The Old Turkic bitig script, Sogdian and Chinese text of the inscription of Qutluk Khagan from the Nomgon-2 memorial complex
Mustafayev S. Enkhtur A. Bazylkhan N. Murun B. Batbold G. Bogenbayev N. Buyankhishig T. Bars M. Ning T. Sugar
2025Margulan Institute of Archaeology
Kazakhstan Archeology
2025#29Issue 321 - 39 pp.
Since 2019, the Turkic Academy and the Institute of Archaeology of the Mongolian Academy of Sciences have been conducting archaeological research on the Nomgon plain (Arkhangai district, Mongolia). During excavations of the Nomgon-2 ritual complex in 2022, the upper part of a stele depicting two wolves was discovered. The inscriptions on the stele were read as “Qutluk Kagan, Turk… son of Tengri…” in a 19-line text written in Old Turkic bitig script, and as “Qutluk Kagan…” in a 6-line Sogdian text. The upper part of this stele, along with other artifacts, provided scholarly grounds for identifying the site as a kagan memorial complex. In 2023, the lower part of the stele was also discovered during reconnaissance work of the joint expedition. However, the Old Turkic inscription on it was heavily damaged and is nearly indecipherable. Fortunately, on the reverse side of the stele, a text in Chinese characters has been partially preserved and can be read to some extent. In 2024, a presentation of the inscriptions and artifacts discovered at the Nomgon-2 memorial complex took place in Ulaanbaatar. Research on deciphering the Chinese text began in 2025. The Old Chinese inscription on the reverse side of the lower part of the stele is written top to bottom, with lines arranged from right to left. Lines 3 to 8 are partially legible. This part of the stele contains a total of 15 lines, each with approximately 24 characters, amounting to about 290–300 characters in total. Preliminary readings suggest that parts of lines 3–8 can be deciphered. Notably, the word “Turk” and the title “Qutluk” (rendered in Chinese transcription as “Gu-du-lu”) were identified in line 4 of the Chinese text. This discovery provides further confirmation that the Nomgon-2 memorial complex belongs to the Old Turkic period, most likely dating to the reign of Elterish Qutluk Kagan (682–695), the founder of the Second Turkic Khaganate. Joint research by the Turkic Academy and the Institute of Archaeology of the Mongolian Academy of Sciences in the Nomgon valley (Mongolia) will be continued.
archaeological excavations , archaeology , Chinese text , Elterish Qutluk Khagan (682–695) , Nomgon-2 memorial complex , Sogdian text , textology , the Old Turkic bitig script , the Second Turkic Khaganate
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Turkic Academy, Astana, Kazakhstan
Institute of Archaeology of the Mongolian Academy of Sciences, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia
Inner Mongolia University, Kohhot, China
Turkic Academy
Institute of Archaeology of the Mongolian Academy of Sciences
Inner Mongolia University
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