Issyk kurgan
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The Issyk kurgan, in south-eastern Kazakhstan, less than 20 km east from the Talgar alluvial fan, near Issyk, was discovered in 1969. It is dated to the 4th or 3rd century BC (Hall 1997), situated in what was at the time eastern Scythia, just north of Sogdiana.
It contained a skeleton of uncertain sex, interred with warrior's equipment, variously dubbed "golden man" or "golden princess", and with rich funerary goods, including 4,000 gold ornaments. A notable item is a silver cup bearing an inscription.
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[edit] The Issyk inscription
The inscription is in a variant of the Kharoṣṭhī script, and is probably in a Scythian dialect, constituting one of very few autochthonous epigraphic traces of that language. Harmatta (1999) identifies the language as Khotanese Saka, tentatively translating "The vessel should hold wine of grapes, added cooked food, so much, to the mortal, then added cooked fresh butter on" (compare Nestor's Cup and Duenos inscription for other ancient inscriptions on vessels that concern the vessel itself).
Pan-Turkist authors prefer a comparison with the 8th century Orkhon script, attempting a Proto-Turkic reading (Amanjolov 2003).
[edit] Photographs
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[edit] References
- A. Amanjolov "History and Theory of Ancient Turkic Script", Almaty, "Mektep", 2003, pp. 218-219, ISBN 9965-16-204-2
- Hall, Mark E. Towards an absolute chronology for the Iron Age of Inner Asia. Antiquity 71 (1997): 863-874.
- Harmatta, Janos. History of Civilization of Central Asia. Volume 2, Motilal Banarsidass (1999), ISBN 8120814088, p. 421 [1][2]
