Estampages by Aleksander V. Adrianov Preserved in the Collection of Central Asia and Siberia at the Institute of Oriental Manuscripts, RAS

Abstract

Any specialist, engaged in the research of the South Siberian antiquities, encounters various materials and collections of Aleksander V. Adrianov (1854–1920), an outstanding researcher who carried out archaeological excavations of hundreds of anciet burial mounds, discovered the majority of currently known petroglyph locations, and dozens of stone carvings and inscriptions. For various historical reasons the materials collected by this prominent archaeologist were never presereved together at the same place. Due to the the existing at the beginning of the 20th century tradition the collected items were sorted by contents and transferred to various institutions of the Russian Academy of Sciences and other academic organizations. This article deals with a rather small part of the Aleksander V. Adrianov’s materials, i. e. the estampages made by the researcher himself and, most probably, under his supervision. These estampages were transferred to the Asiatic museum (AM, nowadays the Institute of Oriental manuscripts of the Russian Academy of sciences (IOM RAS)) in the 1920s from the Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography (now MAE RAS). The estampages were identified during the throughout inventorying and cataloguing of the Collection of Central Asia and Siberia of the IOM RAS in 2021–2023. The collection includes 95 estampages of 30 Old Turkic runiform texts from the Yenisei area, as well as three later Buddhist inscriptions, that were discovered by Adnianov in 1904–1916. The article includes a detailed information on the provenance of the estampages, identified in the Collection of the IOM RAS. and their brief catalogue. 

Keywords:

Old Turkic runic writing monuments of the Yenisei, Old Turkic epigraphy, estampage, Aleksander V. Adrianov, Siberian archaelogy, IOM RAS