Issyk-Bactria script

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As Issyk script or unknown Bactrian script or unknown Kushana script , with some authors also Sakan script , one (or more) seldom handed down script (s) is called. It is on the one hand from a burial mound of a Sakian prince from the 4th / 3rd centuries. Century BC At Jessik (Issyk), near Almaty in southeast Kazakhstan . On the other hand, it was found in ten inscriptions, historical from the region of Bactria (northern Afghanistan and neighboring region of Tajikistan and Uzbekistan ) from the time the Greek-Bactrian Empire (3rd-2nd century BC. Chr.) Until the time of Kuschanareiches ( 2nd - 3rd century AD).

It has not yet been generally recognized and deciphered. Numerous deciphering suggestions are described by experts as "to be treated with caution" and "doubtful". In the Greco-Bactrian Empire and the Kushana Empire, this unknown script was not the only script and language used. Much more common are inscriptions in the Bactrian language or the Greek language , both in Greek script , or in Central Indian Prakrit languages ​​with Kharoshthi script .

Issyk inscription

Silver bowl from Issyk
Characters on the silver bowl

During the excavation of a burial mound of Sak nomads from the 4th / 3rd centuries. Century BC In 1969, near Jessik (Issyk) near Almaty , a silver bowl was found in addition to gold additions, on the underside of which unknown characters were carved, the so-called "Issyk inscription".

Since their discovery until today, mostly Turkish-speaking researchers have found similarities with the Old Turkish Orkhon runes , which are 900–1000 years younger , and tried to read them as Old Turkish inscriptions meets with rejection. Because each of these ten or so attempts read completely different content into the inscription, they cannot be considered successful. There is also no evidence in traditional names that Old Turkish was spoken 900–1000 years before the Orkhon runes in this region, and the extreme time interval makes connections improbable, especially since most of them ignored the inscriptions from Bactria in the same script , where there is definitely no evidence of Old Turkish.

Some experts suspect that the similarity with the Orkhon runes is based on the common origin of the Imperial Aramaic script , which was widespread in Central Asia and to which both scripts are similar. The fact that all writing systems that arose in Central and South Asia go back to the model of the Imperial Aramaic script and initially looked similar to it, but gave the characters different meanings, complicates the identification of the language and deciphering of the Issyk inscription.

Inscriptions not deciphered in Bactria

The Soviet-Russian Iranist Vladimir Liwschiz pointed out that this writing by Issyk had a similarity to later, likewise undeciphered inscriptions from the Kushana Empire in the 2nd – 3rd centuries. Century AD in the historical region of Bactria has, including inscriptions in Surkh Kotal , Ai Khanoum (from Greco-Bactrian times), a trilingue from the Dascht-e Nawor site (in the languages Bactrian with Greek script, Indian Prakrit in Kharoshthi- Script and in this unknown language and script), as well as seven other short inscriptions. Liwschiz and his Georgian colleague Rtweladze suggested that this script should be referred to as the "Sakian script" because it first appeared in the time of the Sakian nomads and was apparently later continued to be used by the Sakian nomad associations who joined the victorious Yuezhi , even after this Yuezhi founded the Kushana Empire. However, only some of the Bactrian inscriptions have almost identical letters to the Issyk inscription, others show slight deviations, which is why the French Iranist Gérard Fussman discussed whether there could be several writing systems.

Starting from the hypothesis of a Sakian script from Liwschiz and Rtweladze, the Hungarian linguist and historian János Harmatta, a respected expert on the ancient history of the Eurasian steppe region in the Scythian - Sakan and Hunnic - Avar times, proposed a decipherment of the inscriptions by Issyk, Dascht-e Nawor and Ai Khanoum by analogies to the Khotansak language before and by similarities of the letters with the Kharoshthi script . In the professional world, however, was met with skepticism that the 5th – 3rd Century BC The Kharoshthi script originated in the northern Indian region of Gandhara is said to have had an influence over 1000 km to the north at the time of its creation and that the combined phonetic and syllabary script ( Abugida script ) Kharoshthi was read as a complete syllabary by Harmatta, which is why the suggestion “with caution treat "is. The assignment as "Sakian script" aroused concerns because it is only based on the silver bowl from Issyk, which could perhaps also have been a booty or import from Bactria. There is another proposal for deciphering the German Iranist Helmut Humbach, who wanted to read the inscription of Surkh-Kotal as a Mithraistic inscription, which he later rejected himself, and a proposal for deciphering the inscriptions in Dascht-e Nawor and Rabātak by Nicholas Sims-Williams , den Fussman dismissed it as "overly speculative".

The majority of experts still consider the written form known from Issyk and Baktria to be “not deciphered” even in recent times (2014).

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ A brief overview of most attempts to decipher the Issyk inscription is given in the table at the end of this (non-academic) page .
  2. ↑ В. А. Лившиц: О происхождении древнетюркской рунической письменности. Археологические исследования древнего и средневекового Казахстана. Алма-Ата, 1980. (WA Liwschiz: On the origin of the ancient Turkish runic script. Archaeological research of ancient and medieval Kazakhstan. ) Alma-Ata 1980.
  3. ↑ Available from Gérard Fussman: Documents épigraphique Kouchans. in: Bulletins de l'École française d'Extrême-Orient. No. 61 (1974), pp. 1-76, in the appendix, Planche VII (= panel VII) as a reconstruction drawing and Planche XXVIII as a photo .
  4. ↑ Available from Paul Bernard et al .: Campagne de fouille 1978 à Aï Khanoum (Afghanistan). in: Bulletins de l'École française d'Extrême-Orient. No. 68 (1980), pp. 1-104, drawing p. 83 as a reconstruction drawing .
  5. ↑ Available from Gérard Fussman: Documents épigraphique Kouchans. in: Bulletins de l'École française d'Extrême-Orient. No. 61 (1974), pp. 1-76, in the appendix, Planche V (= panel V) as a reconstruction drawing and Planche XXIII – XXVII as photos , only the columns DN III and DN V are written in the unknown script.
  6. ↑ Gérard Fussman: Dašt-e Nāwor . in: Encyclopædia Iranica , last paragraph.
  7. ↑ See list by J. Harmatta in the subsection " An unknown language in an unknown script " pp. 417-422, in the chapter J. Harmatta: Languages ​​and Literature of the Kushan Empire. in: Ahmad Hasan Dani, János Harmatta et al .: History of Civilizations of Central Asia. Vol. II., Delhi 1999, here p. 417.
  8. ↑ В. А. Лившиц: О происхождении древнетюркской рунической письменности. Археологические исследования древнего и средневекового Казахстана. Алма-Ата, 1980. (WA Liwschiz: On the origin of the ancient Turkish runic script. Archaeological research of ancient and medieval Kazakhstan. ) Alma-Ata 1980.
  9. ↑ Gérard Fussman: Dašt-e Nāwor . in: Encyclopædia Iranica , last paragraph.
  10. ↑ Published in: J. Harmatta in the subsection “ An unknown language in an unknown script ” pp. 417-422, in the chapter J. Harmatta: Languages ​​and Literature of the Kushan Empire. in: Ahmad Hasan Dani, János Harmatta et al .: History of Civilizations of Central Asia. Vol. II., Delhi 1999.
  11. ↑ Nicholas Sims-Williams , Harry Falk : Kushan Dynasty II: Inscriptions of the Kushans . in: Encyclopædia Iranica , fourth to seventh paragraph.
  12. ↑ Nicholas Sims-Williams , Harry Falk : Kushan Dynasty II: Inscriptions of the Kushans . in: Encyclopædia Iranica , last sentence in the first paragraph.