Toponymy of the Ancient Sary-Arka (North-Eastern Kazakhstan)

The onomastics place name (eponymy) research has a long tradition in Kazakhstan (Slovtsov 1844, Groznyi 1940, Medoyev 1948, Bayandin 1949, Tatischev 1950, Konkashpayev 1959, Margulan et al. 1966, Popova 1966) in respect to the historical imprint to landscape left by ancient populations (Plit and Myga-Piątek 2014). A linguistic study focus in relation to the country’s geography has been on understanding a regional toponymy of the present Kazakh parkland-steppes and some particular places associated with a sequenced culture-historical occupation of these lands by prehistoric and early historical nomadic ethnics. This paper examines the etymology of the principal geographical entities – the specific landscape forms – of the present North and East Kazakhstan – the historical area with a poetical name Sary-Arka/Saryarka. This term is known since the ancient times, meaning in the old Turkish language Yellowing Ridge (Margulan et al. 1966). Yet, its linguistic roots may go far back into the prehistoric (Bronze Age) Mesopotamia and the Sumerian civilization (Postgate 1993). According to present archaeology and ethnology evidence Sary-Arka has an actual geomorphological foundation and a direct linkage to the mosaic relief of the dry undulating rocky steppes and parklands of the northern Central Asia. In the ancient lyrics, this vast and open landscape of early nomads was venerated and glorified by the Bronze Age Akyn nation. It is also mentioned in the ancient Kyrgyz epics (Van der Heide 2015). Some large rivers with their tributaries flow through this extensive area that played the principal historical role in the cultural evolution and the socio-economic development and life of early semi-sedentary populations settling this territory.

Rich prehistoric and early historical cultural monuments and archaeological localities are found in diverse topographic settings across Sary-Arka bearing witness of a chronologically long and ethnically divergent inhabitation of this part of Central Asia by hunter-gatherer and subsequent pastoral and early agricultural communities (Khazanov 1984, Frachetti 2006. Outram et al. 2009). A close linkage of these sites with the most prominent and strategic topographic settings since the Palaeolithic times is evident, pointing to adaptation to the mountain and steppe environments (e.g., Levine and Kislenko 1997, Vishnyatsky 1999, Zakh et al. 2010, Chlachula 2010, 2017, Kotov 2016). The mountain regions of Central Asia are believed to facilitate spread of early agriculture since the Bronze Age (Motuzaite Matuzeviciute et al. 2015). The most famous archaeological sites of the Sary-Arka and the adjacent Southern Altai are associated with the Iron-Age Scythian civilization with traces of settlement in the steppes, river valleys as well as on the alpine Altai plateaus with the World-famous burial mounds (kurgan) sealed in permafrost grounds (Bourgeois et al. 2000, Polosmak 2001, Samashev 2001, 2011, Gorbunov et al. 2005, Chlachula 2018).

This study discusses toponymy of the main regional hydronyms and oronymes (place names of the principal rivers and mountains, respectively) found on the territory of northern and eastern Kazakhstan that still do not have a uniform and generally accepted interpretation. Linguistic, historical and geographical studies and their conclusions are taken into account summarizing the current knowledge and scientific hypotheses based on the historical and geographical literature analysis. This also concerns the etymology of the regionally principal place names of the main rivers and lakes such as Yertys and Zaysan, and the mountains ranges of the Altai, Tarbagatai, Bayanaul and some other (Yegorina 2002). According to the present evidence, there is no common and scientifically grounded lexical clarification of these geomorphic entities. This may be explained by the 150-year presence of the Mongolian Oyrats in the NE Kazakhstan during the 17^th and the first half of the 18^th centuries, and the previous Tatar and Mongol invasions to the territory of Sary-Arka during the 13^th century that modified or completely obliterated the former place names and their original meanings used by the indigenous tribes. There are some exceptions, such as the hydronym of Irtysh, referring to the main river flowing through the Eastern and NE Kazakhstan that clearly derives from the river Yertys encountered in the ancient Turkish written records. The Yertys etymology is also found in the early Hungarian annals and chronicles describing the nation’s prehistory and early historical times. The original linguistic assignment Irciss, however, probably relates to the Ket nation from whom this name was taken over by the medieval Mongols. Finally, examples of physiogeography peculiarities and specific geo-forms of the north-central and eastern Kazakhstan are presented in linkage with the regional historical toponymy. Apart of clarification of the place names’ origin, study of the prehistoric and historical landscape change has relevance for mapping of the present geo-relief structures, for understanding of their perception by the former nomads as well as promotion of the modern geo-tourism in the Republic of Kazakhstan (Goessling et al. 2005, Yegorina et al. 2016, Geta et al. 2015, Mazbaev 2016, Saparov and Zhensikbayeva 2016, Zhensikbaeva et al. 2017, 2018).

The north-central and eastern Kazakhstan – Sary-Arka – is naturally a very diverse area with a high degree of geo-diversity characterized by deep ravines, erosional tectonic platforms and rocky hills surrounded by open parkland-steppes. It is rich of natural, especially metallic minerals that were explored and exploited for since the prehistoric times (Samashev 2001, Kungurov 2006, Baumer 2016a–c). The dominant semi-arid steppe area is covered by feather grasses (Poaceae – Stipa sp.), reminding a fox tail, broadly distributed across the country (Nobis and Gudkova 2016) and indicative of dry continental steppes with hot summers and windy frosty winters with a little snow cover. The historical name Sary-Arka refers to the vast geographical area bound from the South by the Aral-Balkhash Lowland, in the North by the West Siberian Lowland, in the West by the Caspian Plain and the Torgai Valley, and in the East by the Irtysh River valley (Fig. 1). It has most likely a geomorphologic connotation to the prevalent relief of North-Central Kazakhstan (Medoyev 1948, Margulan et al. 1966). From the modern geographic and geomorphic point of view, the Sary-Arka includes a series of low-elevation yellowish granite ranges and mountain ridges (Kokshetau, Karkaraly, Baitau/Bayantau, Shyngystau, Ulytau, Atasu, Imantau, Kyzylzhar, Munly, Mugodzhary, Zhaksy, Zhangystau and some other) drained by small rivers and streams in-charging into the Aral-Balkhash basin in the southern part of the territory. Some larger rivers drain the area in the north (Yesil, Tobol) belonging to the Irtysh/Yertys basin.

Fig. 1

Biogeographically, the study area encompasses the present parklands, steppes and semi-deserts of East Kazakhstan (Fig. 2). These are aligned by the chain of mountains from the North-West (the Southern Urals), the North-East (the Altai) and the South-East (the Tarbagatay Range). The central part is shaped by low-elevation hills (the Central Kazakh Highlands) adjoining the Zaisan Depression in the East filled by lakes – the Zaisan and the Bukhtarma Basins (300–400 m a.s.l.) amid of a dry xerotheric landscape. The Southern Altai is the principal mountain system of East Kazakhstan with elevations >4,000 m a.s.l., bordering in the East the Mongolian Altai through the Tabon-Bogdo-Ula massive (Nairamdal Mt., 4,356 m a.s.l.) (Chupakhin 1968). The East Kazakshtan orogenic massive is divided into several E–W oriented montane formations (Southern Altai, Sarymsakty, Narym and Kurchum) connecting through the Tarbagatai Range (2,992 m a.s.l.) and the Dzhundarskiy Alatau (4,464 m a.s.l.) to the Tian-Shan Mountains (Schultz 1948, Mikhailov 1961). Geomorphologically, the alpine relief is characterized by steep erosional northern slopes representing uplifted relics of old plateaus (>3,000 m a.s.l.) with a westwards-decreasing topographic gradient (3,900–2,300 m a.s.l.). The enclosing inter-basin generated by rifting during the Hercynian orogenesis is largely filled by Paleozoic, Devonian and Carboniferous sea deposits (Deviatkin 1965, 1981, Erofeev 1969, Mikhailova 2002). The central steppe area is built by weathered Proterozoic granites in places interspersed by gneiss units exposed to the present surface in the form of rounded hills and up-to 100 m-elevated flat denudation platforms. These stretch across the land as parallel-running fold erosional relics adjoining the rocky Melkosopochnik (highlands) of East-Central Kazakhstan (Svarichevskaya 1965).

Fig. 2

The present-day relief of East Kazakhstan provides evidence of a complex landscape development triggered by past climate change and the regional tectonic activity (Nekhoroshev 1958, 1967, Dodonov 2002, Akhmetyev et al. 2005, Dyachkov et al. 2014). Three biogeographic provinces reach the present territory – the central Kazakhstan (Aral Sea-West Siberian) province, the southern Siberian (Yenisei) province and the Central Asian (Tian-Shan – Mongolian Altai) mountain province, with the latter having experienced the most intensive Quaternary physiography evolution accompanied by intensive erosion processes (Velikovskaya 1946, Grigoriev 1950, Chupakhin 1968). The pre-Cenozoic landscape history of the continental areas of Central Asia is characterized by a low topographic gradient of old planation surfaces and former sedimentary sea basins subsequently broken by the late Miocene Earth crust movement (Nekhoroshev 1967). Neotectonic activity in conjunction with past global climate changes shaped the former relief particularly during at the Pliocene/Pleistocene and early Middle Pleistocene. The territorial Cenozoic (Late Pliocene-Middle Pleistocene) orogeny constructed a system of mountain ranges separated by deep depressions periodically filled by lacustrine water bodies (Dodin 1961). Intensive erosion of the uplifted geological formations led to several denudation cycles flattening the former relief (Aubekerov 1993). The topographic elevations are distorted by long-term weathering processes and sculptured into exposed vegetation-free rocky granitic hills of an average 700–750 m a.s.l. elevation (Obruchev 1951).

The progressive cooling during the late Middle and Late Pleistocene generated permafrost expansion on the northern and central plains merging with the insular mountain permafrost (Aubekerov and Gorbunov 1999). The glaciations in the mountain areas affected the adjacent ice-free foothills with prevailing continental cold and arid climate and intensified denudations processes (Kozhamkulova and Kostenko 1984). The regional geomorphology is largely defined by the Quaternary (palaeo-)landscape evolution with the warmer Early-Middle Pleistocene interglacials witnessed by strongly weathered palaeosols followed by increased continentality and a progressing relief gradient during the Late Pleistocene (Galakhov and Mukhametov 1999). A pronounced Last Glacial natural dynamics of the Altai Mountains is documented by spectacular glaciofluvial terraces in the principal mountain valleys associated with a release of deep ice-dammed glacial lakes subjected to cataclysmic drainages during the final stages of the regional alpine-zone deglaciation (Butvilovskiy 1985, Rudoy and Baker 1993, Rudoy and Kirianova 1994, Herget 2005). The Last Glacial (MIS 4 and 2) loess up to 20 m thick, interstratified by palaeosol, blankets the western mountain foothills and adjoining slopes in the main sedimentary (river) valleys (Chlachula 2010).

The present hydrology network belongs to the Irtysh drainage system with the Black Irtysh and Bukhtarma Rivers being the main tributaries. The modern climate is strongly continental, with warm semi-humid summers and very cold winters with an increasingly uneven precipitation distribution ranging from 1,500–2,000 mm/year on the NW Altai slopes to 200 mm/year in the Zaisan Lake basin with semi-desert vegetation transgressing into an open Kazakh steppe along the margins.

In consistency with the above geographic and geomorphic characteristics, the toponymy of Sary-Arka with its typical relief features and some unique geo-sites indicates a rather ancient origin. From a geo-environmental point of view, this may mirror presence of a variety of local ecosystems (Fig. 4) and culture-historical adaptation strategies of the past hunters’ populations and later semi-sedentary nomadic communities settling this vast territory. The traditional understanding of the Sar-Arka is believed to mean Yellow watersheds or Outspread ridge (Medoyev 1948). In opposite, the etymology approach of this study, by referring to the old Turkish linguistic records, suggests an alternative interpretation – Sary – meaning A side, land of light and Arka meaning North. Thus, this place-name represents The Land of the North or The North Side. The eponymy roots, however, may go far back as to the Eneolithic (5^th–4^th Millennium BP) into the time of ancient ore prospectors exploiting the Sary-Arkas’ copper deposits found in the Zhezkazgan and the Rudny Altai Mountains (Baumer 2016a). A certain parallel is known from the southern area of the Central Asia – the Near East – in term of introduction of metallurgy in the early civilizations of Mesopotamia and India (Roberts et al. 2009). A certain culture-chronological linkage to the ancient Mesopotamia is seen in the Sumerian nation that called themselves Kengirler i.e. Miners (Moorey 1982). The present NE Kazakhstan or Sary-Arka was likely one of the centers of mineral mining and introduction of metallurgy (Chernykh 1992, Baybatsha 1998). The existing archaeological evidence suggest a geographical origin of the Sumerians from somewhere in the Kyrgyz (=Kazakh) steppes on the border between long-headed ancient Indo-Europeans and short-headed Turanians ethnics (Grozny 1940). Altogether, the territory is unique in its material and spiritual culture of the former pastoral traditions spanning over many millennia of occupancy along the historical Silk Road (Barfield 1989). The local geo-settings played a major role in the cultural and economic life of the ancient population of Central Kazakhstan (Margulan et al. 1966). Except for metallic minerals, the broader area of Sary-Arka is also rich of semi-precious and precious stones that attracted attention since the prehistoric times (Pacekov et al. 1990, Sherba et al. 2000, Chernenko and Chlachula 2017).

During the Iron Age (1^st Millennium BC), northern Kazakhstan was occupied by pastoralist tribes known under the name of Sakas (Saks) mentioned in the old Greek and Assyrian written records as Scythians or Turans. The Arabic and Persian sources refer to the present Central Asia as to the Northern Land or the Tatar Land – Desht-i-Kipchak of the Batus Ulus – a regional geopolitical entity established by Mongols that absorbed the Turkic tribes of the northern steppes of Central Asia (David 1946). The Turkic-Tatar ethnic elements became dominant in the following 13^th–15^th centuries taking over political powers from the Mongols and consolidated in the Golden Horde fighting with the medieval Russian State. After its political disintegration, independent khanates in the western Siberia and Central Asia were established. From 15^th to 18^th century, the territory of Sary-Arka became a part of the Kazakh Khanate reaching a major development under Khan/Emir Chagataid Tughlugh Timur (Kundakbayeva 2016). Cattle-breading remained principal economy under the tribal/extended family social organization. During the 18^th until the early 20^th century (1925), the territory of the present-day north-central and East Kazakhstan was a part of the Russian Empire (the Tomsk Gubernia) after the collapse of the Kazakh political unity in the 1730–40s’ and thus a subject of geographic investigations and mapping by the Russian cartographers. Hand-in-hand, the historical linguistic research was carried out in the frame of the Russian geo-political sphere. This is documented by cartographic works and illustrated maps, such as the Sketch of Siberia by Remezov (1697) with the Irtysh River course (Fig. 3), or ethnographic drawings and photographic illustrations depicting the lifestyles and land-use of the local Kyrgyz/Kazakh steppe pastoral people (Fig. 4). In the 19^th century, the broader area came into focus of the British Crown in connection with its political interests in Central Asia as documented by the map of Independent Tartary by J.F. Tallis (1851) or the geographic map by A.K. Johnston (1879).

Fig. 3

Fig. 4

Methodology of the present summarizing study is based on an in-depth analysis of the Sary-Arka eponymy and toponymy of some principal hydronyms and oronyms providing a culture-historical mosaic of this vast and literally enigmatic steppe-land. Archives of the Gumilov National University, the National Library of the Republic of Kazakhstan and the Archaeological Museum in Astana were used. The place-names’ interpretations is based on a multi/proxy approach combining, apart of the linguistic records also ethnological and archaeological evidence and data.

As presented above, certain toponyms across the Sary-Arka area have common onomastics background even for the geographically rather distant places. This similarity clearly implies close cultural and economic links, and past political tights also reflected in the ethnological affinities and archaeological records (Gryaznov 1969, Anthony 2002). A certain geographic culture-historical amalgamation over the c. 2,000 km steppe regions from the Altai in the East to the Urals in the West is corroborated by the etymology. A very good example is the name Irtysh. Both the Irtash (Irtyash) Lake in Bashkiria in the southern Urals and the Irtysh (Yertysh) River in NE Kazakhstan have the same linguistic root meaning in the old Turkic language Man’s Stone (from ir, er – man and tas, tash – stone or mountain (Tatischev 1950). Another comparative case is the Sibirka River in Bashkiria that drains the Urals foothills as a left tributary of the Chusovaya River, providing evidence of proximity of the Urals Nogai and the West Siberian Yurts (Uluses) — the medieval tribal organizations (Kundakbayeva 2016). This fact points to a broader ethnic uniformity and/or mobility with socio-economic interactions of the ancient populations inhabiting this vast territory.

On the other hand, the linguistic complexity suggests a diversity of the culture-historical origin of the particular ethnics inhabiting the ancient Sary-Arka. Besides of the Irtysh/Yertysh River, no uniform common and scientifically grounded lexical interpretation of other hydronyms is generally accepted. Most of the present place names of the area indicate the Mongolian cultural milieu because of their 150-year presence and reign in the North-Eastern Kazakhstan during the 17^th and the early 18^th centuries, and previously during the 12–13^th centuries. At that time, most of Central Asia was incorporated in the Mongolian Khanate and experienced the allied Tatar invasions (Kundakbayeva 2016). The origin of some place names may go back to the earlier times (the 9^th century AD) in association with the Kumak (Kumyk) and Kipchak ethnic substrate (Menges 1995).

A complexity of the ethnic interactions between the north Central Asian groups (Mongolian, Turkic and indigenous, such as Altaic) is also indicated by genetic evidence of the present Kazakh and other Turkic nations’ people from the north Kazakhstan–southern Siberia region (Gogkumen et al. 2008). The same pattern of the East-West demographic exchanges and mixing facilitated by the absence of any major physiographic barriers and concretized in the present place names of Sary-Arka can be visualized since the ancient times and represented by the proto-Uralic, proto-Altaic and Palaeo-Siberian ethnics (Dolukhanov 2003). The historical toponymy imprint to the Sary-Arka’s relief is over-whelmingly Turkic adding to the Mongol place names in the eastern part of the land. The old Turkic influence is linguistically documented across wide areas of Asia from western China and Iran to the Balkans (Sevortyan 1974, Menges 1995, Johanson 2001, Alymov et al. 2010).

Knowledge of the culture-historical evolution, the relief physiognomy formation and anthropogenic-natural interactions to specific geomorphic settings in a particular area contributes to the local landscape management, geoheritage promotion and geotourism development (e.g., Coratza et al. 2012, Migon and Goudie 2012, Thomas 2012, Zwoliński, Stachowiak 2012, Ilieş et al. 2017). The Sary-Arka region of NE Kazakhstan has a major potential in this respect (Zhensikbayeva et al. 2017, 2018).

The north-central and eastern Kazakhstan (the ancient Sary-Arka) shows a complex and timely long culture-historical evolution reflected in the local place names best-recorded for the major rivers and mountains. Yet, not all the regional eponymy entities can be securely determined using geo-forms’ linguistics. In view to the present evidence of the oronyms and hydronyms found on this territory it can be summarized: –

the Turkic affix ly-li, dy-di and the Mongolian affix tu-ty are of the same linguistic root. These affixes are attached to nouns and form the principal Sary-Arka’s place-name background mostly going back to the early Middle Ages;

The toponymy characteristics provide insights into population exchanges in northern Central Asia throughout the millennia since the Eneolithic of the ancient Indo-European inhabitants through the Bronze and Iron Ages (3^rd and 1^st Mill. BC) of the Turanian, Scythian and Saks ethnics until the historical period (2^nd Mill. AD) represented by nomadic, territorially mobile in part semi-sedentary peoples. The major culture-geographic imprint relates to the Mongolian invasion into the parkland-steppes of the present northern Kazakhstan during the 13^th century, and the following Turkic-Tatar tribes politically integrated into the military hordes and representing a substratum of the modern Kazakh nation. Spatial distribution mapping and onomastics understanding of the main geographic entities has a major relevance to the currently expanding (eco-)tourism taking into account all the relief and the associated geo-ecosystem peculiarities and unique nature of the Sary-Arka’s territory.