 

siz     (2) you (singular, said to older people).

 

siz     (3) (Oghuz Turkish) "you," singular, said to people younger and of lower rank (DLT I, 339, where Kashgari says: "Oghuz Turks do the reverse, they say `sen' to the elders and `siz' to the younger").

 

NOTES:

 

(1) From ÖzTAK I, 33 (photo by Olcay Süleymanof in `Kazak Edebiyatı Gazetesi' "(Kazak Literature-Newspaper"), Dec. 25, 1970.

 

(2) ÖzTAK I, 34. Issyk region has already produced abundant archaeological material of later ages. Work done by Soviet archaeologists in the area north of Issyk Lake has discovered many smaller tombs dated A.D. 10-12th centuries, belonging to Çigil Turks. All human skele­tons found in the graves showed race characteristics very similar to today's Anatolian Turks, with no trace of Mongoloid features at all (Larousse).

 

(3) See for example the legendary works, ErDK where the normal form Bayındır Han is written also as Han Bayındır (D10, D66, D202, D235, D236), and ÖgTM where we have the name Han-Murat (p. 406).

 

(4) It must be pointed out here that amongst the ancient Trojans the dead were cremated. The same practice was applied at the time of the Hittite Emperors who as we have seen were of Hurrian stock. But the earlier kings of the Old Kingdom did not practise cremation (GurHIT VII.7).

 

(5) From, Nejat Diyarbekirli, Kazak­istan'da Bulunan Esik Kurganı (The Issyk Tomb found in Kazakistan), Cumhuriyetin 50. yılına Arma§an, I. Ü. Edebiyat Fakül­tesi, Istanbul, 1973 (DiyKBEK).

 

(6) Atsız, "Altın Elbiseli Adam" Hakkında Yeni Bilgiler (New Findings on the Man with the Golden Clothes), Ötüken, Haziran (June) 1973.

 

(7) Akishev, K. A., "ISSYK MOUND," Moscow, 1978, TRACING, p. 55; transmitted by M. Erçin in: Harf Devrimi'nin 50. Yılı Sem­pozyumu (Symposium of the 50th Anniver­sary of Alphabetic Revolution), TTK Yayınları, Ankara, 1981 (HD50S), p. 234).

 

(8) M. Erçin, "Esik Yazıtı, Türk Runik Yazısı" (Issyk Inscription, a Turkish Runic Text) in HD50S 225.

(9) Mirşan, Kazim, Prototürk Bilginlerine Göre ASTROFİZİK ("Astrophysics According to the Proto-Turkish Scholars"), 1990, Ankara.