The Early Estampages of the Tonyukuk Inscription Identified in the Collection of Central Asia and Siberia of the IOM, RAS

The Tonyukuk inscription, also known as the Bain Tsokto monument, was discovered by Elizaveta Klementz not far from the city of Urga (modern Ulaanbaatar) in 1897. The text was published two years later by a prominent Russian researcher Wilhelm Radloff. At the same time 17 photographs of estampages were included in the 4th volume of the “Atlas der Alterthümer der Mongolei”. While these photo copies are still frequently mentioned in the multiple publications concerning the Tonyukuk inscription, only a few specialists are aware that the originals are kept in the Collection of Central Asia and Siberia of the IOM, RAS. Moreover 81 estampages were identified as copies of the Tonyukuk inscription during the full-scale inventory of the Collection that took place in 2021. Thanks to recent publications by V. Tishin, it became obvious that eight similar copies of the monument are preserved in the collection of the Academician Obruchev Museum of Local Lore (Kyakhta). This discovery allowed to specify the authorship and dating of the St. Petersburg copies. The Chinese seal preserved on one of the Khyakhta’s estampages suggests that they were produced for the last Qing Amban of Outer Mongolia Sanduo between 1910 and 1911.

Although the monument has been well studied, some of the preserved at the IOM copies seem to be of great value and could be used by turcologists for controversial text fragments clarification. The paper presents acquisition history and brief description (catalogue) of the preserved copies of text.

Keywords

Bain Tsokto monument, Old Turkic inscription, Turkic runic script, W. Radloff, Sanduo’s stampages

Acknowledgment

This work has been supported by the grants the Russian Science Foundation, RSF № 22-28-00348.

Received

29.06.2022

Publication date

06.09.2022

Number of characters

23356

Cite

GOST	Turanskaya A. The Early Estampages of the Tonyukuk Inscription Identified in the Collection of Central Asia and Siberia of the IOM, RAS // Vostok. Afro-Aziatskie obshchestva: istoriia i sovremennost – 2022. – Issue 4 C. 200-209 [Electronic resource]. URL: https://vostokoriens.jes.su/S086919080020112-0-1 (circulation date: 02.05.2024). DOI: 10.31857/S086919080020112-0
MLA	Turanskaya, Anna A "The Early Estampages of the Tonyukuk Inscription Identified in the Collection of Central Asia and Siberia of the IOM, RAS." Vostok. Afro-Aziatskie obshchestva: istoriia i sovremennost 4 (2022):200-209. DOI: 10.31857/S086919080020112-0
APA	Turanskaya A. (2022). The Early Estampages of the Tonyukuk Inscription Identified in the Collection of Central Asia and Siberia of the IOM, RAS. Vostok. Afro-Aziatskie obshchestva: istoriia i sovremennost (4), pp.200-209 DOI: 10.31857/S086919080020112-0

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INTRODUCTION

THE FIRST ESTAMPAGES OF THE TONYUKUK INSCRIPTION

SANDUO ESTAMPAGES OF THE TONYUKUK INSCRIPTION

CONCLUSION

Abbreviations


1	INTRODUCTION
2	The discovery of Old Turkic memorial inscriptions erected in honor of Prince Kül Tegin (684–731) and his older brother Bilge Khagan (683-734) made by Russian traveler and archaeologist Nikolai Yadrintsev in the Kosho Tsaidam valley (Mongolia) in 1889, and decipherment of the Old Turkic runiform script by Vilhelm Thomsen in 1893, initiated a systematic study of the history, language, and culture of the nomadic tribes mentioned in the inscriptions under the name Türk (𐱅𐰇𐰼𐰰,𐱅𐰇𐰼𐰚).
3	Four years later, in 1897, the voluminous and most completely preserved runiform inscription similar to those already deciphered was discovered in the place Bain Tsokto, between the Nalaikh post-station and the right bank of the Tuul river. The inscription is graven on two pillars that are still standing. The first and larger stone contains lines 1–36, that start on the narrow side turned to the West, and is continued round towards North. The direct continuation in 27 lines (37–62) likewise begins on the West side of the second stone, more weathered than the first one. On both pillars the inscriptions are incised in vertical lines as in the Orkhon inscriptions, but with difference they are read from left to right.
4	These stelae, later known as the Tonyukuk or Bain Tsokto inscriptions, are part of the memorial complex¹, that had been erected in honor of Tonyukuk (ca. 646–ca. 726), the chief minister and counselor of three Second Turkic Khaganate rulers, Ilterish Khagan (d. 692), Kapaghan Khagan (ca. 664–716) and Bilge Khagan. The narration in the first person by Tonyukuk allows to specify the authorship and dating of the inscription. It seems to have been incised under the auspices of Tonyukuk between 716 and 719.² The monument has a special place among the Old Turkic inscriptions in terms of narration of historical events and vocabulary of Old Turkic.	1. The memorial complex consisted of a building with four columns (not preserved by the time of discovery of the monument), two sarcophagi (225×125; 170×170 cm), two stelae (243×64×32; 215×50×28 cm) with inscriptions, eight stone figures, whose heads have been knocked off, and a row of 289 upright flag stones running to the East. The stelae and the larger sarcophagus are still in place. 2. The text describes the military achievements and various merits of Tonyukuk in the formation and expansion of the Second Turkic Khaganate. In all likelihood the inscription was graven before 720, as the struggle against the Basmils is not mentioned [Rykin, Telitsin, 2020, p. 288].
5	THE FIRST ESTAMPAGES OF THE TONYUKUK INSCRIPTION
6	The memorial complex was ‘discovered’³ by Elizaveta Klementz (née Zvereva, 1854–1914) during the expedition to Northern Mongolia on the instructions of the Imperial Botanic Garden. The circumstances related to the monument discovery and the first estampages made by Klementz were described in details by W.W. Radloff in his article “Eine neu aufgefundene alttürkische Inschrift” [Radloff, 1898]. It is also known that a year later, in 1898, on the request of the Imperial Academy of Sciences Yakov Shishmarev, the Consul General in Urga at that time, organized an expedition to Nalaikh and Sharshoroot to make copies and photographs of the runiform inscriptions. ⁴ The expedition was headed by a little-known photographer Ivan Fedorov, who was in charge of making copies.⁵	3. First of all, for European academic community. As a Russian researcher Andrei Rudnev justly noted, “Almost all ancient monuments in Mongolia were discovered by chance ... the Mongols jealously protect these relics, which they do not comprehend, but which inspire mystical awe, and only through great diplomatic skill one can make a Mongol to blab out or talk about these monuments”. [Ramstedt, 1914, p. 34]. 4. The telegram send by Yakov Shishmarev dated September 29, 1898 is preserved nowadays at St. Petersburg Branch of the Archive of the Russian Academy of Sciences [SPbB ARAS, coll. 142, inv. 1, item 51, f. 43]. For details see [Ivanov, 2016, p. 110]. 5. Ivan Fedorov is the most famous and at the same time mysterious photographer, who worked in Mongolia in the second half of the 19th c. The most detailed information about him is presented in the diary of the famous mongolist Aleksei Pozdneev [Pozdneev, 1896, p. XXVIII–XXIX]. For other details concerning his activities in Mongolia see [Ivanov, 2016].
7	The estampages made by Elizaveta Klementz and Ivan Fedorov were used by W.W. Radloff for the first translation of the text. Moreover, the majority of them were published in the 4^th volume of the “Atlas der Alterthümer der Mongolei” released in 1899.⁶	6. This fact is mentioned in the introduction to the edition by W.W. Radloff: “Diese Lieferung des Atlas der Alterthümer der Mongolei enthält auf Tafel CV-CVIII die photographischen Aufnahmen der Grabstätte des Tonjukuk (vergl. Alttürkische Inschriften der Mongolei, Zweite Folge. St. Petersburg, 1899), welche im Auftrage der Kaiserlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften durch gütige Vermitlung des Kaiserlich-russischen General-Konsul’s in Urga von Photographen Fedoroff ausführt worden sind. Auf den Tafeln CIX-CXVI sind die mir vorliegenden Ablatsche der Inschriften reproducirt, welche theils von FrauKlementz theils von Herrn Fedoroff hergestellt sind.” [Atlas 1899].
8	Nowadays these first Tonyukuk inscription estampages are preserved in the Collection of Central Asia and Siberia of the Institute of Oriental manuscript, RAS (St. Petersburg)⁷. Twenty copies kept under call numbers ЦАС 455–474 could be divided into two sets according to the type of cotton cloth used for their production⁸. For the estampages with call numbers ЦАС 455, 458, 460, 462, 464, 465, 467, 468, 470, 472, 473, 474 cotton fabric with rather loose texture (threads uneven in thickness, warp threads thicker than weft threads) was used. Moreover, most of these copies (except ЦАС 464, 467, 472, 474) were retouched: the space between the signs was tinted with red ink, while the signs were outlined with white pigment. Other copies were produced with dense cloth (the warp and weft threads are of the same thickness, giving a slight relief of runiform signs).	7. They were identified during the inventory procedures that took place in 2021. The Collection of Central Asia and Siberia is almost unknown to the academic community. It includes 11 sketches and 784 estampages of stelae, cave inscriptions, and other epigraphic monuments of Siberia, Central and Middle Asia. The collection is diversified in terms of dates (from petroglyphs of the Stone and Bronze Ages to the trilingual stele of 1759, erected in honor of the victory of the Manchus on the shore of Lake Issyk-Kul) and languages (epigraphic monuments in eleven languages: ancient Turkic, Arabic, Bulgar-Tatar, Syriac, Manchu, Chinese, Sogdian, Turkic, Tibetan, Mongolian and Sanskrit). The history of this collection, the formation of which was closely related to the activities of prominent Russian explorers of Siberia and Central Asia, archaeologists, linguists and ethnographerы, is still insufficiently studied, and a lot of facts require clarification. The items are preserved under call numbers ‘ЦАС …’. 8. The copies were made according to the technology described by W.W. Radloff. For details see [Radlov, 1893].
9	The comparison of Elizaveta Klementz’ personal letters⁹ and a few notes written in the margins of the previously mentioned set of mostly retouched estampages allows to identify the very first copies as made in 1897¹⁰. One should note that the practice of retouching original copies was widespread at the turn of the 19^th–20^th cc. in general, and frequently used by eminent researchers like W.W. Radloff, in particular. Later, specialists engaged in Turkic studies pointed out that this method of “improving” had only negative consequences: estampages irreversibly lost their value for further study. Thus, Dmitry Nasilov wrote: “... many scholars, and first of all W.W. Radloff, V. Thomsen, H.N. Orkun and even S.E. Malov, used estampages and photographs of the inscriptions before the Orkhon-Yenisei script was completely deciphered. The latter circumstance had a particularly negative effect on the retouching of copies, as random chips or cracks on stone were perceived as a continuation of strokes of runiform letters. These retouched texts were mainly used as a basis for inscriptions reading and transliteration, so errors wandered through the editions and are even found sometimes in the recent publications” [Nasilov, 1974, p. 205].	9. I would like to thank the Minusinsk Local Lore Museum of N. Martyanov for providing photo copies of Elizaveta Klementz’ personal letters and notes. 10. In fairness, it is worth noting that W.W. Radloff used more vague copies for retouching.

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