By 2022, 182 inscriptions in the Old Turkic script at 101 sites had been recorded in Mongolia alone.[1] The count includes the smallest texts, of one to seven words.[2] Between 2018 and 2021, fifteen more were found. All fifteen are rock inscriptions: five were found in 2018, three in 2019, four in 2020 and three in 2021.[3] Ten of them lie in Bayankhongor, three in Govi-Altai, and one each in Bulgan and Sükhbaatar.[4] About four more were found in 2022 and are not yet published.[1]

The survey that reports the finds is not an edition. The readings in it come from the first readers, above all Tsend, Rinchinkhorol and Doğan, and they are given as readings.[3] No text is dated. The finds of the 1990s are described in Runiform finds in Mongolia, 1990 to 1999.

Names in the texts

  • Zamyn Buuts inscriptionEnglish
  • Tavan Tolgoi inscriptionEnglish
  • Dukhyn Buuts inscriptionEnglish
  • Dövön steleEnglish

Several of the short texts contain names of peoples or words for ranks that are known from other sources.

At Zamyn Buuts in Bayankhongor, one line on a small rock may belong to the age of the Uyghur Khaganate. Three readers have read it as naming the Ediz (ädiz). They differ on whether it records that Ädiz men and horses passed twice or marks an Ädiz camp.[5] It would be a mention of the name in a Turkic text, but it is a short undated text with three readings.

At Khöshööt Tolgoi in Govi-Altai, five letters read tuŋrač or toŋrač. The first readers think it likely a man’s name. Others propose that it is the name of the Tongra.[6]

Two texts in Bayankhongor name a čur. At Deed Tsokhiot the text reads qar čur. At Havtsgaityn Havtsal three lines read qarlïγ čur, followed by a verb that is read either as “crossed and came down” or as “sat in good health”.[7] Whether chur is a title or part of a name is not clear from either text.

At Tavan Tolgoi in Sükhbaatar, 29 letters in two lines are read as yegän irkin orun a olurtïm a / törtinč ay olurtïm a. The first reader translates: “I, Yegän Irkin, sat on the seat. I sat in the fourth month.”[8] Around the text stand some twenty tamgas, many of them variants of a snake sign.[9] Whether irkin is a title or a name here, and what sitting on the seat means, is left open. The title of the first publication calls the text a way inscription of the Uyghur period.[10]

At Dukhyn Buuts in Bayankhongor, two published readings differ completely. One reads bilgä tayla ayas, the other bilge bay anča ay, “Bilge is rich, say so”.[11] The finders suggest a link with the legend of an Uyghur-period coin.[12]

Tamgas beside the texts

Tamgas stand beside or above several of the new texts. Two are carved at the head of the text of Soyo Khüren.[13] The finders think a tamga at Dövön may belong to the Yaglakar, and one at Dukhyn Buuts to the Ediz.[11] See also Tamga.

The stone of Dövön

In 2021 a standing stone was found at Dövön in Govi-Altai. It carries a tamga, a text in Uyghur script and a runiform text of two letters, read taš, “stone”. A third sign between the letters may be a tamga as well. It is the fourth inscription found where runiform and Uyghur writing stand together.[9]

Khangidai Khad

The rock of Khangidai Khad in Bulgan has been known since 1926 to 1930 and studied since 1966. In 2021 a student found a second text on it, 95 years after the first find, which is a reason for a wider study of the site.[14]

Smaller finds

The smallest finds are of one to a few words, for example uluγ qaya, “great rock”, at Davirtyn Buuts, and qut bar[ïŋ] yorïγ at Dund Tsokhiot. Their readings are uncertain, with query marks and brackets in the edition.[15]

Unread finds

In July 2022 the upper part of the monument for Ilterish Khan was reported found. The survey calls the value of the find beyond estimate. It gives no reading.[16] It names three more finds as unread, a second text at Dukhyn Buuts, a stone in Uvs province that is dedicated to a Čur, and three monuments of classical runiform script found in 2010 at Tüvshinshiree in Sükhbaatar.[17]

References

  1. ^ a b Badam 2024, p. 25
  2. ^ Badam 2024, p. 27–28
  3. ^ a b Badam 2024, p. 25–26
  4. ^ Badam 2024, p. 26
  5. ^ Badam 2024, p. 31
  6. ^ Badam 2024, p. 32
  7. ^ Badam 2024, p. 29–30
  8. ^ Badam 2024, p. 32–33
  9. ^ a b Badam 2024, p. 33
  10. ^ Badam 2024, p. 39
  11. ^ a b Badam 2024, p. 33–34
  12. ^ Badam 2024, p. 34
  13. ^ Badam 2024, p. 30
  14. ^ Badam 2024, p. 34–35
  15. ^ Badam 2024, p. 29, 31–32
  16. ^ Badam 2024, p. 25, 41–42
  17. ^ Badam 2024, p. 41–42

Sources

Literature

  • Azzaya Badam, Moğolistan’da 2018–2021 Yılları Arasında Bulunan Runik Yazıtlar (2024)
  • Azzaya Badam; Gerelmaa Namsrai; Bayartuul Batjav, Govi-Altay Aymağındaki Runik Yazıtlar ve Tamgalar (2021)

Related

What links here4

Peoples
Ediz · Tongra
Institutions and Titles
Chur
Sources
Runiform finds in Mongolia, 1990 to 1999

Cite this article

Yavuz, Emre-E. “Rock inscriptions found in Mongolia, 2018 to 2021.” Turkic Atlas, revised 8 November 2026. https://turkicatlas.org/sources/mongolian-rock-inscriptions-2018-2021/

Last revised: 8 November 2026