Issyk inscription

The Issyk inscription is a yet undeciphered text, found in 1969 on a silver bowl in Issyk kurgan in Kazakhstan, dated at approximately the 4th century BC. The context of the burial gifts indicates that it may belong to Saka tribes.

Issyk inscription
Issyk dish with inscription.
Drawing of the Issyk inscription.

Description

The Issyk inscription is not yet certainly deciphered, and is probably in a Scythian dialect, constituting one of very few autochthonous epigraphic traces of that language. János Harmatta, using the Kharoṣṭhī script, identified the language as a Khotanese Saka dialect spoken by the Kushans, tentatively translating:[1]

Issyk Khotanese Saka Translation
Line Transliteration English translation
1 za(ṃ)-ri ko-la(ṃ) mi(ṃ)-vaṃ vaṃ-va pa-zaṃ pa-na de-ka mi(ṃ)-ri-to The vessel should hold wine of grapes, added cooked food, so much, to the mortal,
2 ña-ka mi pa-zaṃ vaṃ-va va-za(ṃ)-na vaṃ. then added cooked fresh butter on

Zaur Hasanov (2015) identifies the script as an ancient Turkic language, related or identical to the Orkhon-Yenisei script, and translates it as:[2]

Issic Turkic Translation
LineTransliterationEnglish translation
1*Dört *bul Küz Sïnglïyï ïr (Of the) Four Corners (cardinal directions) (the) tribes Syngly sing (acclaim)
2Uş yüz yïğ anta ïçïrThree hundred mourners oath drink (give an oath)

Comparing the two proposed translations, the ancient Turkic translation is markedly more coherent semantically, and contains a poetic expression of respect for the dead, which is considered significant as the Turks followed Tengrism, in which there is a cult of the ancestors; thus it may be deemed more appropriate as an inscription at a grave site, compared to the Khotanese translation which reads roughly like a food recipe.

Photos of the inscription
Inscription close up, right side
Inscription close up, left side

See also

References
  1. Harmatta, János (1992). "Languages and Literature in the Kushan Empire" (PDF). In Dani, Ahmad Hasan; Harmatta, János; Puri, Baij Nath; Etemadi, G. F.; Bosworth, Clifford Edmund (eds.). History of Civilizations of Central Asia. Paris, France: UNESCO. pp. 407–431. ISBN 978-9-231-02846-5.
  2. Hasanov, Zaur (2015). Issyk Commemorative Inscription. Oriental Institute, Russian Academy Of Sciences. ISSN 0131-1344.
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