The Fourth Talas Monument
In the summer of 1982, on Lenin Street (formerly Zhany-Chek) at the 1st section of the "40 Years of October" state farm, near the barn of the dairy farm, a boulder with an ancient Turkic runic inscription was discovered while leveling a pit. The stone had apparently been lying with the inscription facing down for a long time. As previously noted, between 1896 and 1898, in the vicinity of the village of Dmitrievskoye (now the city of Talas), local historian V. A. Kallaur and a Finnish archaeological expedition led by G. I. Geikel found five boulders with runic inscriptions. The first, discovered in the spring of 1896, is currently housed in the State Hermitage. The second monument was rediscovered in 1962 by an archaeological-epigraphic expedition and delivered to the Historical Museum of Frunze. Until recently, there was no information about the location of the third, fourth, and fifth monuments. It was only known that one of the five stones discovered between 1896 and 1898 was taken to Finland. It has now been established that either the third or the fifth stone was taken to Finland. The fact is that upon careful study of the monument found in 1982, we confirmed that this is the fourth stone, first opened by G. I. Geikel's expedition in 1898 in the Ayyr-Tam-Oy area and rediscovered 84 years later.
It was previously believed that all five boulders with inscriptions were found in the Ayyr-Tam-Oy area (where six more monuments were found much later). However, the question arises: why did the fourth stone end up in a different location — on the southern outskirts of the city of Talas? The distance between the Ayyr-Tam-Oy area and the southern outskirts of Talas is about 10 km, with the Besh-Tash River lying between them. According to local residents, the fourth boulder lay near the barn for many years, and there was another stone nearby, allegedly also with inscriptions (it was later embedded in the foundation of the barn). It is likely that the fourth boulder did indeed lie in the place where it was originally discovered for many years (and the fifth boulder could have been lying nearby).
V. A. Kallaur himself wrote that while carrying out his task to inquire with local residents whether any ancient artifacts or stones with inscriptions had been found here, Jankoroz Berdykhozhin (who accompanied V. A. Kallaur during his trips to the Kenkol volost in the summer of 1896) reported seeing a stone with inscriptions located "to the west of the stone previously found in Ayyr-Tam-Oy, half a verst from it, or perhaps even less, with similar inscriptions." On May 5, 1898, following the instructions of D. Berdykhozhin, V. A. Kallaur found this stone and nearby discovered another, larger boulder, also with inscriptions (which became established in science as the Talas monument No. 2). Both of these stones were located in a plowed field, on a flat surface, 500 steps west of the first monument — the stone found in 1896. On May 6, V. A. Kallaur, with the help of translator Sh. Bekchurov, completed the copying of the inscription. By this time, as noted above, the Finnish archaeological expedition led by G. Geikel had arrived in the Talas valley.
However, to this day, the exact location of the fourth and fifth stones has not been specified in the literature. M. E. Masson states that "the Finnish expedition discovered two more stones with similar inscriptions along the way...". It is possible that these monuments were left in the place where they were found. In any case, researchers should pay special attention to this area.
The first drawing of the text of monument No. 4 was published by G. Geikel. It is meticulously executed and differs little from the impression we made in July 1982 (verified in May 1983). A lot of time has passed since the discovery of the boulder, and the monument has been subjected to rain and snow, with parts of the text damaged.
Based on the impressions made by V. A. Kallaur and the drawing by G. Geikel, S. E. Malov provided a reading and translation of the text, dividing it into seven lines. In reality, however, the stone has two circular lines and one short line on the side. The stone is an ordinary river boulder, light gray sandstone, measuring approximately 100X50 cm. Some letters are larger, reaching a height of 13 cm. In the upper part of the boulder, on a flat surface, the first line is arranged in a semicircle. Below, on the side, is the second, long line, in which several initial letters are missing, as well as, apparently, several letters in its second part (no traces of letters are visible here, but it can be assumed that text was present). At the bottom on the side faces, several signs have been preserved, although some of them are poorly discernible (see figs. 1, 2).
Before S. E. Malov, the translation of inscription No. 4 was provided by P. M. Melioransky and Yu. Nemet. Later, it was republished by I. A. Batmanov and others. Our reading and translation are presented below.
Text:
Transliteration:
(1) Tychorootuzuglnsgchygdrlmy [sha] siza
(2) ... l?gr6n6s6yzuglnchuruliyuklmy [sh]
(3) ... klmysha ...
Transcription:
(1) Aty chora otuz oglan saglysh adyrylm[sha] siza (2) ...l?g aran siza oglanchur ulaiu kalmy[sh]...
(3) ...kalmysha...
Translation:
(1) His name is Chora. Thirty oglans (sons?) (or the tribe of otuz oglan), the defenders remained (literally, parted).
(2) You... brave son of Chora inherited and remained...
(3) ...remained...
As far as we know, the photograph of the inscription has never been published.
The photograph provided in this work gives a clear idea of what this monument looks like and how the lines of the inscription are arranged. By the arrangement of the text, the monument resembles the eleventh monument found in 1978. Since the text on it is arranged unusually, the order of reading has been determined by us based on meaning. We consider the upper line to be the first — this is the inner circular line, and its text continues in the side line. The second and third lines can be combined into one, as they are on the same line. It should be noted that most inscriptions on the boulders from the Talas valley do not exhibit uniformity in arrangement. This is characteristic of the tenth and twelfth monuments in this regard. Such a feature of Talas inscriptions is apparently due to the fact that they were made by not very skilled carvers.
In terms of paleographic features, inscription No. 4 does not differ significantly from other Talas inscriptions, but there are specific graphic variants of some letters in it. The order of reading the lines and the interpretation of individual signs by S. E. Malov differ somewhat from those of his predecessors. P. M. Melioransky, based on V. A. Kallaur's drawing, saw five lines in the inscription. He provided its transcription and translation but noted that the inscription "although almost entirely removed, cannot be precisely determined in terms of how the lines were arranged on the stone itself. Therefore, a complete analysis of these inscriptions is impossible until impressions or at least photographic images are available."
The inscription is interesting from a philological point of view. The combination of otuz oglan is represented in four Talas monuments, and in the same phonetic form. Following this combination, forms such as sagdychlary, satdychygam, sarchygdarym, sabdychyl, which differ morphologically or only orthographically, follow. The frequent use of the combination otuz oglan in the monuments allows us, following S. M. Abramzon, to recall the name of the Kyrgyz tribe otuz uul. S. M. Abramzon noted that "there (in the Talas valley — Ch. D.) a significant part of the Kyrgyz, who consider themselves of origin from the left wing of the otuz uul group, is concentrated." The word chur ~ chor ~ chura ~ chora served as a title and proper name in ancient Turkic monuments. S. G. Klyashtorny wrote that "the highest title held by the deceased princes, whose epitaphs are erected in the Ayyr-Tam-Oy area, was, judging by the inscriptions, the title chor. This title was inherited in a direct line from father to son (texts No. 2, 4 — Ch. D.), while the brothers of the deceased did not bear it. The most common attribute of this title was the word kara 'black'." Chor appears in many ancient Turkic names: Beg-Chur, Kuli-Chor, Kara-Chor, Moyup-Chor, Oglan-Chor, Kumar-Chor, etc. Kara-Choro, Choro are also present in the names of Kyrgyz ethnonyms. The word choro is used in the epic "Manas" as a designation for the closest companion of the hero. Kýrk choro 'forty choro' — this is how the companions of the main epic hero are stereotypically referred to in the epic: uydo juren bir choro, joogo chykkan min, choro (folk.) doma ty — one choro, when you go to the enemy, you are — a thousand choro. The word sagchyg (sagdychlar, saidychyn, saidychyl in other monuments) 'defender, guardian, protector' is noted only in Talas monuments in epigraphy. It is absent in Orkhon-Yenisei inscriptions. In Mahmud Kashgari's dictionary, sagdych means "faithful friend": karsy korup sagdych/any uchmak, atar 'faithful friend, seeing the palace will call it paradise (MK, III, 374). Sagdych in the meaning of "best man" has been preserved in the Crimean dialect.
Thus, the fourth Talas ancient Turkic monument, a monument of our ancestors, has not been lost irretrievably. It is once again at the disposal of researchers and will undoubtedly, along with other monuments of Talas epigraphy, be the subject of study many more times. It is hoped that further research on the original of this monument will allow us to fill at least part of the gaps in the text and clarify its reading and interpretation.