Astana: TOO "Prosper Print", 2013. 268 p.

The first part of the "Corpus of Turkic Runic Inscriptions of Southern Siberia" presented to the readers includes about 90 explications of runic monuments of Altai (in addition to Gorny Altai, the book takes into account inscriptions found in the territory of the Altai Territory, Mongolian Altai and Eastern Kazakhstan) (p. 6). The Altai volume of "Corpus..." includes epigraphic materials studied and published in the Altai territory. published by N. N. Spassky, V. V. Radlov, B. Ya. Vladimirtsov, S. V. Kiselev, B. Kh. Kadikov, K. Seidakmatov, T. I. Sabaeva, E. R. Tenishev, N. A. Baskakov, S. G. Klyashtorny, D. G. Savinov, V. D. and G. V. Kubarev, V. M. Nedelyaev, I. L. Kyzlasov, I. A. Nevskaya, E. P. Matochkin, L. N. Tybykova, M. Erdal and other specialists. The author of the book, D. D. Vasiliev, as an organizer and participant of expeditions to Gorny Altai in the 1980s-1990s and to the Mongolian Altai in 2005, made a significant contribution to the study, publication and interpretation of inscriptions. He directly discovered the inscriptions Mendur-Sokkon IV (index A10), Mendur-Sokkon VII (A13), Elo (A27), 731 km of the Chui tract II (A32), the inscription on the statue from the Kara-Kol River valley and other monuments of the medieval written heritage of Altai. Together with the participants of the expeditions, D. D. Vasiliev recorded, copied (drew) and photographed more than 40 inscriptions.

The scientific significance of this publication is determined primarily by the importance of systematization and maximum consideration of runic texts. In terms of the number of explications, the reviewed book is one of the most complete editions of the Altai runic literature. At the same time, twelve monuments (Bichiktu-Bom IV-VII, X, rune-like graffiti Bichiktu-Bom, Yustyd II, Chagan-Uzun, inscriptions on the statue of Kezere and the statue from the Kara-Kol River valley, Alty-Tash I, Tsagaan-Nuur) were not previously published (pp. 88-91, 100, 112-116, 187-191, 194-197, 202-203, 224-225). The Catalog of Ancient Turkic Runic Monuments of Gorny Altai published in 2012 [Tybykova, Nevskaya, and Erdal, 2012] also contains about 90 monuments, including runic inscriptions found in the early 2000s (Manyrlu-Koby I-II, Sakyila-Koby III, Sogodek, Tuekta III-V, Chirik-I).Tash, Inegen I-II, Yabogan, Kezek-Elan, etc.), which were not included in the first part of the "Corpus of Turkic Runic Inscriptions of Southern Siberia".

For philologists, historians, archaeologists and anthropologists, reconstructions of texts, their transcriptions (reading) and translations made by D. D. Vasiliev are of particular value. In addition, the author places the reading of inscriptions and translations by other specialists (P. M. Melioransky, S. V. Kiselev, A. K. Borovkov, E. R. Tenishev, N. A. Baskakov, K. Seidakmatov, E. I. Ubryatova, V. M. Nadelyaev, S. G. Klyashtorny, I. L. Kyzlasov, E. P. Matochkin, I. A. Nevskaya, L. N. Tybykova, M. Erdal). Comparison of translations shows a rather significant difference in the interpretation of individual words and texts by researchers. There are also large discrepancies in the definition of runic signs, reconstruction, and reading of texts. Illustrative examples of the interpretation of runic inscriptions Mendur-Sokkon I-V, VII, Bichiktu-Boomi-III, XII, Taldu-Aira, Zhalgyztepe I, Kyzyl-Kabak I, Karban River, Chui steppe, "Kurai belt set", on fragments of a silver belt from Bar-Bugazy mound 2, on a bone ring are given. an item from the village. Kupchegen, Charysh inscription (c. 38-39, 45-63, 68, 76-87, 98, 101, 117-121, 132-137, 205-207, 210-217, 239-240). For each of these monuments, the "Corpus..." contains from two to six variants

VASYUTIN Sergey Aleksandrovich-Candidate of Historical Sciences, Associate Professor, Head of the Department of Kemerovo State University, Kemerovo, Russia vasutin2012@list.ru.

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reading and translating. Thanks to high-quality photographs and drawings, readers have the opportunity to judge the validity of certain transcriptions and interpretations of runic texts. However, this situation highlights the complexity of the interpretation of the Altai runic system. It is no accident that in the comments to his own readings of the inscriptions Mendur-Sokkon I, VIII, R. Kara-Kol, Taldu-Airy, Yalbak-Tash 2 D. D. Vasiliev points out that he was forced to carry them out "with some assumptions" and "stretch marks" (p. 52, 73, 101, 121, 184).

The inclusion of translations in the text of the book undoubtedly makes it more popular among researchers of medieval Central Asia. This qualitatively distinguishes the "Ancient Epigraphy of Altai" from the "Corpus of Turkic Runic Monuments of the Yenisei Basin" published earlier by D. D. Vasiliev [Vasiliev, 1983, pp. 14-47]. The relevance of this work is all the more obvious because it includes unique sources on the early medieval history of Southern Siberia, which give a more or less authentic idea of the written culture, mental attitudes, memorial traditions, and historical memory of the peoples of this region.

The importance of publishing the first part of the "Corpus..." is also connected with the need to preserve drawings and photographs of the original fixation of monuments, since some inscriptions have now been completely or partially lost. The destruction of runic monuments occurs under the influence of both natural and anthropogenic factors. Some acts of vandalism are known, when the monument is completely destroyed or covered with modern inscriptions and graffiti applied with a thick layer of oil paint (pp. 7, 17, 182-183). In 2007, the International Congress of Orientalists made a decision on the need for urgent publication of the original monuments of the Turkic runic script of Southern Siberia, Central Asia and Eastern Europe. The author of the book under review notes with regret "the deterioration of many monuments located on the site in recent years and the loss of fragments of inscriptions", previously recorded "in a more complete volume" (p. 19).

In order to preserve the original information about the runic monuments of Altai in 2007-2009, digital copying of the entire collection of inscriptions was carried out, which allows technologically making better images of runic texts. This is confirmed by beautiful photographs of landscapes, rock planes and other objects on which Turkic medieval runes were discovered, and the inscriptions themselves included in the peer-reviewed publication.

Finally, as D. D. Vasiliev notes in the Introduction," the Altai inscriptions in their original copies were practically not the object of source research by specialists for a long time and remain still not mastered as a historical and philological source "(p. 9). Thus, the publication of the first part of the" Corpus of Turkic Runic Inscriptions of Southern Siberia " is intended to contribute to the development of the Russian language. It will also enable the development of scientific research in these areas, as well as make it possible to use small runic texts more widely to interpret the phenomena of socio-cultural and socio-political life of the population of Central Asia in the early Medieval period.

Explication of the monuments is preceded by a brief outline of the history of the discovery and study of medieval written monuments in Altai. According to D. D. Vasiliev, this essay, without claiming to be exhaustive, gives general ideas about the main stages of discovery, fixation, research and publication of runic texts in Altai.

The main part of the "Ancient Turkic Epigraphy of Altai" includes explications of runic monuments, each of which contains::

- name of the monument at the place of discovery;

- in most cases, a description of the monument (material, parameters, shape, surface treatment);

- a photo of the monument, inscription, landscape;

- drawing the caption;

- functional semantics of the monument in case of its repeated use (venerable stones, petroglyphs, religious objects, weapons and household items, etc.);

- time, place, and circumstance of the discovery;

- a brief history of the study, in case of relocation - its current location;

- the composition and appearance of the label, the number of lines or characters, and related images;

- comments on the safety of the inscription, fixing gaps;

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- scientific publication of the monument;

- reading runic text;

- critical translation of the inscription, previous translations;

- the regional index of monuments is given separately at the end of the book.

Such a comprehensive description of the monuments of medieval Turkic writing ensures the scientific usefulness of the publication of inscriptions. We can only thank D. D. Vasiliev for preparing a highly sought-after edition of the runic inscriptions of Altai and hope that his work on the unique written sources of Southern Siberia will result in the publication of new parts of the " Corpus...".

Summing up, I would like to emphasize that D. D. Vasiliev's work is undoubtedly a major contribution to the development of domestic Turkology. It sums up the long-term work of the Turkologist in the field of studying the runic inscriptions of Altai. The materials presented in the" Corpus... " indicate "a fairly wide spread of literacy in the nomadic environment" (p. 7) and allow researchers to complete the picture of the social and socio-cultural life of the South Siberian population of the medieval era, to reveal certain aspects of religious beliefs and mental attitudes, to study the role and significance of inscriptions in the funeral and memorial tradition.

list of literature

Vasiliev D. D. Korpus tyurkskikh runicheskikh pamyatnikov basseyna Yenisei [The corpus of Turkic runic monuments of the Yenisei basin]. Leningrad Branch, 1983.

Tybykova L. N., Nevskaya I. A., Erdal M. Catalog of ancient Turkic runic monuments of Gorny Altai. Gorno-Altaisk: Gorno-Altaisk State University Publishing House, 2012.

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