Issyk inscription
{{short description|Undeciphered archaeological text}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2024}}
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The Issyk inscription is a yet undeciphered text, possibly in the Kushan script,{{Cite journal |last1=Bonmann |first1=Svenja |last2=Halfmann |first2=Jakob |last3=Korobzow |first3=Natalie |last4=Bobomulloev |first4=Bobomullo |title=A Partial Decipherment of the Unknown Kushan Script |url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1467-968X.12269 |journal=Transactions of the Philological Society |date=2023 |volume=121 |issue=2 |pages=293–329|doi=10.1111/1467-968X.12269 |s2cid=259851498 |doi-access=free }} found in 1969 on a silver bowl in Issyk kurgan in Kazakhstan, dated at approximately the 3th century BC. The context of the burial gifts indicates that it may belong to Saka tribes.
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. 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:{{cite book |editor-last1=Dani |editor-first1=Ahmad Hasan |editor-link1=Ahmad Hasan Dani |editor-last2=Harmatta |editor-first2=János |editor-link2=János Harmatta | editor-last3=Puri |editor-first3=Baij Nath |editor-link3=Baij Nath Puri |editor-last4=Etemadi |editor-first4=G. F. |editor-last5=Bosworth |editor-first5=Clifford Edmund |editor-link5=Clifford Edmund Bosworth |last=Harmatta |first=János |author-link=János Harmatta |date=1992 |title=History of Civilizations of Central Asia |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9U6RlVVjpakC |chapter=Languages and Literature in the Kushan Empire |chapter-url=https://en.unesco.org/silkroad/sites/default/files/knowledge-bank-article/vol_II%20silk%20road_languages%20and%20literature%20in%20the%20kushan%20empire.pdf |location=Paris, France |publisher=UNESCO |pages=407–431 |isbn=978-9-231-02846-5 }}
| class ="wikitable" style="text-align:center"
|+ Issyk Khotanese Saka Translation |
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!Transliteration !English translation |
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| 1
| {{transliteration|xsc|za(ṃ)-ri ko-la(ṃ) mi(ṃ)-vaṃ vaṃ-va pa-zaṃ pa-na de-ka mi(ṃ)-ri-to}} | {{lang|en|The vessel should hold wine of grapes, added cooked food, so much, to the mortal, }} |
| 2
| {{transliteration|xsc|ña-ka mi pa-zaṃ vaṃ-va va-za(ṃ)-na vaṃ.}} | {{lang|en|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 :{{Cite book |last=Amanzholov |first=Altay Sersenuly |title=История и теория древнетюркского письма |publisher=Mektep |year=2003 |isbn=9965-16-204-2 |location=Almaty, Kazakhstan |trans-title=History and Theory of the Old Turkic script}}
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!Transliteration !English translation |
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| 1
| аγа sаηa očuq | Senior brother, (this) hearth is for you! |
| 2
| bäz čök boqun ičr(?)ä uzuq | 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".
Photos of the inscription
See also
- Nestor's Cup and Duenos inscription for other ancient inscriptions on vessels that concern the vessel itself
- Undeciphered writing systems