Ancient Turkic Rock Inscriptions in the Kuru-Bakayir Gorge
Discovery of Ancient Turkic Rock Inscriptions in the Kuru-Bakayyr Gorge
In the autumn of 1981, a joint expedition of the Institutes of History and Language and Literature of the Academy of Sciences of the Kirghiz SSR discovered previously unknown ancient Turkic rock inscriptions in the Kuru-Bakayyr gorge, in the western part of the Talas Valley, approximately 15 km south of the village of Bakayyr. As one ascends the gorge, it becomes apparent that the right side is rocky. In some places, there are low cliffs and outcrops of slate.
In the middle part of the gorge, 2.5 km from the Suuluu-Bakayyr River, on the upper part of a low cliff facing southeast, a short (length — 14 cm, height — about 3 cm) ancient Turkic runic inscription, consisting of six graphemes, is carved. Upon initial inspection, only this well-preserved inscription was visible, along with two human figures with mushroom-shaped heads, one of which remained unfinished. However, after thoroughly cleaning the surface of the rock from moss and mineral deposits, a whole "gallery of paintings" was revealed (fig. 5, 6).
At the foot of this same cliff, we discovered another previously unnoticed ancient Turkic runic inscription, consisting of five letters. It is carved shallowly on the rough surface of a stone that has been eroded by time. Next to the inscription, silhouettes of a mountain goat and dogs are depicted. This complex of inscriptions and petroglyphs has been discovered in Kyrgyzstan for the first time.
In addition to these inscriptions and drawings, many images of mountain goats, deer, dogs (or wolves?), turkeys, horses, as well as people shooting bows or simply standing (fig. 7) have been found in the same gorge.
The preservation of the first runic inscription allows us to confidently identify the letters. According to paleography, this inscription is similar to other Talas monuments. The initial N in the word, as noted by S. G. Klyashtorny, is inscribed in a mirror image, which is often found in Talas and Yenisei runes. S. G. Klyashtorny and I read and comment on this inscription as follows:
Reading:
The name-title кутчор consists of two elements — кут and чор, each of which is repeatedly represented in ancient titles and titulature. The word кут in runic inscriptions apparently had a narrower semantic range than in other ancient Turkic texts (Uighur and Manichaean scripts). It denoted concepts such as "princely charisma," "heavenly grace," and "goodness." In ancient Turkic titulature, the derivative form кутлуг is most commonly used, but combinations with кут are also represented: ыдук кут (title of the leader of the Basmyls, later, from the 40s of the 9th century, — rulers of the Uighur Turfan principality), кут тенри хатуны (proper name), билге куты (designation of Uighur nobles according to Juvayni), etc. The title чор, possibly of Iranian origin, was quite widespread among the higher aristocracy of the Western Turkic Khaganate. In the 8th century, чор was a traditional title of the dynasty of Turkic rulers of the Talas Valley.
The second runic inscription from Kuru-Bakayyr is located in the lower part of the same cliff. It consists of one line, 11 cm long and up to 6 cm high. The duct of this inscription differs from that of the first. According to paleographic signs, the second inscription can be attributed to a later period.
Reading:
This word is not represented in the ancient Turkic language. S. G. Klyashtorny suggests that we have a rare case of a Sogdian proper name being rendered in runic script:
literally "lion," with the loss of the final bilabial w during adaptation in Turkic.
Here, the word is likely inscribed as a name or part of a name and accurately reflects the widely used name-title arslan in the Karluk-Karakhanid environment. Not only the choice of alphabet but also the form of linguistic adaptation of the word undoubtedly indicate that the author of the graffiti was a Turk, and the inscription itself can hardly be dated earlier than the end of the 9th—10th centuries.
Further down the gorge, 200 m from the cliff with the runic inscriptions, closer to the trail, there was a four-line Sogdian inscription (fig. 10, 11). It was stamped and photographed by us. It should be noted that this inscription has not yet been fully studied. Upon first acquaintance with its drawing, V. A. Livshits discovered in it the numeral bgu 'three' and the digit for hundreds at the beginning of the last, fourth line and suggested that the inscription might indicate a date — the 300th year of Yazdegerd III, i.e., 931 AD. This interpretation by the scholar was presented by us in a joint article with S. G. Klyashtorny published in "Soviet Turkology" (No. 3, 1983, pp. 78—82). At our request, after reviewing the drawing of the text again, V. A. Livshits reported that he now sees in the preceding line the word mrtwmk, which can be accepted as a defectively written common Sogdian mrtwxmk 'man, person.' If this is the case, then the inscription can be read as "300 people," and it likely referred to a detachment passing through the gorge.
Alongside the epigraphic monuments on the slopes of the mountains in the gorge, as mentioned, there are numerous rock images concentrated in several groups over more than 1.5 km. Next to the petroglyphs, on the saddle of the mountain, a burial site has been discovered, containing more than 10 stone mounds from the Saka and Turkic periods. In several geological test pits, fragments of molded and pottery medieval ceramics have been found, including pieces of a lamp with green glaze.
