Uzbekistan, Silk Road, Samarkand, Afrasiab historical museum, wall painting detail from the mural of ambassadors, 7th century/ Getty Images
A ruler in a pointed hat provides scientists with new information about the ancient Turks.
he International Integrated Historical and Archaeological Expedition of the Tamgaly Museum-Reserve made an important discovery during field research in the Kogaly and Almaly valleys, located to the north and south of the UNESCO World Heritage Site—the Tamgaly complex.i
Coin/ Alexey Rogozhinsky
During the excavation of two ritual enclosures, a very well-preserved copper coin was found nearby. The coin bears the portrait of an unknown ruler in a pointed headdress. On either side of the image, there are two inscriptions in the Sogdian language - "bgy" (god) and "prn" (grace). On the reverse side of the coin is the image of a tamga, the ruler's personal seal mark.i
While this coin isn't exceptionally rare in general, its discovery in Kazakhstan is unprecedented. This represents the first time such a coin has been unearthed during formal archaeological research in the country. The find has been properly recorded and now serves as a significant archaeological artifact.
As reported by one of the expedition members, Alexey Rogozhinsky, Candidate of Historical Sciences, Senior Researcher at the A.Kh. Margulan Institute of Archaeology, Almaty, Kazakhstan:
"The discovered coin is an extremely rare find, with only a handful of similar specimens known. Two were unearthed during excavations of a Nestorian Christian temple at Ak-Beshim in Kyrgyzstan, a site associated with Suyab, the capital of the Western Turkic and Turgesh Khaganates. A few more have been found in China's Ili Valley. This marks the first time such a coin has been discovered in Kazakhstan. Specialists in early medieval Turko-Sogdian numismatics date these coins to the mid-7th century. This dating suggests that the archaeological sites currently under investigation by the museum-reserve expedition in the Kogaly Valley are linked to the Western Turks who inhabited the Semirechye region from the 7th to early 8th centuries."
Coin/ Alexey Rogozhinsky