The article, according to photographs and drawing of petroglyphs, describes the compositional solution, size, material and, mainly, the shape and nature of the images. A systematization of signs is carried out, most of them comparable to Hittite pictograms, hieroglyphs and sylabs. At the end of the article, the dating of the petroglyphs of the Loupe Plate is proposed, close to the turn of the 3rd - 2nd millennium BC. and ethnocultural attribution.
Key words: petroglyphs, hieroglyphs, pictograms, hatto-hets. Loupe slab, tamgas, test dolmens, logogram.
The history of the discovery of this monument of archeology is 15 years old. Then she was first seen in the ravine between the railway and the highway north of the village of Loo, but was not properly assessed and did not cause any interest. It was rediscovered by Khusht Madin, a local historian of the village of Bolshoi Kichmai in 2013; the slab, at the invitation of the local historian, was examined, cleaned and photographed by the researchers of the Adyghe RIGI named after T. M. Kerasheva Kizilov A. S., Kondryakov N. V. and Kudin M.
Photos with brief comments by A. Kizilov got into the Internet and thus some circle of the public could get acquainted with the find.
The author of these lines had the opportunity to inspect the place of discovery and make a detailed drawing of petroglyph images of the sandstone slab. The dimensions of the slab are 60x50 cm, the thickness is 16 - 22 cm. The graphic plane is tuberous, its shape is subrectangular, rather trapezoidal. There are about fifty characters, but accurate counting is difficult due to their interweaving in synthetic compositions.
The images were taken with different tools and possibly at different times. There are designs engraved with the point of a needle or awl, deeper and wider, drawn with a flint or bronze chisel; round holes drilled with a pointed tip in the amount of 14 with a diameter of 5 - 15 mm; lenticular strokes of various shapes and sizes. There are figurative images: a profile geometrized figure of a deer on a pole, two facades of a testner (dolmen), a schematic outline of a fish, a structure with a gable roof, a "sun boat", a kind of boat with a sail. Most of the petroglyphs are symbols-signs found among Hittite hieroglyphs: a rectangular lattice with seven parallel lines; a triangle with a hole in the center: six-pointed and seven-pointed stars; straight and oblique crosses: f-shaped figure: pointed arch;paired parallel corners and arcs. Some signs of the Hittite hieroglyphic and sylabaric writing are considered: logograms of the words “god”, “road”, “fertility”, “good-good”, “priest”, “star”, “hundred”, “mercy”, “greatness”, “sun "," great-grandfather "," moon "," tomb "," minala ". (5, 1960, p. 262 - 268).
Signs are recognized that resemble Abaza, Abkhaz and Adyg tamgas, which, according to some researchers of the Caucasus and European voyagers, come from Hittite hieroglyphs. Tamgas of Tkhaitsyuho, Gobeshi, Kyakhir, Tkhagapso, Aisova are viewed. (18, 1993, pp. 160-171).
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Two features of the slab petroglyphs are noted: bypassing the blunt (Hittite scribe) slab when performing perimetric compositions and the funerary character of the (semantic) content. The last remark is substantiated by the semantic of the images of the lower pictorial half of the plane, when viewed (when viewed) from the side of the fish.
According to the Adyghe folk symbolism, the “fish” personifies the underworld, into which those leaving the white light in the “solar boat” move, like the deceased pharaoh in the ancient Egyptian “Book of the Dead”. Images of two facades of test dolmens, the first of which was a funerary function, as well as the hieroglyph of a tomb with a pointed arch, reinforce the buried idea. The figure of a deer with seven branched horns on a pole recalls the funeral rite of the priest-king of the Maikop mound "Oshad" with sculptures of four bulls on tubular poles and "heikeljiki" depicting bronze and silver bulls and deer in the four corners of the royal tombs of Aladzhachuyuk (Turkey. 1, 1995, levha 2, 3).
There is a stylized image of a deer on a pole on a marl pyramid found by A. A. Sazonov near the hamlet of the Gorodskoy Teuchezhsky district of Adygea (6, 1997: 20). Archaeological and art history analysis of the images of the pyramid allows us to attribute it to the Maikop archaeological culture. Not only the linear-geometric style of the petroglyph and the pole, but also the hieroglyph on which the pole rests, speaks of the funerary semantics of the image of a deer on the Loupe slab. Although the Hittite symbol of the tomb in this image lost its decorative details, the basic form reproduced by E. Laroche (5, 1960: 273) remained.
Next to the drawing of the grave tomb is the façade of the test dolmen with a large hole above it. It is this form of facades that are characteristic of the Black Sea Shapsugia. A semi-monolithic (so-called trough-like) type of megalith is widespread here, and when the cover plate is dropped from it, the facade takes the form of a trapezoid with upper rounded corners. Such a symbolic outline of the test subject differs from the petroglyph on the roof of the composite test dolmen of the Dudugush ridge discovered by M. V. Gavrilov in 1991 in the mountainous part of the Maikop region of Adygea. (11, 2001, p. 58).
The latter differs from Loupe's in the linear outline of the roof in the form of a horizontal line. Above this line is engraved a circle with an inscribed oblique cross. Instead of this symbol of the Dudugushevsky petroglyph, possibly conceived of as a solar one, the largest round hole was drilled on the Loupe plate (composition 9). In addition to the Dudugushevsky petroglyph, the plot of the dolmen facade appears in the Adyghe-Abaza heraldry. This is most figuratively reflected in the taur-tamga of the Pshunetlev Kabardians. Here the image is close to the “facade” of the Loupe slab, i.e. without horizontal overlap in the form of an arcuate figure with a "manhole" circle in the middle of the arch. Other tamgas, about 10 in number, are complicated by images of technical details for reasons of the branding process (Psheun, Pshu, Loo, Shevatsuko, Dzhandubi, Pazov, etc.). (18, 1993, pp. 145, 160 - 171).
There are no such signs in the Hittite-Khat hieroglyphics. This is a purely local, ancient Caucasian symbol associated with the ancestors of the Abaza, Abkhaz and Circassians. (10, 1999, p. 15.2001, p. 51; 14, 2001, p.; 9, 1993, p. 268.
On the Loupe slab, the facades of the test subjects are engraved in both lower corners (compositions 4 and 9). Between them, in the bottom row, there is a petroglyph "fish" (PCE) vertically, nose down, which, according to the Circassian folk symbolism, shows the symbol's relation to the afterlife (composition 14). In the vicinity of the fish petroglyph there are four signs: a straight cross, a Hittite logogram of the word "god", a sign similar to the Hittite silab "li" (compositions 12, 13) and a right-angled triangle.
It should be noted the non-random delimitation of the exfoliated part of the slab. Four petroglyph compositions are engraved on it with wider, deeper and more weathered grooves … This part of the slab petroglyphs looks earlier. The upper composition "1", looking from above, represents the coat of arms of the Abaza clan "Aisova" with the sign of greatness, according to the Hatti-Hittite hieroglyphics. Below it is the Hittite hieroglyph for "bow" (composition 2). Even lower is the composition "3" from an (inverted) arc with the logogram of the word "moon" (arma) and some kind of T-shaped sign similar to the Hittite number "11". Nearby is a petroglyph in the form of the capital Latin "R" ®. In the lowest corner of the delaminated part of the slab there is an engraved petroglyph of the façade of the probationer with a covering slab, possibly a tiled type, executed (obliquely) from the corner.
If you move your gaze from the first composition to the left along the upper edge of the slab, then a triangle with a hole in the center will be adjacent. In Hittite hieroglyphics, the triangle, but without a center circle, symbolizes the word "su" (shu) - good, health, good, which coincides with the Adyghe and Abaza similar lexeme and semantics. A triangle with a hole can mean “a kind soul” (a person of a kind soul).
The next composition "6" is composed of three elements: a small seven-pointed star, a sub-square lattice with seven parallel lines and four strokes perpendicular to them, and a straight cross with a long lower ray and a barely noticeable upper one. Inside the grate there is a medium-sized round hole.
In Adyghe symbolism, the number "7" is associated with the constellation "Zhuag'o zeshybl" (Big Dipper), which symbolized fertility, abundance. The rectangular lattice is associated with plowing, agriculture. (3, 1930). On the breakaway upper left corner of the slab, a geometric composition “7” is inscribed, based on a petroglyph of a pyramid-type structure, a Hittite silab and two tamga-like signs (Gobeshi and Abaev. (18, 1993: 122-139).
In the center of the slab is the most complex group of characters from compositions 10 and 11, stretching into a kind of oblique line and underlined by a straight line. The composition “10” is based on the “sun boat”. Above her, partially entering her image, is a feather-streaked triglyph connected to a 6-pointed star. Another smaller 6-pointed star is engraved next to the right. The horizontal ray of this star ends in a thin-linear oblique cross. The triglyph at the top connects with two rays of a large star and forms a figure close to the logogram of the Hittite name "Asitavada" (5, 1960, pp. 279, 286) and at the same time to the tamga Abazin Tkhaitsyuho (Adyghe "man of God"). (18, 1993, p. 278). This can be thought of as a priestly function. The six-pointed star, according to the semantics proposed by E. Laroche, could symbolize love among the Hittites, and the oblique cross was a symbol of the priestess.(5, 1960, p. 278).
Since composition 11 is included in the line, and the latter is headed by the "solar boat", turned by the keel to the left, the reading of the line should start from right to left. If we take a round hole for a symbol of the human soul, a three-branched figure for a logogram of the word "respect", an inverted arch for a logogram of the word "great-grandfather" (5, 1960, pp. 274, 278), we can get the following meaning: "Keeping respect for the spirit of" Kyakhsky (5, 1960, p. 274) great-grandfather ", loving souls of Asitava and the priestesses are sent to him in the" solar boat ". In such an ancient message, it is possible to assume a custom or a case of voluntary or obligatory death of a companion.
It can be imagined that the vertical row of the exfoliated part of the Loupe plate is dedicated to one buried in the dolmen, and on the main plane - to a pair of his descendant Asitava. Peripheral compositions, like the stamps of a medieval icon, characterize each of the buried two times. The most important issues of attribution of a new ancient artifact - archeology - are chronological synchronization, ethno-cultural or archaeological-cultural link. It would not be so difficult to determine the time of creation of this petroglyphic work if the slab was located near or on the very archaeological monument of a domestic, defense or burial nature. But just this is not the case, because the slab slid into the ravine from the ridge, the final part of which was between two strategic highways. Down - a cliff to the railroad 40 - 30 meters high;up a steep slope to the Tuapse-Sochi highway, about 25 - 20 m high. This patch was seriously disturbed during the construction of the railway in 1946, and not a single meter remained under the dozer blade during construction and repair work on the highway. " insitu ".
Surely, near or near the slab there were one or more test dolmens, whose facades were reflected in the petroglyphs. This is evidenced by the funerary content of most petroglyphic compositions. In all likelihood, the slab was on a podium with a height at the level of the belly-chest of a quadratores (stonemason - Italian), judging by the bypass method of applying signs. And it is logical to think about its location and use in the portal of the test dolmen, or in a sanctuary near megalithic structures.
Within the Black Sea Shapsugia, the so-called. Olga plates with petroglyphs published by A. A. Miller and dated by him to the 10th - 12th centuries. (12, 1909). The petroglyphs of one slab depict a cult-funeral plot with pictograms of a Christian temple and a female figure. On the other plate there is a pictogram of a horse, a male figure and a very schematic sailing boat. But nowhere is the image of the test person (dolmen) visible, although the pictogram of the woman is given in a recumbent position next to the cross, in all likelihood, buried. Of the European voyagers of the Middle Ages, no one mentions megaliths, although many of them in their entirety stand from the Bronze Age (and some from the Eneolithic) close to the sea. It seems that the Shapsugs did not show them to any of the guests, and they were taboo for images. Especially,probes in the Middle Ages were functionally used as sanctuaries and altars, but not as tombs.
The famous Maikop "slab" belongs by two authors to the Late Bronze period of the Bronze Age (17, 1971, pp. 28, 29; 7, 2009, pp. 87, 88), but among its petroglyphs there are no images of hieroglyphs of test subjects, similar to the facades of the Dudugushevsky composite dolmen or the Loupe plate. G. F. Tarchaninov suggested the imported character of the Myakop plate. The author of this article also admits the fact that the silabo-hieroglyphic inscription on the Maikop slab was executed by the courtier of the Hittite king Supiluleuma II, who arrived from Anatolia, where there were no such "stone houses" and who had not seen the North Caucasian megaliths. It is also important that in 1195 - 1197. BC. (dating of the Maikop plate according to N. G. Lovpache), i.e. at the very end of the Bronze Age, test subjects were not built, but in the funeral function they were occasionally used by the mountaineers of the present Maikop region. (4, 1999, p. 52, fig. 16,from. 21, 22).
An earlier monument of the dolmen culture is the Kolikho test-dolmen in the Black Sea Shapsugia, dated by V. A. Trifonov on the bones buried in it, in the second half of the 2nd millennium BC. (16), apparently, contained unselected material from the first half of the 2nd millennium BC. According to the main researcher of the Caucasian test dolmens V. I. Markovin, megaliths were built in the first half of the second millennium BC, and later continued to function as tombs. (10, 1999, p. 398). Those. material from the second half of the 2nd millennium BC from the test dolmen Kolikho is associated with a secondary funeral rite. But the stone round tile found at the very bottom, under the bones, with 7 hieroglyphs on one side, must refer to the construction of the megalith, i.e. by the first half of the 2nd millennium BC. Among the hieroglyphs of this tile, there is no pictogram of a dolmen testner,but in the text read by N. G. Lovpache, a strong (stone) seat is mentioned, in which a probationer can think (8, 2013: 252, 254).
An ancient element of the Loupe Plate is the pictogram of a deer on a pole, typical of the standards of the Maikop culture of the North Caucasus and the Aladzha-Guyuk culture in Anatolia. These cultures date back no later than the 3rd millennium BC.
Unfortunately, there are no chronological landmarks on the slab itself, from which one can make a start in its epoch-making dating. Before the pictogram of a test subject on the exfoliated part, the composition "3" with an upward arc can be read by E. Laroche as November 15 (eleventh crescent); but what year is not indicated. A similar tradition is seen in the ancient writing of Asia Minor. So, Jacques de Morgan in the book "The Origin of the Peoples of the Caucasus" gives the inscription of the tablet of the 23rd century BC. From the Nineveh library, and in which the cuneiform duct says: “On the 20th new moon, King Hati (Var Xati) comes and takes over the throne” (Akkada - NL). (14, 1889, p. 55).
The author of the Paris book determines the date of the indicated event 3750 BC, proceeding from the classical Chaldean treatise on astrology, from where he obtained information for the tablet Naramsin - the ancient Assyrian king.
But we do not have a source similar to the Chaldean treatise, but only a vertical line of four hieroglyphic-pictographic compositions. According to the Hatti-Hittite hieroglyphics, this line can be read approximately as follows:
"The soul of the great prophet (Aisa) of the famous archer - the soul of Muva in the eleventh half moon reached the psaun - the house of the soul."
It is assumed that the Abaza clan of Ais has preserved the ancient hieroglyph-tamga from the Bronze Age. (18, 1993, pp. 160, 164).
Consequently, the petroglyphs of the Loupe plta cannot be dated more than half a millennium. According to the chronological position of trough-shaped test subjects, determined by V. I. Mrkovin (10, 1999, p. 398), the Loupska slab, one petroglyph of which depicting the facade of a dolmen of this type, should occupy the chronological shelf of the first half of the 2nd millennium BC.
With regard to cultural attribution, the Lope Plate should definitely and no doubt be included in the Late Dolmen culture of the Western Caucasus.
With regard to ethnocultural attribution, one should recall the idea of linguists about the differentiation of a single Abkhaz-Adyghe language, precisely in the dolmen era. (10, 1999, p. 395).
Considering the closest proximity of the hieroglyphs and tamg-tauras of the Loup plate to the Shapsug (Khagur), Kabardino-Kasozh (Pshunetlevs, Gobashevs), and in general, to the Kyakhs, but especially to the Abaza (Abazgs of the ancient era and the early Middle Ages) - Aisov, (13, 1994, p. 490) Dzhanbudi, Loo, Pazov, Psheunov, Tkhaytsyukhov, Pshu, Abkhazian (kyakhir) patrimonial coats of arms, it is more correct to define - the Abkhaz-Adyghe ethnos of the developed bronze of the Eastern Black Sea region.
This preliminary interpretation is very schematic. There are many ambiguities in it and there is hope to clarify them over time. There is still an opportunity to unravel the puzzles of the petroglyphic compositions of the main graphic plane of the Loupe plate. Loupskaya it was named because of the place of the find, located at the end of the floodplain of the river. Loops (Adyghe), close to its confluence with the Black Sea.
Deciphering the pictographic-hieroglyphic compositions of the slab will provide information on the ground side of the funeral rite of the dolmen culture, to some extent, the opportunity to restore the lost lexicon of the Adyghe, Abkhazian and Abaza languages by attracting Hutt terms and names.
In addition to archaeological, historical and linguistic perspectives, the petroglyphs of the Loupe plate make it possible to present not only the ancient literary character of its signs, but also the sculptural and graphic art of the ancient ancestors of the Abkhaz-Adygs of the developed Bronze Age.
Finally, solving the mysterious pictographic-hieroglyphic patterns can narrow the date of the slab by the mythologized image of some historical event.
In addition to Khusht Madin and Andrey Kizilov, young patriotic Shapsugs Sheretluk Shumaf and Chachukh Akhmed showed active participation and assistance in delivering the Loupe slab, making sketches, photographing and preserving them. Gvashev Ruslan, a well-known social activist of the active Adyghe world, did not stand aside from the concern about this matter.