The Eurasian Areal Aspect of Old Turkic Written Culture

Abstract

The numerous stone inscriptions found lately in South Siberia, Central Asia and Eastern Europe have drawn the attention of students of Old Turkic literary culture to the question of how the Old Turkic monuments of the Orkhon and Yenisei type are related to the so-called 'runiform' inscriptions. This problem overshadows even the debate on the origins of the Old Turkic runic script, as many of the new materials, at least those found in South Siberia and Central Asia, obviously predate the runic texts hitherto known and subjected to ethno-historical analyses. In a similar fashion, serious corrections in terms of genesis, paleography and dating, can be made to previous studies, even to those that deal with well-studied variants of Turkic runic script. The problem is further complicated by the fact that the runic inscriptions spread all over Eurasia lack any convincing interpretation, and their deciphering is also at a very preliminary stage.