Issyk inscription


The Issyk inscription is a yet undeciphered text, found in 1969 on a silver bowl in Issyk kurgan in Kazakhstan, dated at approximately the 4th 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. Harmatta, using the Kharoṣṭhī script, identifies the language as Khotanese Saka dialect spoken by the Kushans, tentatively translating:
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Photos of the inscription