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Deciphering the inscription of vessel No. 2 from the Oshad mound of the Maikop culture

A.K. Vorokov

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Abstract: Silver vessel No. 2 of the Oshad kurgan of the Maikop culture (IV millennium BC) is dedicated to the cult of the shining patron god Tha. The information contained in its pictograms does not go beyond the sacral narrative and, unlike the diverse texts of vessel No. 1, is arranged in a single sentence. The relevance of the topic is conditioned by the necessity to conduct a complex and comprehensive study of a number of the ancient epigraphic monuments of the North Caucasus in order to establish their true semantics and etymology. The main goal is to decipher the inscription by means of dialects of the Adyghe language, related to the Khatt (early) language. Main tasks: 1. To carry out a detailed analysis of pictograms, their fragments and combinations on the basis of Adyghe terminology taking into account the grammatical structure of the language (morphology, syntax, orthography); 2. To reconstruct relevant lexical and sound elements followed by step-by-step linguistic and semantic reconstruction of the narrative; 3. To correlate the results obtained with multidisciplinary multifaceted scientific data, and mythology. The research is conducted on the basis of the principle of historicism, within the framework of an interdisciplinary approach using linguistic comparativism, retrospective, glottochronological and other related methods. For the first time, the symbol of the god Tha is taken into account – a fundamental, key pictogram in a stylized, patterned design – which was regarded in the scientific community as an ornamental image of a tree of life, a flower or a pond. From an ethnolinguistic perspective, the inscription is identified as Khato-Adyghe and is classified as a special type of verbal-syllabic writing based on pictographic images. It has signs of ideography and is considered to be one of the important stages in the evolution of archaic writing. Some language units are highlighted or given in Cyrillic transcription for clarity and easier comprehension.

Keywords: Khato-adygo is the Abkhaz language, syncretic writing style, eclectic images, key pictogram, the cult of the sacred god Tha, solar and lunar aspects, the cross as the oldest symbol of Tha

For citation. Vorokov A.K. Deciphering the inscription of vessel No. 2 from the Oshad mound of the Maikop culture. News of the Kabardino-Balkarian Scientific Center of RAS. 2025. Vol. 27. No. 3. Pp. 189–209. DOI: 10.35330/1991-6639-2025-27-3-189-209

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Information about the author

Anzor K. Vorokov, Junior Researcher of the laboratory “Digital paleography” of the scientific and innovative center “Natural scientific methods in archeology, anthropology and archeography” of the Kabardino-Balkarian Scientific Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences;
360010, Russia, Nalchik, 2 Balkarov street;
legatto777@yandex.ru, ORCID: http://orcid.org/0009-0001-9087-5665, SPIN-code: 5021-3219

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