The Issyk inscription is a yet undeciphered text, possibly in the Kushan script, [1] 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.
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. Various possible identifications of the script have been proposed.
In 1992, János Harmatta, using the Kharoṣṭhī script, identified the language as a Khotanese Saka dialect spoken by the Kushans, tentatively translating: [2]
| 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 |
Altay Sarsenuly Amanzholov, using a variation of the Orkhon-Yenisei Alphabet, identifies the language as Proto-Turkic, translating it as : [3]
| Line | Transliteration | English translation |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | аγа sаηa očuq | Senior brother, (this) hearth is for you! |
| 2 | bäz čök boqun ičr(?)äuzuq | Stranger, kneel! Progenies [shall have] food! |
A 2023 analysis by Bonmann et al. identifies the Issyk inscription's language with a new sub-branch of Eastern Iranian languages, particularly a language "situated in between Bactrian-, Sogdian-, Saka- and Old Steppe Iranian". They also propose referring to the now-identified script as the "(Issyk-)Kushan script". [1]
The Wusun were an ancient semi-nomadic steppe people mentioned in Chinese records from the 2nd century BC to the 5th century AD.
The Saka were a group of nomadic Eastern Iranian peoples who lived in the Eurasian Steppe and the Tarim Basin from the 9th century BC to the 5th century AD. The Saka were closely related to the Scythians, and both groups formed part of the wider Scythian cultures. However, they are distinguished from the Scythians by their specific geographical and cultural traits. The Saka languages formed part of the Scythian phylum, a branch of the Eastern Iranian languages.
The Kushan Empire was a syncretic empire formed by the Yuezhi in the Bactrian territories in the early 1st century. It spread to encompass much of what is now Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Eastern Iran and Northern India, at least as far as Saketa and Sarnath, near Varanasi, where inscriptions have been found dating to the era of the Kushan emperor Kanishka the Great.
The Scythian languages are a group of Eastern Iranic languages of the classical and late antique period, spoken in a vast region of Eurasia by the populations belonging to the Scythian cultures and their descendants. The dominant ethnic groups among the Scythian-speakers were nomadic pastoralists of Central Asia and the Pontic–Caspian steppe. Fragments of their speech known from inscriptions and words quoted in ancient authors as well as analysis of their names indicate that it was an Indo-European language, more specifically from the Iranic group of Indo-Iranic languages.
The Massagetae or Massageteans, also known as Sakā tigraxaudā or Orthocorybantians, were an ancient Eastern Iranian Saka people who inhabited the steppes of Central Asia and were part of the wider Scythian cultures. The Massagetae rose to power in the 8th to 7th centuries BCE, when they started a series of events with wide-reaching consequences by expelling the Scythians out of Central Asia and into the Caucasian and Pontic Steppes. The Massagetae are most famous for their queen Tomyris's alleged defeating and killing of Cyrus, the founder of the Persian Achaemenid Empire.
Zeionises was an Indo-Scythian satrap.
The Mathura lion capital is an Indo-Scythian sandstone capital from Mathura in Northern India, dated to the first decade of the 1st century CE. It was consecrated under the rule of Rajuvula, one of the Northern Satraps of the region of Mathura.
The Iranian languages, also called the Iranic languages, are a branch of the Indo-Iranian languages in the Indo-European language family that are spoken natively by the Iranian peoples, predominantly in the Iranian Plateau.
The Dahae, also known as the Daae, Dahas or Dahaeans were an ancient Eastern Iranian nomadic tribal confederation, who inhabited the steppes of Central Asia.
Saka, or Sakan, was a variety of Eastern Iranian languages, attested from the ancient Buddhist kingdoms of Khotan, Kashgar and Tumshuq in the Tarim Basin, in what is now southern Xinjiang, China. It is a Middle Iranian language. The two kingdoms differed in dialect, their speech known as Khotanese and Tumshuqese.
Kangju was the Chinese name of a kingdom in Central Asia during the first half of the first millennium CE. The name Kangju is now generally regarded as a variant or mutated form of the name Sogdiana. According to contemporaneous Chinese sources, Kangju was the second most powerful state in Transoxiana, after the Yuezhi. Its people, known in Chinese as the Kāng (康), were evidently of Indo-European origins, spoke an Eastern Iranian language, and had a semi-nomadic way of life. The Sogdians may have been the same people as those of Kangju and closely related to the Sakas, or other Iranian groups such as the Asii.
The Issyk kurgan, in south-eastern Kazakhstan, less than 20 km east from the Talgar alluvial fan, near Issyk, is a burial mound discovered in 1969. It has a height of 6 meters (20 ft) and a circumference of 60 meters (200 ft). It is dated to the 4th or 3rd century BC. A notable item is a silver cup bearing an inscription. The finds are on display in Astana. It is associated with the Saka peoples.
Surkh Kotal (Persian: چشمه شیر Chashma-i Shir; also called Sar-i Chashma, is an ancient archaeological site located in the southern part of the region of Bactria, about 18 kilometres north of the city of Puli Khumri, the capital of Baghlan Province of Afghanistan. It is the location of monumental constructions made during the rule of the Kushans. Huge temples, statues of Kushan rulers and the Surkh Kotal inscription, which revealed part of the chronology of early Kushan emperors were all found there. The Rabatak inscription which gives remarkable clues on the genealogy of the Kushan dynasty was also found in the Robatak village just outside the site.
Altay Sarsenuly Amanzholov was a Kazakh SSR, Kazakh Turkologist. He followed his father Sarsen Amanzholov's steps continuing in this field of study.
Many undeciphered writing systems exist today; most date back several thousand years, although some more modern examples do exist. The term "writing systems" is used here loosely to refer to groups of glyphs which appear to have representational symbolic meaning, but which may include "systems" that are largely artistic in nature and are thus not examples of actual writing.
Nushibi was a Chinese collective name for five tribes of the right (western) wing in the Western Turkic Khaganate, and members of "ten arrows" confederation found in the Chinese literature. The references to Nushibi appeared in Chinese sources in 651 and disappeared after 766. The Nushibi tribes occupied the lands of the Western Turkic Khaganate west of the Ili River of contemporary Kazakhstan.
Kimal Akishev was a Kazakhstani scientist, archeologist, and historian. Akishev was a fifth generation descendant of the Argyn tribe head Chorman-bi. His parents were Abu Ali, or Akysh, and Gaziza Chorman. He was the youngest son of three sons and four daughters in the family, which lived in the South Siberia and Northern Kazakhstan. In accordance with a Turkic tradition, he was brought up by his grandfather Aujan Chormanov in the Keregetas mountains. In the 1930s both of his parents and three of his sisters died of starvation. He and his brothers were saved by his maternal uncle Kanysh Satpaev, and he grew up as Kimal Satpaev. Before graduation from a high school in Alma-Ata, he informally took the last name Akishev in memory of his father; in 1942 it became his official name. The next year he was drafted into the army, and in 1944 Akishev was badly wounded in his right arm, demobilized for disability, and returned to Alma-Ata. His arm was disabled for life.
Kharapallana was an Indo-Scythian Northern Satrap who ruled around c. 130 CE.
The unknown Kushan script is a partially deciphered writing system and abugida, written from right to left, used to record a Middle Iranian language related to Bactrian. It was used in parts of Central Asia between 600-200 BCE and 700 CE, including the Kushan Empire, associated with the nomads of the Eurasian Steppe in ancient Bactria. It was discovered by archaeologists in the 1950s. Textual remnants consist of cave wall carvings and painted ceramics. Most of what was written was probably recorded on palm leaves or birch bark which had decomposed. It was used by the Kushan administration along with Greek and Kharosthi scripts. The script contained less than 30 signs, and likely around 25. It is possibly an Imperial Aramaic-derived script, modified with diacritics.
