Szarvas needle case inscription

Rouran epoch Göktürk epoch Uyghur epoch Kirghiz epoch

Rouran First Göktürk Tang rule Second Göktürk Uyghur Kirghiz Huns Western Göktürk Türgesh Karluk Khazar

Rouran 400–554
First Göktürk 552–630
Tang rule 630–682
Second Göktürk 682–744
Uyghur 744–840
Kirghiz 840–924
Huns 370–469
Western Göktürk 552–659
Türgesh 699–766
Karluk 766–800
Khazar 650–969

A needle case of bone, found in 1983 in a late Avar cemetery at Szarvas in Hungary, bears a short text in runiform signs.^[1] It dates from about the eighth century.^[1]

Eight or nine of its signs have the same form as signs of the Székely script.^[1] The needle case and the signs on the vessels of Nagyszentmiklós are the two larger monuments of what one survey calls the late Avar script.^[1] The signs are unlike the letters of the Orkhon stones in many forms, and they are not read.^[1]

Interpretations

One suggestion is that the text is in a language of Bulgar type. It rests on an archaeological finding: at the end of the seventh century a new nomadic people settled in the Carpathian basin, probably Bulgars, perhaps after the Bulgar realm in the Caucasus broke up under Asparuch in 680.^[1] The author of this suggestion calls it very probable, and he describes his whole picture of the runiform systems of eastern Europe as quite hypothetical.^[1]

Another study of the Avars finds the runiform marks on objects from Avar cemeteries uncertain in reading. It takes them for possible property marks like tamgas, and not for text.^[2] Others start from the opposite premise. It holds that Avar graves of the Carpathian basin carried signs of the Orkhon and Yenisei type or close to them, and so it looks for a route by which the script came from Central Asia.^[3] See also the inscriptions of the Khazar lands and the Volga and the inscriptions of Murfatlar.

References

^ a b c d e f g Vásáry 1993, p. 58–59
^ Sinor 1990, p. 225
^ Harmatta 1987 (Jahr after dem Dateinamen; ungarisches Original 1983), p. 57, 73

Sources

Szarvas needle case inscription

Literature

István Vásáry, Doğu Avrupa'nın Runik Alfabe Sistemleri Üzerine (1993)
Denis Sinor (ed.), The Cambridge History of Early Inner Asia (1990)
János Harmatta (Turkish translation: Hicran Akın), Doğu Avrupa’da Türk Oyma Yazılı Kitabeler (1987 (Jahr after dem Dateinamen; ungarisches Original 1983))

What links here3

Peoples: Avars
Sources: Runiform inscriptions of the Khazar lands · Treasure of Nagyszentmiklós

Cite this article

Yavuz, Emre-E. “Szarvas needle case inscription.” Turkic Atlas, revised 8 November 2026. https://turkicatlas.org/sources/szarvas-needle-case-inscription/

Last revised: 8 November 2026