Early History of the Türks

This article is a tour de horizon of the origin myths that were recorded in the Chinese dynastic and other historical works written during the Türk era (552–ca. 744) and in subsequent official histories (e.g., the Zhoushu, Suishu, Beishi, Jiu Tangshu and Xin Tangshu), historical handbooks (the Tongdian) and historical collections (e.g., the Youyang zazu [and the Taiping Guangji] and the recent translations of and scholarship on them). Also included is a discussion of a Uyğur-origin Tibetan ‘report’ on the ‘Northern Peoples’. The article focuses on the Ashina-Türk grouping that became the founding and ruling clan of the Türk Qağanate. The shaping of the Ashina-Türk took place in a range of areas extending from the Chinese border zones of Gansu and Xinjiang to Mongolia and Southern Siberia. The Ashina-Türks appear to have been a ‘composite’ of peoples with a variety of ethno-linguistic affiliations. A lupine ancestor figures in most of the origin accounts.

An overview of the origin tales of the Türks (Kök Türks)  that were recorded in the Chinese dynastic and other historical works written during the Türk era (552–ca. 744) and in subsequent official histories (e.g., the Zhoushu, Suishu, Beishi, Jiu Tangshu and Xin Tangshu), historical handbooks (the Tongdian) and historical collections (e.g., the Youyang zazu [and the Taiping Guangji] and the recent translations of and scholarship on them). Also included is a discussion of a Uyğur-origin Tibetan ‘report’ on the ‘Northern Peoples’. The article focuses on the Ashina-Türk grouping that became the founding and ruling clan of the Türk Qağanate. The shaping of the Ashina-Türk took place in a range of areas extending from the Chinese border zones of Gansu and Xinjiang to Mongolia and Southern Siberia. The Ashina-Türks appear to have been a ‘composite’ of peoples with a variety of ethno-linguistic affiliations. A lupine ancestor figures in most of the origin accounts.

The monograph is devoted to a comprehensive analysis of the materials obtained in the study of a representative series of Early Turkic «memorial» objects in the Central and Eastern Altai. The results of the excavations carried out by the Altai team of the South Siberian expedition from the Kemerovo State University under the leadership of A.S. Vasyutin in 1980–1984 to the sites of Bolshoy Kurmanak-I–II, Kok-Pash, Koo-I, Kudyrge, Nizhnyaya Sooru, Ust-Karasu have been introduced into scientific discourse. The study of those informative materials supplemented by data from other complexes of the second half of the 5th – first half of the 7th centuries AD, allowed us to present the results of reconstructing complex ethno-genetic and socio-cultural processes in Altai and adjacent areas in the Early Turkic period.
The publication is addressed to archaeologists, historians and ethnographers, as well as to students of classical universities in specialized faculties and anyone interested in various aspects of the study of Eurasian nomadic societies.

В статье рассматривается погребальная обрядность и инвентарь захоронения, исследованного в 1975 г. в Саратовской области. Погребение относится к обладающему культурным своеобразием «авиловскому» типу памятников, распространённому в гуннское и постгуннское время на территории Нижнего и Среднего Поволжья. Автор приходит к выводу, что авиловский погребальный обряд отличается бот других групп погребений постгуннского и раннетюркского времени значительным своеобразием. Погребения, совершенные по данному обряду, образовали компактный ареал в степях Нижней Волги. Датировка позднейших авиловских захоронений совпадает с временем начала активного распространения в степях Восточной Европы влияния Хазарского каганата. Автором поддерживается высказанная ранее гипотеза о вхождении носителей авиловского погребального обряда в состав хазарской этносоциальной общности. Библиографические ссылки Амброз А.К. Проблемы раннесредневековой хронологии Восточной Европы // СА. 1971. № 3. С. 106–134. Амброз А....