ON ETHNIC IMMORTALITY. OB ETNICHESKOM BESSMERTII IN RUSSIAN, PP 1-23

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OB ETNICHESKOM BESSMERTII in Russian pp 1-23
[Typescript of scholarly paper by Candidate of Physics and Mathematical
Sciences Yu. K. Khudenskiy: "On Ethnic Immortality"]
'['Text] Dedicated to the Poet Ivan Drach
"Because if the mark
Remained unerased,
The result would be
That there would be no death. for us.
And therefore the wind
At the appointed hour
Sweeps from the face of the earth
Our tracks."
"Song of the Wind," African folk poem
of the Bushmen, Republic of South Africa
ON ETHNIC IMMORTALITY
(On Deciphering the Sarmatian Tamga Symbols)
by Candidate of Physics and Mathematical .Sciences
Yu. K. Khudenskiy
As always, the beginning was the most difficult, but it is hard to say
when this began:
"Aeneas was a clever lad
A real Cossack,
A most adroit fellow,
The most fearless of all the vagabonds.
But when the Greeks burned Troy,
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Making a pile of manure out of it,
He picked up his earthly goods and took to his heels;
Gathering up a few Trojans,
A singed, tattered lot,
He made tracks from Troy...." (1)
It began when I heard the lines the first time, and I heard them as soon as
I began to hear, since my father was familiar with everything I. P.
Kotlyarevskiy and A. V. Rudanskiy had written. K. V. Khudenskiy read them
to me long before his translations of I. P. Kotlyarevskiy's "Aeneid" began
to be published. Reading of these verses, and in particular the first
stanza, which became etched in my memory, evoked an interest in the Cossacks
and Troy and a great"enmity" toward the Greeks. It was so powerful that,
when I began to read, I greatly enjoyed reading descriptions of Schliemann's
excavations at Troy, but I had absolutely no interest in Mycenae and Crete.
The result of this was, that I read John Chedwick's "Deciphering Linear B" (2),
on the life of the ingenious decipherer Michael Ventris,after I had drawn.
conclusions on the significance of the Tamga symbols of the northern coast of
the Black Sea.
If things had been reversed, having learned from Chedwick that "the method
employed by Gordon is popular with dilettantes. Initially one tries to guess
some kind of object behind each symbol, no matter how vague their similarity;
then names are attached to the objects, from the language selected by the
decipherer, and the assumption is made that the symbols have.been read " --
I would have been ashamed of my dilettantism and would have continued study-
ing electrochem6luminescence, with resulting great benefit.
Let us return, however, to Kotlyarevskiy's stanza and to the word "Cossack."
It has lured and enticed me my entire life -- this magical word which reads
the same forwards and backwards -- of which there are few in those many
languages with which I am acquainted. More frequently one encounters reduplica-
tion-type magical words, such as aku-aku. But the word "kazak" is symmetrical
not as a simple translation, a geometric pattern such as we find on a
Neolithic pot but, if one can express it in the term "absolute," as a magical
mathematical square and examples such as the following, contrived and con-
ceived in our time: "A roza upala na lapu Azora" [And a rose fell onto Azor's
paw], etc. The word "kaiak" breathed of deep antiquity. Its persistence in
the boundless expandes of the steppe6_of"Eurasia was incomprehensible. The
ease with which this structural formula passed from people to people, including
those speaking different languages, with minor variations over thousands of
years and kilometers, from the Atlantic to the Pacific, from the Arctic to
the Indian Ocean.
"And here," as eminent connoisseur of ethnology L. I. Gumilev put it (3),
"we approached the objective of our investigation -- a genuine principle of
classification of the anthropogeni.c factors in terrain forming. As it turns
out, it lies not at the surface of the phenomenon, among a boundless ethno-
graphic diversity, but rather deep within, sharing the condition of the ethnos:
2
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creative, that is, dynamic, inert, or historical, and stable, that is, per-
sistent, whereby the ethnos enters biocenosis. These conditions differ from
one another only in capability of ultrastress, whereby in the third variant
it is close to zero. And now we shall translate our synthesis into the
language of the related scientific disciplines taking part in the problem
being examined.... At the level of history cultures are the genesis and loss
of tradition; a recorded but not explained phenomenon...."
Within the above extensive quotation we are particularly interested by the
idea of ultrastress and of loss of cultural tradition as a sign of destruc-
tion of the ethnos. In connection with it we can formulate the goal and
task of our investigation: does the preservation of '!.magical" words attest
to the preservation of cultural tradition, and is the ethnonym "kazak" an
indication of specific ethnic affiliation? However, we shall not attempt to
pose the question: "What is an ethnos?" Because in the key word "kaiak" we
have chosen it is clear that ethnos does not possess specific demographic,
territorial, temporal, linguistic, ideological (religious) and many other
boundaries, being at the level of dialectical materialism a variable quanti-
ty in all specified "coordinates," a quantity with a specific "critical
mass," which corresponds to its "disappearance" on one axis and "genesis" on
the other, within differing boundaries.
This was the initial thesis for the scholarship of K. V. Khudenskiy, a
translator, colonel and engineer, who was a supporter of a Slavic-Turkic
historical unity tuhish:.in many situations served as the basis for the
stability of an ethnos in Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. He was of the
view that evaluation of the facts of the cultural past can b.e. conducted
on the basis of the stability of a popular philosophy of life-affirmation
and optimism which crystallized in the historical perspective, which arose in
the environment of the eschatology (belief in the end of the world) of the
Near East and the negation of life of the Brahmans.
He saw as the primary embodiment of this life-affirming ethnic the GAths of
the Eurasian steppes. He sought the source of the optimism of I. P.
Kotlyarevskiy's ingenious "Aeneid" in the folklore and epic tales of the
peoples of our coutit.ry. He discussed these ideas with Academician Aleksandr
Ivanovich Beletskiy.
Also of interest to us in this case is L. N. Gumilev's idea of overstress,
for the impression is created that in the multidimensional ethnic space
described by us the formula "kazak" appears where this stress or tension
reaches a maximum. It appears to us to be the initiator of ethnic overstress
at teir.tain points on the Eurasian continent, which in the historical per-
spective is attended by, according to Gumilev, the element of creative
dynamics of the ethnos and corresponds to a jump or transition from quantity
to quality. Once again emphasizing our combinatorial interest in reduplica-
tion symbols of the "kazak" type, we can assume that they could have had
meaning as early as the Neolithic, a ritual significance, and could have come
into the Iranian, Slavic and Turkic languages from a Nostratic linguistic
stratum, as was demonstrated by V. M. Illich-Svitych (4). The meaning of
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nostratic "kazak" was revealed by him as an ethnonym of the inhabitant of
a frontier or boundary region, that is, a geographic area where ethnic
processes: of transition from quantity to quality and various abrupt changes
took place rather effectively.
"Hittite documents of the XIV-XIII' centuries B.G. from the Bogazk6y archives
contain mention," writes Sh. D. Inal-apa (5) "of the Kaski people -- kas-kas --
living on the southern shore of the Black. Sea." We see in this ethnonym a
translational symmetry, while the above-cited author considers this ethnonym
to be a prototype of the toponym "Kavkaz" [Caucas.us], and states that the
country "Gaga," mentioned in the latter half of the 15th century B.C. in a letter
written by the Pharaoh Amenhotep III, is an abbreviated form of the Hittite
"kags-kas" (Egyptian ks-ks). The northern part of Asia Minor is fairly close
to the actual Troy and the Kazak mentioned in the first stanza of the "Aeneid."
But if we cross over to the northern shore of the Black Sea, 2000 years later
we shall discover there in Sacae-Sarmatian time the personal name "Kazaka,"
which derives from "kaz," like the Ossetian "keseg," which means "to look,"
"he who looks." We shall not cite additional factual materials. This was
done by V. M. Illich-Svitych in his excellent monograph and by G. F.
Blagova in an article entitled "Historical Relationship Between the Words
Kazak and Kazakh" in a volume entitled "Etnonimy" [Ethnonyms] (6), which is
dedicated to Viktor Vladimirovich Vinogradov. We shall state only that
Olzhas Suleymenov was correct in stating in the book "Az i ya" [Az and Ya]:
"'Kazak' is interpreted too easily, and this is startling. But we are in-
terested at present not in the original form of the ethnonym but at what time
it began to mean"White Goose" (Turkic "swan" -- Yu. Kh.). We can reply that
it has had this meaning a"=fang time from Turkic languages as well, since the
country of the "Kazaki," Turkic Proto Bulgaria and Ugro-Finnish Proto-
Hungary on the shores of the present Sea of Azov, bore the name Al'takuzy,
which meant Land of the Swan People, and it was not until the time of the
Golden Horde that this toponym traveled together with the descendants of the
Kipchaki -- the Kazakhs -- to the shores of the Caspian and the Sea of Aral.
However, the word "kazak" lives on in the languages of many peoples of our
country, as an ethnosocionym, and simply as a lexical item. We Slavs
recall this in the depths of our soul when we hear the voice of Sofiya Rotaru
singing about flying geese, or the Don Cossack chorus. Truly the epithet
which Kazakhs apply to their loved one,-- "kaz dausty" -- "swan-throated" --
belongs to them.
We shall now return to the question of the persistence of the formula "kazak."
One can assume that in the original situation this word performed titual
functions. "In the ritual function," as M. B. Popovich states (7), "language
is close to other symbol systems -- painting, systems of arm and hand
gestures, etc. We can add that, refracted in various forms of applied art,
caroplastics, for example, it helps form various trends in the appearance of
written language. In connection with this and in the search for these
"aspects," we directed our attention to the persistent systems of "figures"
according to V. V. Martynov (8), which passed unchanged through centuries and
geographic distances on the Eurasian continent.
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M. Ye. Foss (9) writes: "Considerable importance is attached to the study of
ornamentation in archeology. Primitive patterns and designs are the object
of thorough investigation: scholars study the technique of their reproduction,
style, symbolism, etc. Ornamentation in the tribal society, according to
ethnographic studies, does not constitute simple embellishment of clothing
or utensils. Ornamentation is symbolic: a specific meaning is contained in
.each pattern, and each design has its own name. Rigorous tradition is ob-
served in patterns and designs." It is-true that we, just as V. V. Martynov,
must take into consideration the fact that the fictitiousness of the "figures"
at the level of content according to Hjelmslev does not attest to the absence
of a "level of content" in a symbol, and that the dual nature of the symbol
signifies that it contains an "expression level" and "content level.' We again
quote M. Ye. Foss (9): "If ornamentation in the tribal society had the sig-
nificance of household embellishment, it would not have been preserved through
many centuries, would not have been transmitted over a long period of time,
from generation to generation, in unaltered form. This traditionality once
again emphasizes the particular significance of patterns and designs at the,
time of their origination." Our particular interest was arousdd)~iy the
persistent symbol systems of the northern Black Sea coast and adjacent areas
of the Eurasian continent, and in particular the mysterious Tamga on the
monuments of ancient and medieval Crimea -- symbols, drawings, and inscrip-
tions.
We became acquainted with these in the Crimea as well as in the Caucasus dur-
ing our own travels. as. well'as, and principally, from the outstanding books
of V. S. Drachuk, and primarily from his book "Symbol Systems of the North
Coast of the Black Sea" (10).
As V. S. Drachuk wrote: "Today one can state with confidence that there is no
area in our country and perhaps in the entire world which is so saturated
with monuments of all times and of so many peoples." Perhaps this is true,
but Asia Minor, the Balkans, the Caucasus, the southern areas of Central Asia,
and the Iberian Peninsula are no less rich in this regard. The first four
of the above-listed geographic regions are contiguous'--to the area adjoining
the northern coast of the Black Sea, but the closest geographic area where
we could search for corresponding ethno-cultural analogies was the Eurasian
steppes. A thorough study of the books by B. S. Drachuk, as well V. I.
Abayev, I. M. D'yakonov, E. A. Granatovskiy, V. M. Illich-Svitych, T. M.
Minayeva, V. M. Masson and Olzhas Suleymenov provided us with a foundation
for elaborating an approach to interpretation of the Tamga symbols of the
area around the Black Sea, the Caucasus and Central Asia, which existed
not only in the distant past but also are evidenced in contemporary peoples
of our country: Kazakhs, Kirgiz, Bashkir, etc. It seemed to us that the
formula "kazak" could not be reflected in the "enigmatic" symbols left by our
distant forebears::on the territory of our homeland. The persistence of such
"figures" indicated that ethnic tradition in this region had continued un-
interrupted during the course of many millennia, and.`theidea was born that
the homeland of a number of writing systems of peoples-of the USSR could be
discovered within its-borders'..
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The following conclusions by A. Ya. Gurevich (11) served as a point of
departure: "We shall note another important circumstance. The 'concept of
the world'?of the barbarians and that of the feudal Diddle Ages are quite
different. The former took shape in a relatively homogeneous society with
a tribal system which was still very much alive. Therefore the culture of
the barbarian world as well possessed considerable homogeneity, and its
values had universal application within the framework of society. This
does not signify that in a preclass society culture was 'simple' and
'primitive' -- it means only that its language was generally significant
and comprised a symbol system which to an adequate degree was identically
interpreted by all groups and members of society." This last comment seems
to us to be particularly important, since we assume that the sign expressions
of the culture of the 1st century B. C. to the lst century A.D. were
interpreted identically over a vast area of Eurasia by tribes speaking dif-
ferent tongues and subsequently promoted the formation of similar elements
which have greatly diverged in the national cultures of the peoples of our
country. The culture of the Iranian-speaking Scythians, Sacae,
Sarmatians, Alans, and the linguistically-close Slavs, as well as the
linguistically fairly-distant Turks, Ugric and Ibero-Caucasian peoples was
determining over vast areas of the steppes of Eurasia.
As is noted by V. G. Lukonin (12), Scythian toreutics essentially con-
stitutes development of that same "quotations style" which on the whole is
characteristicof Near Eastern art -- as a mosaic formed of compositions
and images. It is possible that in the "enigmatic" Sarmatian symbols we
are also dealing with one sphere of art which is interpreted on the basis
of religious texts. Lukonin notes: "Religious iconography is created here
by means of selection and reinterpretation of images and compositions which
have been long known in the given territory: this path is characteristic
of all Iranian iconography: monuments of toreutics, glyptic (coroplastics --
Yu. Kh.) are distinguished by diversity of subject matter, composition and
images. We know from preserved parts of the Avesta and other writings that
the figures of animals are incarnations of specific deities: the horse is a
symbol of Trishtri, the flying boar is a symbol of Bretragna, the rooster
is a symbol of Sraosha, ah.d the ram is a symbol of Khvarena.... The in-
fluence of the ancient Iranian (here Lukonin is wrong -- Yu. Kh.) monuments
began to be felt (to_the .3d.'.centuTy-A;.D.) over a vast area -- from the
Atlantic to the Pacific, just as in works of art created in Iran one can dis-
tinguish certain features of the art of the Caucasus, Central Asia and China."
We can understand this, since at that time there evidently dominated an
ethnic community throughout this entire territory.
Indeed, among the Tamga published by V. S. Drachuk and some of which we have
seen, several variants can be distinguished.
Here are some of them:
(see following page)
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(One feature of the author's work consists in the fact that serious illness
prevents himifrom utilizing literature available in libraries. During his
deciphering efforts he did not have at his disposal the writings of N. G.
Turchaninov, which V. I. Abayev kindly pointed out to him, as well as the
writings of M. I. Privalova and N. A. Konstantinov. Fortunately for him,
since if he had known about such strong predecessors he would have continued
his study of physics).
We shall continue, however, discussion of the stages of deciphering these
Tamga. The method employed was, as stated above, amateurish (my goodness,
what was Michael Ventris if not a gifted amateur? Oh, these learned
Chedwicks who write books about the Ventrises!) The author had no experience
other than work with group theory, combinational analysis, topology, theory
of graphs and knowledge of the principal Slavic, Germanic, Iranian and
Turkic languages.
Speaking of the paths of development of written languages, M. V. Popovich
(7) specifies three: "One of them is movement toward an increasing cor-
respondence between symbol'(writing) and sound, the second is a path based
namely on the equivalence of symbol and concept, not symbol and sound, that
is, the 'embryo' of mathematics" (which in barbarian times, according to
Gurevich (11), was of a sacral character -- Yu. Kh.). The third path is
the principle of iconic similarity between symbol and that which is being
denoted -- the language of drawings and graphs. This path seemed to us to be
the closest.
Following a number of deliberations we isolated in symbol 1, for example,
three elements. It is true that Soviet scholar Academician B. A. Rybakov (10)
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postulated tint ft laer part of "figures" 1 and 2 clearly portrays horses,
while the upper part depicts a man with upraised arms. V. S. Drachuk him-
self writes the following: "Since each symbol was in fact a specific picto-
graph, the symbols were employed (as is confirmed by ethnographic parallels)
for primitive "recording" and transmission of information. There is no
basis for going further than this." And he does not interpret them as
writing.
Examination of "figure" 1 at the level noted by Chedwick (2) corresponds,
according to B. A. Rybakov,to a "Man on Horseback."
The top part, however, of Figure 1 has little resemblance to "arms extended
upward." The comparison of many Tamga performed by V. S. Drachuk enabled
us to describe the Tamga as follows: "The God Sraosha on the Sun, (riding) in
a charier." The image on the whole is acceptable for the Avesta and the
Veda.
We followed the route of studying the elements of individual symbols and
their combinational analysis, that is, as V. V. Martynov stated: "To
describe the system of symbols of a given language means to describe not
only the modes of their differentiation and identification but also the
modes of their combination." We must bear in mind that V.. V. Martynov uses
the term-symbol to designate an iconographic portrayal, while the term
ffgqre~refers to the corresponding grapheme-graph, to which we shall cor-
relate an actual graphemoid. The main task at the present time consists in
elucidating the possible correspondence between grapheme and corresponding
phoneme,. graphemoid with phonemoid. Thus the God Sraosha arose in our inter-
pretation, since we considered the Tamga to be sacral drawings and the top
part of figures 1, 2, and 3 to be a representation of incarnation, the
symbolic symbol of Sraosha -- a "rooster."
Interpretation was subsequently halted due to the presence of different
nuclei -- the bases "o" and "A" with identical terminal elements in 1 and 2.
The graphemes examined by us could have originated earlier than the cor-
responding phonetic interpretations which the Kimmerians, Scythians, Slavs,
Turks and Ugric peoples could have given them. We shall assume that since
the Tamga are ascribed to the Sarmatians, the Sarmatians and Alans them-
selves named them or pronounced them-.-there is a distinction..-in one of the
Iranian languages. The "rooster" symbol and its figure in the Tamga could
correspond both to the name Straosha and to the word rooster in the cor-
responding language. A frequency analysis indicated that this figure with
the greatest degree of probability stands for an inflection. The dis-
crepancy between the number of..graphemes and number of possible sounds on
the basis of frequency analysis in Tamga and, for example, Sarmatian names,
enabled us to surmise that the writing is syllabic in character. The question
of designation of vowels in these syllable-graphemes was important, All
these considerations suggested that the grapheme "-V2" is an inflection cor-
responding to the first syllable of the word "khoroz" -- rooster, with a
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broad phonetic spectrum of meanings: "Kho"="ko"="ka"=kkha". The nominal
character of the Tamga inscriptions would seem to follow from the cor-
reppondence between the Tamga symbols and the names of the owners of the
objects designated by them, for example, the reigning monarchs of the
Vospor [Bosporus?]. But the name of the queen Dinamiya by no means followed
from Figure 16. The sun symbol -- the element "o" -- could be most likely
to be pronounced as "ru" or "ro"="ra". However, a "A" in the same position
was incomprehensible, and this halted the deciphering. Analysis of this
grapheme proved possible, proceeding from graffiti on Central Asian Bronze
Age terra-cotta, described by V. M. Masson and V. I. Sarmenidi (13). These
authors did not determine the linguistic identity of the system of figures
they described. They isolated the most typical symbols placed on female
sculptural representations, such as "triangle with eyelashes," which they
assumedly considered a portrayal of a female bosom, noting its diversified
top portions. In addition they isolated symbols reminiscent of archaic
writing ("star," "cross," "zigzag," "fir tree"), which they describe as fol-
lows: "Certain analogies for the Southern Turkmen can be noted in the
Sumer and Elam writing systems. For example, the principal symbol -- an
8-pointed star, in ancient Sumeria had the meaning an -- "sky," dingir --
"deity." The symbols "water" and "canal" were conveyed by a double broken
line, while " " -- se -- "grain".... Unfortunately the Proto-Elamic
writing (up to the 23d.eentuty B.C.) has not been deciphered."
In our combinational analysis there is no sense in proceeding from the-
Proto-Elamic language or Cretan syllabary, as A. N. Konstantinov does
(14). Although an 8-po1nted..star can be obtained by doubling a swastika or
cross and can be the reflection of an 8-legged horse, which is a dynamic in-
carnation of the God Trishtri or the star Sirius, "water" can be conveyed
by a double horizontal line, while "grain" can be portrayed by a single
vertical straight line.
Let us return, however, to the "triangle with lashes." In our case this
grapheme -- "' 11
can be correlated at the phonetic level with the Avestan
word "razura" ---"to grow," and "cross" -- the top of the symbol, to in-
dicate the inflection "ka"-"kkha"-"ko"-"kkha". Then the entire figure
"triangle with lashes," in the assumption of a syllabic writing system, can
be read "rakkha"/"light," that is, the title of the queen Dinamiya -- see
Tamga figure 16. Thus the Tamga possibly designate titles, social status,
occupation or proper names. Those parts of Tamga 1 and 2 which are now
known to us, can be read as "ruko" and "raka," with different variants of
inflection. The difference between "ru" and "ra" reflected in the grapheme
attests to the fact that identical words are recorded in two closely-related
languages, perhaps Scythian and Sarmatian. The base of the graphemes Tamga
1 and 2 is identical; according to B. A. Rybakov it corresponds to "horse"=
"asp"; then the Tamga are read "aspruko," and "asprako," which up to the
.inversion "ra" is close to the name of the Bosporian king Aspurga. But if
we assume that the base of 1 and 2 is not the representation of a horse,
then in Tamga 3 there is the inversion "ra" at the graphic level, while the
base "a" is close to a stirrup, that is, "to control a horse," which is also
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"asp." The name of king Aspurga or the Bulgarian Asparukh is designated by
the third Tamga. In this instance. we must return to interpretation 1 and 2.
The base of these Tamga is more similar to the pictures of.nomad carts on the
rocks at Kamennaya Mogila, near Melitopol'. Then this element; of these
graphemes must be read as "varz"="cart" and 1 -- "vozruko" and 2 -- "vozraka,"
which evidently in both cases is close to the Iranian "leader," although if
one reads the vertical line as "sha," the Tamga can be read "varshaka,"
which can be interpreted as either a proper name or "varzaka," which means
"leader." The established relationship between inversion of the grapheme
and phoneme opens up for us the possibility of employing geometric combina-
tional analysis in analyzing the Tamga and shows the high level of develop-
ment of the elements of mathematical logic in Sarmatian times.
In this case the inflection of Tamga 14, depicted by a mirror-symmetrical
"rooster," should read "ak."
At this point we should like to make a lyrical digression and determine the
possible significance of the existence in Sarmatian Crimea of large
quantities of nominal Tamga with an inflection of the type CV and a few --
VC. If we link this with the antisymmetry of inflected figures, one can
conceive that already in the first century A.D. there was reflected in the
Crimea the future CV-VC antisymmetry by the inflection of Eastern European
family name endings which we observe with the Russians: "ov"-vo", etc, the
inhabitants of the Transcarpathians -- "ni"-"in," etc, the Belorussians and
Ukrainians: "ka," "ko"-"ak," "ok," etc. One can put together a combinational
table of surname inflections with a large number of transpositions: "ko,"
the variant "kov"="kou"=CVV - "ok," "okh,'l flyek"; "ga", "kkha", " kha", "ka" -
"ak", "akh"11 "yakh", nag"; "kyu it I- "khu", .!"ku"-"uk", "ukh", "yukh"; "khi",
"ki", "kiy"-CVV-"ik", "ikh", "nkh", "ra"_"ar", ".nya"-11 yan", 1rna."-"an" etc. It
seems to us that even in pre-Sarmatian times it-was reflected in Tamga symbols
as conscious right and left settlement of tribes of closely-related languages
relative to the natural axis of symmetry of their habitation area. Thus the
Dnieper was the axis of symmetry of the Native Land -- the area along the
Black Sea coast the Kimmerians, Scythians, Sarmatians, the Eastern Slavs,
the Turkic and Ugric peoples in Al'takuz, the Danube was the axis of sym-
metry for the Thracians and Dacians, the Vistula for the Goths and later Poles,
etc. One has the impression that this axis of symmetry ran along the Dnieper
from the sea, and the tribes of the Left Bank were designated by the "right"
tops, and those of the Right Bank by the "left" tops. The Crimeria was
territorially closer to the tribes with "right" Tamga.
The principle of construction of left and right Tamga could prove universal
for Eurasia. One should look for it in tribal symbols and surnames, and in
general ethnonymscf the inhabitants and peoples populating the valleys, where
traces of nomad encampments were left, even in Iceland, to where the Germanic-
language Heruli traveled from the shores of the Sea of Azov, while with the
Goth;it was evidently reflected in the "Ostrogoths" and "Visigoths," left-
and right-bank.
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It is most interesting to compare "vozruko" and Sosruko, Sosrykva, and Soslan --
different forms of the name of the hero of the Caucasian Nartian epic po-em....
It is entirely possible that in the Neolithic the magical formula "kazak"
did not designate the inhabitants of the outlying areas but was a war cry or
"mantra," which they exchanged upon meeting: "ka-za-ak"! "ka-za-ak"l, that
is, "right and left," possibly a symbol of unity of kind: "We are of one
blood, you and I!" In a "colored" interpretation this could be understood
as "black and white," and in the military -- the tribes of the "right and
V left" flanks. The (El') of the Turkic peoples was one, but it contained
tribes:'.of "black" and "white" bone; the Turks could have perceived "ka-za-ka,"
"kazak," as "kara-ak." Perhaps following the collapse of military democracy
the "whites" became nobles and the "blacks" became the lower classes, while
previously this had not been the case: living on the same land were As, Yas
and Melankhlen, Ak-Nogat and. Kara-Nogai, and the Black Caps in Kiev. At
the geographic level the cardinal points of the compass entered into the names
of tribes, but this was later.
It is clear that in the lst century A.D. our ancestors attached more sig-
nificance and importance to symmetry and its sacral significance than do some
modern mathematicians. For this reason also a possibility is a mirror
analog of the formula "ka-za-ak" -- "ak-za-ka" -- "ak-sa-ka." The Sacae were
the Scythians in the Transcaspian and Transvolga, and there were also White
Huns -- Efthalites, and there were black-headed tribes under various historical
conditions and in various of the world's geographic regions.
Inasmuch as "kazak" long had the meaning of "goose" in the Turkic milieu,
and the correspnzidipg Tamga as "goose foot" -- "kazayak," there is possible
the correlation "ak-sa-ka"-"aksakal"-"white-bearded."
It seems to us that the clean spatial forms of the animal style of Scythian
gold could appear only in an ethnos with a substantial cult of combinational
analysis and symmetry. Perhaps it is here one should look for the sources
of beauty of (Pokrov na Nerli) and the uniqueness of the Great Ballet.
The Scythian world, a world not only of an exceptionally clear vision of the
forms of the external world but also of sensing that one is an inseparable
element of that world. L. I. Gumilev (3) is correct a thousand times over
when he states that the numerous wars which the American Indians fought under
conditions similar to the area adjacent to the Black Sea from the 1st cen-
tury B.C. to the 1st century A.D., but on another continent and in another
time, had the "aim" of maintaining an ecological balance, but not enrichment.
Everything was consumed, all prisoners were sold, exchanged, and killed prior
to the era of collapse of the military democracy. The ecological balance
was disrupted by change in the social forms of life and the economic system
and was strengthened by a change in religion, which in its new forms took
shape within the framework of an alien ethnic structure. Together with the
past perished its- sacral secrets: knowledge of the laws of construction of
the Tamga, their interpretation, and the animal style of?toreutics.
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The elements and combinational analysis. of reading these symbols are dis-
cussed above in this article. It will now present no difficulty to read
many of them:
1) "vazruko"="varzuko"="sosruko`l;
2) "vozrako," etc;
3) "asparka"="asparza," etc;
4) "dora"="dara",i.e. "he who gives," the name Darius;
5) "dadaka"=4;
6) contains an element identical to 7, which consists of two joined
j`. The right-hand element, following analysis of many Tamga, can be
read as "na" -- nV. Combined "(n," as "mana"="mV." Then we have with
it ) "="MV" ;
6) "ramana"="rama"-"raman," i.e., rest, peace;
7) "mana" --? again like 4, 5, 6, 7 -- symmetrical symbols. "Mana"
means "fortune", "thinking." "rt)" can also be read as a reduplicated "mama";
this is possibly the origin of the famous figure, in Ukrainian folklore,
"the Cossack Mamay:
"The Cossack sits by the mowing, and plays,
What comes to his mind, that he has."
8) "aspko", "sog" -- "he who takes care of horses," whereby the
Iranian "ko" "sog" is represented by two symmetrical arrows which in con-
sonance are called in the Turkic "ko," "s-ok'." This Tamga can be viewed
as proof of the genuine linguistic fraternity of the ancient inhabitants of
the area along the Black Sea, "kosog"="kazak";
9) "arman"="armana" -- may be "man," as the contemporary "alan" of
the Ossetians and the Karacha;j; then one can assume that doubled asymmetrical
read "Va"-"Vo"-"Vi"-Vu";
10) if we consider the top of the Tamga to be the Turkic hieroglyph
"kir"="ir"="yerd," tlen tle Taii reads "arsakir"="aryir"="arkir"="arkir"=
"aryerd"="arshakir" and has perhaps survived up to the present time in the
name Arshak, just as 9) Armen or in the word "Aryan";
11) we previously correlated it with the sacral original symbol for
"deity", and in the various languages it could have read "baga" or
"kkhuda," that is, two -- "ka" or "kkhu" -- twice. The eight-pointed star
symbol can be correlated with an eight-legged horse -- the ideograph of
movement of the deity Grishtri, that is, with the star Sirius (see Avesta).
The subsequent fate of the previously-described sacral symbol "eight-pointed
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star-cross with crossing out" is of course fairly tragic. We shall recall
that V. F. Miller (15), an eminent specialist in the Ossetian language, wrote
in his "Echoes of Caucasian Religious-Beliefs-on Tombstones": "The Circassians
(Kabardians) call the North Star 'Temir Kazak,' that is, 'iron pillar ill and,
examining the Ibero-Caucasian language, correlates this-term with Turkic,
totally failing to sense the Iranian roots-of these words. "Cross with
crossing out" is a modified'"kaza.k"; see (14).
In the Avesta the mountain Khara-Berezaiti (one more possible reading of the
first two Tamga of our table, but now top to bottom) and particularly its
peak Taira, around which the stars, moon and sun turn, is called the center
of the world. One can surmise that this peak was marked for the contemporary
of the Avesta by the North Star and "Look to the North Star" was meant, which
previously could have meant "Look toward Sirius":
"The stellar wagon will point to him the road
With its shafts...." E. Bagritskiy
12) "aspra"="spra"=possibly="spraka"!="spaka"="ispaka" -- this Tamga
could have designated the word "leader," the name Ashoka (Ispaka), which
became the Russian word "sobaka" Idog], "'sutra" [liitch], which the alien
Christian tradition incorporated into the abusive expletive "sukin syn"
[son of a bitch], while Kanishka was the name of the king of Bactria.
13)"three-pointed rosette" is definitely read as "kan"="khan";
14) here we finally return to the beginning of the article. This
Tamga is read in different variants as "kazaka"="kazak," the mirror variant
"aksaka," in the Ibero-Caucasian variant, but preserving the sense "balsag"`;
15) a complex Tamga as "ramana" is read as "pagana" --?a Sarmatian
shepherd who became with the Christians, together with "yezyk" and
"koshchshchey" -- "nomad" -- a symbol of the non-Christian of the steppes.
Let us make a second lyrical digression. The last Tamga suggest that a good
deal is linked with them in our language and past. The meanings of these
words, reinterpreted, were preserved in brother Turkic languages, but the
words themselves and their purport lie deeper in a Nostratic layer. It
would be wrong to employ Turkic folk etymology to explain names of the type
Yermak and occupations of the type "chumak" [oxcart driver] associated
with the Tamga kazak, for the Turkic peoples forgot their Tengrian past
under strong pressure by the ethnically alien Islam.
But some interesting ideas arise in examining the relationship between the
Tamga and their incarnation in the images of animals. For example, the
Tamga "ispaka" incarnates into the dog, sacred animal of the fire worshippers
and Scythians-Turks-Iberians. We were long engaged in a search for the in-
carnation of "kazaka"; we were helped by the concept of transformation of
"za"-"ta" with transition from Nostratic to the Slavic languages. The
"kazaka" of the Scythian world strode across Europe in the form of Puss in Boots:
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"chat," "cat," "Katie," etc. The. incarnation of "kazaka" was a sacred cat,
tricolor with. four eyes, two of whi.ch.were designated by reddish singed
spots. This incarnation of "kazaka" proved to be the most vital at the
hearths of all European peoples;
16) "raka"="rakan" - the title "light," pleasing not only to the
Bosporic queen Dinamiya but also to the heroines of folk songs of many
peoples and tribes.
We have discovered analogs of the Tamga and Sarmatian elements in the sym-
bols of the Proto-Indic zodiac and, strange as it may seem, in Saharan
Proto-Libyan writing.
The above can be considered proof of the persistence of the ethnos on the
above-described territory of the Eurasian continent during the course of
several millennia: the change and succession of languages evidently was not
very important; religion exerted much more influence on the processes-of
degradation of the ethnos: Islam, Judaism, and Christianity, introduced from
alien ethnic conditions.
The table of meaning of Tamga and their elements discovered by us, with sym-
bols from the Glagolitic alphabet, became particularly conclusive for us.
Our findings are contained in the following table:
Designation of
Slavic Glagolitic
Letter
ya "az" [I]
tsipa "tsi"
myslete [you think]
kako [as]
Glagolitic
Sarmatian
Sarmatian
Sarmatian
Figure
Word
Grapheme
Phoneme
n)
vox, vaz, varz
7+r
var, etc
"khoroz"
-~'
ka, etc
l'1
mana
mana, ma
koba
koba
It is not as extensive and conclusive as that presented by N. A. Konstantinov
and M. I. Privalova (16), but we too can draw the conclusion that the Tamga
characters of the area adjacent to the Black Sea were the source of the
Glagolitic alphabet symbols of the Slavs of Eastern Europe. The Cyrillic
alphabet, which is based on it, obviously came to us from the West and South
Slavs. It supplanted the Glagolitic which, however, has been preserved to
the present, as frequently occurs in ethnology, in the form of Proto-
Iberian writing-system characters beyond the ridge of the Caucasus. The
Glagolitic, the Georgian khutsuri and mkhedruli were formed by the a.utochthonous
peoples of a single region alongside the alphabet of the Armenians and the
Caucasian Agvans. Perhaps we should once again return to the question of the
sources of the Sogdian writing system. The patterns we have elucidated are
not only of ethnohistorical significance.
The principles of construction of the Tamga symbols are fairly interesting
from the standpoint of the structure of graphic metalanguage. They are
symmetrically unique and can help in elaboration of a USC -- Universal
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Semantic Code of the information language of science. In addition they make
it possible more precisely to formulate concepts on the term "ethnos."
We should like to end this article, as- we began it, with a stanza from the
poem "Gobustan Drawing"' by-Ivan Drach, dedicated to Gobustan -- a preserve of
rocks in Azerb.aydzhan where cliff paintings dating from the 10th-12th
millennium B.C. are preserved:
"This Gobustan dates from the nether world of deep antiquity,
And yet man has taken wing here as well,
For even here man's indomitable soul
Soars from the nether world in paintings!"
We feel that this stanza expresses poetically the content of this article.
1. Kotlyarevskyy, I.. N., "Eneida" [Aeneid], Derzhavna Vydavnytstvo
Khudozhn'oi literatury, Kiev, 1955
2. "Tayny drevnikh pis'men" [Secrets of Ancient Writing], collected volume,.
I. M. D'yakonov, editor, Moscow, Progress, pp 105-254.
3. "Doklady otdeleniy i komissiy Geograficheskogo obshchestva SSSR"
[Papers of the Departments and Commissions of the USSR Geographic
Society], Issue 3, Etnografiya, Leningrad, 1967.
4. pp 3-17, Gumilev, L. N., "On the Term Ethnos"; pp 90-107, Gumilev, L. N.,
"Ethnos as a Phenomenon."
4. Illich-Svitych, V. M., "Opyt sravneniya nostraticheskikh yazykov"
[Attempt at Comparison of the Nostratic Languages], Moscow, Nauka,
1971, page 370.
5. Inal-apa, Sh. D., "Abkhazy" [The Abkhazians], Sukhumi, Alashara, 1965,
page 679.
6. "Etnonimy" [Ethnonyms], collected volume, V. A. Nikonov, editor, Moscow,
Nauka, 1970; Blagova, G. F., "Historical Relationships Between the Word
'Kazak' and 'Kazakh'," pp 143-159.
7. Popovich, M. V., "Filosofskiye voprosy semantiki" [Philosophical Prob-
lems of Semantics], Kiev, Naukova Dumka, 1975, page 299.
8. Martynov, V. V., "Semiologicheskiye osnovy informatiki" [Semiologic
Principles of Information Science], Minsk, Nauka i Tekhnika, 1974, page
191.
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9. Foss, M. Ye., "Ancient History of the Northern Part of the European
USSR," in the volume "Materialy i issledovaniya po arkheologii SSSR"
[Materials and Studies on Archeology of the USSR], Vol 29, Moscow,
Izd. AN SSSR, 1952, pp 60-90.
10. Drachuk, V. S'., "Sistemy znakov Severnogo Prichernomor'ya" [Symbol
Systems of the Northern Black Sea Coast], Kiev, Naukova Dumka, 1975,
page 176.
11. Gurevich, A. Ya., "Kategorii srednevekovoy kul'tury" [Categories of
Medieval Culture], Moscow, Iskusstvo, 1972, page 318.
12. "Istoriya iranskogo gosudarstva i kul'tury" [History of the Iranian
State and Culture], collected volume in honor of the 2500th Anniversary
of the Iranian State, Academician V. G. Gafurov, dditor, Moscow,
Nauka, 1971, page 332.
13. Masson, V. M., and Sarmanidi, V. N., "Sredneaziatskaya terrakota
epokhi bronzy" [Bronze Age Central Asian Terra-Cotta], Moscow, 1973,
page 209.
14. Konstantinov, N. A., NEVA, No 7, 1957..
15. Miller, V. F., "Materialy po Arkheologii Kavkaza" [Materials on
Archeology of the Caucasus], Issue 3, Countess Uvarova, editor,
Moscow, Tipografiya A. I. Mamontov and Co., 1893, pp 119-136.
16. Privalova, M. N., "On Sources of the Glagolitic Alphabet," UCH. ZAP.
LGU, Leningrad, 1960, Issue 52,
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