Journal of Siberian Federal University. Humanities & Social Sciences 2021 14(8): 1108–1120 DOI: 10.17516/1997-1370-0793 УДК 81’221.4(=512.157)"18/192" Tamgas of the 19th and Early 20th Century Yakuts (Sakha) Rozalia I. Bravina, Natalia I. Popova and Valery E. Vasiliev* Institute for Humanitarian Research and Indigenous Peoples of the North SB RAS Yakutsk, Russian Federation Received 25.03.2019, received in revised form 14.02.2020, accepted 06.07.2021 Abstract. The article deals with tamga symbols which played a role in the socio- economic life and culture of the Central, Vilyuisk and Northern local groups of the Yakuts since the lineage-based society up to the early twentieth century. Tamgas were marks to identify kinship and social status, property, enjoyment and dispose of the owner’s property, as well as sacral symbols of religious beliefs and practices of the Yakuts. Tamga marks were used to denote numbers in the Yakut traditional number system. They are found on various seals and «eternal» calendars of the 17th – 19th centuries. Based on a comparative study of the tamga mark system of the Turkic-Mongolian peoples of Central Asia and Southern Siberia, an attempt was made to systematize various forms and names of the most common tamga of the Yakuts and to determine their functional aspect. It is suggested that tamga marks are primary in relation to the Turkic runic writing, as well as Yakut rune- like tamgas that the Turkic- speaking ancestors of the Yakuts brought to their modern territory before their acquaintance with the runic writing. Keywords: the Yakuts, tonal culture, tamga, livestock brand, ownership mark, clan emblem, seal, stamp, numeral system, runic calendar, Turkic runic alphabet. Research area: history & archeology, philology Citation: Bravina, R.I., Popova, N.I., Vasiliev, V.E. (2021). Tamgas of the 19th and Early 20th Century Yakuts (Sakha). J. Sib. Fed. Univ. Humanit. soc. sci., 14(8), 1108–1120. DOI: 10.17516/1997-1370-0793. © Siberian Federal University. All rights reserved * Corresponding author E-mail address: [email protected], nat.popova @rambler.ru, [email protected] – 1108 – Rozalia I. Bravina, Natalia I. Popova… Tamgas of the 19th and Early 20th Century Yakuts Тамговые знаки якутов (саха) XIX – начала XX века Р. И. Бравина, Н. И. Попова, В. Е. Васильев Институт гуманитарных исследований и проблем малочисленных народов Севера СО РАН Российская Федерация, Якутск Аннотация. Представлены тамговые знаки, игравшие определенную роль в социально- экономической жизни и культуре центральной, вилюйской и северной локальных групп якутов со времен семейно-родовых отношений и вплоть до начала ХХ в. Тамги являлись отличительными знаками родовой и социальной принадлежности, владения, пользования и распоряжения собственностью хозяина, а также сакральными символами религиозно- мифологических представлений и ритуальной практики якутов. Тамговые знаки входили в качестве цифровых обозначений в якутскую традиционную систему счисления. Они обнаруживаются на различных печатях и «вечных» календарях ХVII–XIX веков. На основе сравнительного изучения системы тамговых знаков тюрко- монгольских народов Центральной Азии и Южной Сибири предпринята попытка систематизировать различные формы и названия наиболее распространенных тамг у якутов и определить их функциональный аспект. Высказывается мнение о первичности тамговых знаков по отношению к тюркскому руническому письму, а также о якутских руноподобных тамгах, которые тюркоязычные предки якутов привезли на современную территорию своего проживания, предположительно, еще до их знакомства с руническим письмом. Ключевые слова: якуты, традиционная культура, тамга, тавро, знак собственности, родовые «знамена», печать, клеймо, система счисления, рунический календарь, тюркская руника. Научная специальность: 07.00.00 – исторические науки и археология; 10.00.00 – филологические науки. Introduction than two centuries [Simchenko, 1965, 8–14; The word «tamga» of Turkic- Mongolian Tyulyush, 2016, 158; Tishin, 2017, 209–239]. origin had several meanings in the languages of Although the achievements are unquestionable, this group: «brand», «stamp», «seal». The use this topic and many problems associated are still of tamga by the nomadic peoples of Eurasia in far from being resolved. This is particularly true everyday life was diverse. Tamgas were used for rune- like tamgas of the Yakuts, functional, for branding livestock, marking land plots and formal- typological and religious- mythological grazing land, fishing and hunting areas, chattel aspects of which are considered in this paper and artisan work, signing documents, etc. Sacral for the first time. marks often perpetuated places of sanctuaries The beginning of the study of rune- like or ritual prayers. The carving of tamga on the inscriptions in the Lena River area is associated historical monuments evidences the presence with addressing the scientific problem of the of an ethnic group in this area which means origin of the Yakut people and their culture that tamgas, undoubtedly, are among the most (Shirobokova, 2018). In 1920, the famous Yakut important sources for a comprehensive study of ethnographer and folklorist G. V. Ksenofontov the history and culture of the peoples of Eurasia. in his lectures on the origin of the Yakuts drew Tamgas and tamga- like symbols of the attention to the presence in the Yakut epic peoples of Siberia have been studied for more Olonkho of «an artistic image of inscripted – 1109 – Rozalia I. Bravina, Natalia I. Popova… Tamgas of the 19th and Early 20th Century Yakuts stone pillars of the Orkhon type erected in honor III, 3808–3809), which is comparable to the an- of heroes describing their military exploits» cient Turkic yrym, yrk ‘sign, prophecy, fortune- (Sosnovsky, 1928). In Yakut folklore, the motif telling’ (Old Turkic dictionary, 1969, 220). of written fate was widespread. In the epic text In a series of myths and legends about the Olonkho, one of the descendants of the Supreme legendary Yakut progenitor Ellei it is said that deity Urung Aiyy toyon, the scribe Usun his father Tataar Tayma was a well- born, liter- Dzhurantaaiy recorded in his stone archive all ate person. Before his death he bequeathed his vicissitudes of the heroes’ fate since their birth, sacred «suruk- bichik» (reading and writing) to including their feats (Emel’yanov, 1980, 16). his son, which, according to one legend, was Myths and legends say about the «white» hidden in his homeland. Later, when already and «black» letters which are written for new- married, Ellei allegedly went to his father’s borns by the spirits of plants (ot- mas ogoloro). homeland but didn’t find the book which was Thus, the white letter «Yuryung suruk» was believed to have burned, so the Yakuts were intended for people with strong and happy fate, left without written language. According to while the black one «Hara suruk» was written other stories, Ellei received the letter from his for people with incomplete predestination. father and lost it in the waters of the Lena Riv- It is very interesting that the Yakuts used er, when sailing downstream on a snag (Kseno- the expression «tangha- bichik» to denote fate fontov, 1977, 43, 53, 55). and destiny; its meaning can be defined as In this context, the first artifacts of the pos- «rebus- ideogram» (tangha «fortune telling, sible existence of the written language among fate, predestination»). One of the deities of the the southern ancestors of the Yakuts were two Yakut Pantheon, Tangha Haan, determined spinners with runic symbols found in the early the fate of tribes and clans of the Middle World 20th century in the Baikal region which was the according to the book written in blood. In this territory of the Kurumchi archeological culture regard, of particular interest is the existence of the 6th-10th centuries. B. E. Petri published of the role of tamgahan, the guardian of tribal the data on the runes, being convinced of their tamgas, in the Turkic Khaganates (Yatsenko, Yakut origin: «Finding these writings in the 2001, 107). In the epic Olonkho, the role of Baikal region so far to the North, is of course a the Supreme judge in determining the fate of remarkable fact. However, it is important for us the characters belongs to the deity Chyngys to point out that the ancestors of the Yakuts, who Haan, who owned the book of the fates of the left Northern Mongolia in ancient times and three worlds (Yemel’yanov, 1980, 15). Among detached themselves from the common Turkish the medieval Turks, Khagan (Khan) assigned core, might have known the Orkhon writing» tamgas to tribes and noble clans, later this (Petri, 1922, 27–28). At that time Turkology custom was practiced by the great Mongol was in its infancy, so when the key to decipher- khans, including Chengis Khan (Mitirov, ing the runic inscriptions was found, of course, 1979, 129). It might be possible that there are these artifacts immediately attracted the ex- traces of tamga- like symbols of power of the perts’ attention. In 1932, Finnish researchers medieval steppe empires of Central Asia and Kai Donner and Martti Räsänen published a Southern Siberia within Yakut names of the paper in German «Zwei neue türkische Runen- deities of fate. inschriften», in which they gave their version Plots with books – heralds of fate – are of rune decryption. Based on the nature of the widespread among the Turkic peoples of letters, K. Donner made an assumption that at Southern Siberia. They may have originated in that time the Turkic population of the Baikal the ancient Turkic written tradition, one of the region was rather culturally connected with famous monuments of which being «Yrk Bitig» the inhabitants of the Minusinsk steppes than («The Book of Fortune- Telling» or «The Book Mongolia. G. V. Ksenofontov argued their ver- of Parables»). In the Yakut language, the word sions and suggested his interpretation based on «yra» means «foreshadowing, interpretation, the Yakut language: «qаtar küőrčäq (modern prediction; a better fate» (Pekarsky, 1959, vol. Yakut khatar kuercheh)», where qаtar means – 1110 – Rozalia I. Bravina, Natalia I.