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Explanatory notes to the tables of tamgas:

The following sources were used in compiling the proposed tables of tamgas:
"Census of a group of secret agents according to the sign inventory of movable and immovable property in the Gum and Bzyb districts."
Miller A.A. From a trip to Abkhazia in 1907 // Materials on the Ethnography of Russia. Vol. 1. - St. Petersburg. 1910. P. 77.
Inal-Ipa Sh.D. The Abkhazians - Sukhumi. 1965. Pp. 220-222.
Idem. On Abkhaz-Adyghe ethnographic parallels // Scientific Notes. AdNIIYALI. Vol. 4. - Krasnodar. 1965. Pp. 236-238.
Idem. Pages of the historical ethnography of the Abkhazians. - Sukhumi. 1971. P. 115.
Idem. Cattle breeding // Agriculture and cattle breeding among the Abkhazians. - Tbilisi. 1986. Pp. 194-195.
Idem. Abkhazians abroad. - Sukhumi. 1990. P. 139, as well as tamgas not yet published by him.
Bzhania Ts.N. From the history of the economy and culture of the Abkhazians. - Sukhumi. 1973. Pp. 305-307.
Lavrov L.I. Caucasian tamgas. - In: Lavrov L.I. Historical and ethnographic essays on the Caucasus. - Leningrad. 1978. Pp. 91-163. This work contains Abkhaz tamgas from the following authors:
Efimenko P.S. Legal signs // Journal of the Ministry of Public Education. Vol. 176. St. Petersburg. 1874. No. 530 according to Lavrov L.I.;
Felitsyn E.D. Collection of tamgas, or family signs of the Western Caucasian highlanders and the Kabertai tribe of the Adyghe people // Notes of the Odessa Society of History and Antiquities. Vol. 15. - Odessa. 1889 (Nos. 45, 114, 194, 750 according to Lavrov L.I.);
Makalatia S. History and ethnography of Megrelia. - Tbilisi. 1941. P. 49. (No. 102 according to Lavrov L.I.).
Gabnia S.S. Personal archive.
Unpublished stencils of tamgas from the funds of the Abkhaz State Museum.


Designation of collections:

1. AM - Abkhaz State Museum;
2. B - Bzhania Ts.N.;
3. G - Gabnia S.S.;
4. E - Efimenko P.S.;
5. Zh - Gendarmerie Administration;
6. I - Inal-Ipa Sh.D.;
7. L - Lavrov L.I.;
8. Mk - Makalatia S.;
9. M - Miller A.A.;
10. F - Felitsyn E.D.


The attached list of clan, family, or personal affiliation of tamgas is given with the abbreviation of the source in parentheses.


1. Abgadzhaa (Zh)
2. Abdaa (Zh)
3. Abdeiba (Zh) (Zh)
4. Abdeiba
5. Abdeiba (Zh; I)
6. Abraskil (Zh)
7. Abykhu ba (Zh)
8. Avedzhba (Zh)
9. Avedzhba (Zh)
10. Aggan-ipa (Zh)
11. Aguba (Zh)
12. Adzhba (Zh)
13. Adzhba (Zh)
14. Adikua (Zh)
15. Adleiba (Zh; I)
16. Adleiba (Zh)
17. Aiba (Zh)
18. Aikusba (Zh)
19. Aimkhaa, Emkhaa, Gal (Zh; B)
20. Akayuba (Zh)
21. Aktsisba (Zh)
22. Akshba (Zh)
23. Akyrtaa (Zh)
24. Amaba (Zh)
25. Amarshan (Zh)
26. Amkvab, Markula (I)
27. Amchba (Zh; I)
28. Ankvab (Zh)
29. Anua (Zh)
30. Apba (Zh)
31. Apskhe, Apskha, Pskhu (F)
32. Aphazou (Zh)
33. Argun (Zh)
34. Argun (L)
35. Ard ziba (Zh)
36. Ardzinba (Zh)
37. Ardzinba (Zh)
38. Arsalia (I)
39. Artushba (Zh)
40. Arshba, Tkuarchal (I)
41. Arystaa (Zh)
42. A rytba (Zh)
43. Aryutaa (Zh)
44. Asadzuaa (Zh)
45. Atarba (Zh)
46. Atumaa (Zh)
47. Atumaa Gup (I)
48. Akhashba (Zh)
49. Akhiba (Zh)
50. Atsamba (Zh)
51. Achamba (Zh)
52. Achba (I)
53. Achba, Tkuarchal (I)
54. Achba (I)
55. Achba, Tkuarchal (I)
56. Achba, Tkuarchal (I)
57. Achba Khabugu, Chlou (I)
58. Achba Alma, Tkuarchal (I)
59. Achba (Zh)
60. Achba, Pakuash (I)
61. Achba (I)
62. Achkadu (Zh)
63. Achua (Zh)
64. Ashba (Zh)
65. Ashba (Zh)
66. Ashba (Zh)
67. Ashmeiba (Zh)
68. Baalo (Zh)
69. Babysh-ipa (Zh)
70. Bagapshaa (Zh)
71. Bagba (Zh)
72. Bazba (Zh)
73. Banyk-ipa (Zh)
74. Baras (Zh)
75. Bar gandzhia (Zh)
76. Barmyshaa (Zh)
77. Bartsyts (Zh)
78. Bganba, Kaldakhvara (Zh)
79. Bganba (Zh)
80. Bzhania (Zh)
81. Blabaa (Zh)
82. Butba (Zh)
83. Bydzhaa (Zh)
84. Vardania (Zh)
85. Gablia (Zh)
86. Gablia (Zh)
87. Gablia (Zh)
88. Gabni-ipa (Zh)
89. Gadleiba (Zh)
90. Gamgia (Zh)
91. Gechba (Zh)
92. Gogua (Zh)
93. Gozhba (Zh)
94. Guadzhgiar-ipa (Zh)
95. Guatasaa-Gobechia (Zh)
96. Gubaz (Zh)
97. Gublia (Zh)
98. Gul aria (Zh)
99. Gulia (Zh; I)
100. Gumba (Zh)
101. Gunba (Zh)
102. Gunia, Markula (I)
103. Gyr dzhinba (Zh)
104. Gyruapsh (Zh)
105. Gytsba (Zh)
106. Davlet-geri (Zh)
107. Davlet-geri (Zh)
108. Daguaa (Zh)
109. Dbar (Zh)
110. Dbar (Zh)
111. Demirdzh-ipa (Zh)
112. Dzhanba (Zh)
113. Dzhopua, Chlou (I) and Mokva community (B)
114. Dzhurgia (Zh)
115. Dzadzba (Zh)
116. Dzyapsh-ipa (B; Zh)
117. Dzyapsh-ipa (I)
118. Dzyapsh-ipa (I)
119. Dzyapsh-ipa (I)
120. Dopua (Zh)
121. Dumaa (Zh)
122. Dumanov (Zh)
123. Yezy dzhba (Zh)
124. Emkhaa, Aimkhaa, Gal (B; Zh; I)
125. Yeshba and Kha indrava, Tkhina (B; I)
126. Zhane-Zhanaa (Zh)
127. Zantariaa, Tamysh (B; Zh)
128. Zantariaa (Zh)
129. Zvanba (Zh)
130. Zukhba (Zh)
131. Inal-Ipa, Soulakh, Pitsunda (I)
132. Inal-Ipa (I)
133. Inal-Ipa, Kaldakhvara (I)
134. Inal-Ipa Safarbe i (Zh)
135. Inapshba (Zh)
136. Inapshba (Zh)
137. Iuanba (Zh)
138. Kaitanba (Zh)
139. Kamkia (Sadzua) (Zh)
140. Kapba (Zh)
141. Kapsh (Zh)
142. Karamsakal, Chegem Dzhgerda, (B)
143. Karamchakal, Chegem (I)
144. Katsuba (Zh)
145. Kelamatraa (Zh)
146. Ketsba (Zh)
147. Kiashovy (Zh)
148. Kilba-Kildzaa (Zh)
149. Kiut (Zh)
150. Kichba (Zh)
151. Kogonia (Zh; I)
152. Kosovy (Zh)
153. Kuadzba (Zh)
154. Kuadzba (Zh)
155. Kuarchaa (Zh)
156. Kuarchia (Zh)
157. Kuasaa (Zh)
158. Kuachal-ipa (Zh)
159. Kudzhba (Zh)
160. Kudzhba (Zh)
161. Kumuzovy (Zh)
162. Kutsnia, Atara (Zh; I)
163. Kutsnia (Zh)
164. Kutsnia (I)
165. Kchach (Zh)
166. Kshynba (Zh)
167. Kyakhir-ipa (Beniya), Blaburkhva, Othara (I)
168. Ladaria (Zh)
169. Lakerbai Murzakan, Duripsh (I)
170. Lakoba (Zh)
171. Lakrba (Zh)
172. Lamia (Zh)
173. Lasuria (Zh)
174. Lasuria (Zh)
175. Latsushba (Zh)
176. Latsushba (I)
177. Latsushba (I)
178. Leia (Zh)
179. Leiba (Zh)
180. Louaa (Zh)
181. Louaa (I)
182. Maan (?)(I)
183. Maan (?)(I)
184. Maan (?)(I)
185. Maan (I)
186. Maan (I)
187. Maan Kats, sign from seal (G)
188. Mahba (Zh)
189. Marshan, Pskhu (F)
190. Marshan Kuchadir, Pskhu (F)
191. Marshan Gup (B)
192. Marshan (I)
193. Marshan Shirinbei, Tsebelda (I)
194. Marshan (I)
195. Marykhuaa (Zh)
196. Mkanba (Zh)
197. Mkanba (Zh)
198. Mkyaraa (Zh)
199. Mukba (Zh)
200. Mukba (Zh)
201. Mukba (Zh)
202. Muskhadzhba (Zh)
203. Mkhondzhia (Zh)
204. Nakopia (Zh)
205. Nakopia (Zh)
206. Ozgan (Zh)
207. Orchukba (Zh)
208. Otrba (Aotyrba), Abgharhuk (I)
209. Palba (Zh)
210. Papba (Zh)
211. Papba (Zh)
212. Pate-ipa, sign from his paintings (G)
213. Pkinba (Zh)
214. Plia (Pilia), Othara (I)
215. Plia, Othara (I)
216. Plia, Lykhny (I)
217. Plia (I)
218. Pskhe from Pskhu (B)
219. Pshanba (Zh)
220. Pshaliaa, Dzhgerda (I, B)
221. Pshmakhu aa (Zh)
222. Sabua (Zh)
223. Sakania, K utol (G)
224. Sakania (Zh)
225. Samanba (Zh)
226. Smyrba (Zh)
227. Tambia (I)
228. Taniaa (Zh)
229. Tantiba (Zh)
230. Tapsh (Amarshan), (B; Zh)
231. Tarkil (Zh)
232. Tlabychaa (Zh)
233. Trap sh (Zh; I)
234. Tuzhba (Zh)
235. Fir sou (Zh)
236. Khagba, A chandara (I)
237. Khagba (I)
238. Khagush (Zh)
239. Khak hubia (I)
240. Khakhubia (I)
241. Khachukaa (Zh)
242. Khashyg (Zh)
243. Khetsba (Zh)
244. Khetsia (I)
245. Khintba (Zh)
246. Khishba (Zh)
247. Khuartskia (Zh)
248. Khuranba (Zh)
249. Khurkhumal (Zh)
250. Tsandba (Zh)
251. Tsargush (Zh)
252. Tsvizhba (Zh)
253. Tseiba (Zh)
254. Tsikhchaa (Zh)
255. Tsishba (Zh)
256. Tsugba (Zh)
257. Tsuzba (Zh)
258. Tsymtsbov (Zh)
259. Tsytsba (Zh)
260. Tsytsba (Zh)
261. Tsytsba Tamysh (B)
262. Chaabal (Zh)
263. Chamagua (Zh)
264. Chanba (Zh)
265. Chaushba (Zh)
266. Chachba (Mk)
267. Chachba (B)
268. Chachba (Zh)
269. Chachba (Zh)
270. Chachba (Zh)
271. Chachba (Zh)
272. Chachba (Zh)
273. Chachba (Zh)
274. Chachba (I)
275. Chachba (I)
276. Chachba, Tamysh (B)
277. Chachibaa, Dzhirkhva (I)
278. Chachkhal, Pakuash (Zh, I)
279. Chirkba (Zh)
280. Chitanaa (Zh)
281. Chichba (Zh)
282. Chichba (Zh)
283. Cholokua (Zh)
284. Chuaz (Zh)
285. Chukbar (Zh)
286. Chyblakhaa (Zh)
287. Chyzmaa (Zh)
288. Chym sadzy Aibga (F)
289. Chymaa (Zh)
290. Shakryl-Shougian (Zh)
291. Shamba (Zh)
292. Shaniba (Zh)
293. Shinkuba (Zh)
294. Shinkuba (Zh)
295. Shlarba (Zh)
296. Shonia (I)
297. Shonia (I)
298. Shogian-Shougian (Zh)
299. Shnakhu (Zh)
300. E b zhnou (Zh)
301. Dzhgerda community (B; I)
302. Abkhazians (AM)
303. Abkhazians (AM)
304. Abkhazians (AM)
305. Abkhazians, sadzy (E)
306. Abkhazians (M)
307. Abkhazians (M)
308. Abkhazians (M)
309. Abkhazians (M)
310. Abkhazians (M)
311. Abkhazians (M)
312. Abkhazians (M)
313. Abkhazians (M)
314. Abkhazians (M)
315. Abkhazians (M)
316. Abkhazians (M)
317. Abkhazian (B)
318. Abkhazian (I)
319. Abkhazian (I)
320. Abkhazian (I)
321. Abkhazian (I)
322. Abkhazian (I)
323. Abkhazian (I)
324. Abkhazian (I)
325. Abkhazian (I)


Tamgas of Abkhazians of Syria

326. Kazanba (I)
328. Maan (I)
329. Tram (I)

Some tamgas, in addition to being called Abkhazian, also had their own special names: No. 52, 79, 181 - alu-damyg, "millstone tamga" and Alou-damyg, i.e. the tamga of the Alou clan; No. 215 - atsar-damyg, "cross tamga"; No. 275 - ae eimaa-damyg, "horseshoe tamga"; No. 301 - amagana-dymyg "sickle tamga"; No. 124 - khenats ekyara, five-fingered; No. 230 - was called the tamga of the Kizilbekovs. This was the name of the Tapsh tamga, the patronymy of the Marshan clan.

(Based on the materials of the book by Prof. Sh.D. Inal-ipa "Anthroponymy of the Abkhazians". GURIPP "Adygea" Maykop 2002)


M.K. Khotelashvili (Inal-Ipa)
Head of the Department of Ancient History and Medieval Studies
Abkhaz State Museum

Many societies of the ancient world, at a certain period in their history, felt the need for the simplest graphic designs, which marked the beginning of "sign creativity" of humanity as early as the Mousterian era. These early designs carried no religious load and consisted of groups of strokes or combinations of simple lines.
The creativity in depicting signs continued for a very long time, but at least in the Chalcolithic period, many of them already carried religious-magical semantic content and were often, probably, elements of ritual actions associated with agricultural, hunting, and pastoral cults, designed to ensure success in hunting, livestock breeding, or an abundant harvest. These are sign-symbols of bows and arrows, wavy lines of water, strokes of rain, zigzags of lightning and snakes, as well as solar and astral signs - circle, cross, cross in a circle, swastika, vortex swastika, rosettes, crescent, star, and the like. And later, both graphic and material fetishistic symbols of veneration of deities were formed.

Numerous and diverse signs (sign-drawings, sign-symbols known since the Upper Paleolithic, etc.) gave rise to sign systems that were in demand in societies sufficiently developed socio-economically, the most important of which was the phenomenon of writing (one of the earliest was pictographic, i.e., picture writing).
The mysterious system of clan signs that developed in ancient society, which in the later period came to be called tamga, can also be called a sign system, albeit with some stretch. No one disputes its antiquity. P.S. Efimenko in the 19th century already proved their ancient origin. On this issue, as it seems, the only exception is M.K. Azamatova, who attributed the origin of the tamga institution to the early Middle Ages.
L.I. Lavrov and many other scholars who agree with his opinion believe that the appearance of tamgas in the Caucasus, only as signs of property, is associated with the spread of herd horse breeding, but no earlier than the end of the 2nd millennium BC, "when the clan economy, apparently, had already disintegrated" and there was a need "to distinguish the horse herds belonging to different owners." Thus, L.I. Lavrov writes, "there is little reason to assume the appearance of tamgas in the era of the dominance of the clan system," which he himself had written earlier, considering tamgas not as private but as clan signs of property.

But a number of researchers have held and continue to hold the opinion that some tamgas from the layer of ancient signs go back to totemic images from the time of the clan system, which over time underwent stylization and turned into a graphic symbol of the clan. Thus, I.I. Meshchaninov considered Caucasian tamgas and Sarmatian signs of the early AD from the Northern Black Sea region to be signs of ancient "graphics of totemic cells."
Somewhat later, P.S. Pozhidaev also spoke in favor of the origin of Caucasian tamgas from totemic images. The opinion that in some tamgas one can sometimes see signs going back to stylized totemic images was also expressed by Sh.D. Inal-Ipa.
This view is shared by V.S. Drachuk, Sh.Sh. Khuranov, and some other researchers. Thus, Ts.N. Bzhania divided Abkhaz-Abazin tamgas by design into three groups, and considered the tamgas of the second group to have originated from totemic images.
L.I. Lavrov, albeit with a reservation, wrote that the form of some tamgas goes back either to specially invented ornamental figures that had no semantic meaning, or to borrowed drawings of various purposes, also containing no definite meaning, or to magical signs-amulets. Such signs probably include the embroidered large checker on a crimson cloth, the so-called "folk banner" of the Abkhaz peasants who rebelled in 1866.
As it seems, the list of L.I. Lavrov should be supplemented with astral and solar signs of deep antiquity that once carried magical-religious meaning, as well as stylized figures of totems of ancient clans that have come down to us but are now difficult to identify in tamgas. Here it is interesting to note the Abkhaz banner with the image of a long-bearded goat with three crescents above it, sketched or rather copied in the 18th century by Prince Vakhushti from some more ancient document.

According to Sh.D. Inal-Ipa, some of the most ancient Abkhaz signs-tamgas are the figures of a simple circle and the Russian letter "P", above which is placed a sign resembling the Russian letter "T" in various variations. In the latter sign, he saw "a stylized image of a ram," although some variants could also be considered a stylized bull's head. The original figures of all Caucasian mountain tamgas, apart from these, were named by L.I. Lavrov as the lyre, the arc, and a simple likeness of the letter "P," and he considered the complex of these original figures, formed predominantly by smoothly curving lines and, much more rarely, by straight lines, which occur in almost identical proportions, to be characteristic of peoples from Abkhazia to Chechnya.
As society developed, new signs appeared, as well as new variations of old designs, borrowings of signs from neighboring peoples, and of signs from writing systems and other sign systems, thereby replenishing the fund of these most interesting historical monuments, which in class society became the focus of clan honor.

Clan signs were widespread and were known to almost all the peoples of the North Caucasus, and in Transcaucasia to the Black Sea Circassians, Ubykhs, Megrelians, and some others. The system of tamga signs was also widely used in Abkhazia, as evidenced by the incomplete tables presented below. Only a few of these tamgas give the impression of simplified pictograms, while the main corpus consists of graphic figures composed of clearly and concisely arranged lines. Undoubtedly, each people had its own original word for the clan sign. After his research, the investigator of Abazin tamgas Sh.Sh. Khuranov came to the conclusion that the word used by the Abazins for the clan sign was most likely "dzarna," preserved in some Abazin expressions in the sense of brand. The Abkhazians also have a special word for brand - adyrga. However, the Abkhaz ethnographer Ts.N. Bzhania believed that the original ancient Abkhaz term denoting the marking of all livestock in general was akhtsara (akhtsara), which in translation means "mark," "to mark," preserved only in relation to the marking of small cattle.

After the Mongol conquests, the Old Turkic word "tamga," meaning "sign," "imprint," spread to clan signs. It displaced local designations among many peoples of Central Asia, the Caucasus, the Near and Middle East, and others. The Mongols used the word tamga to denote a special sign - a brand with which horses and cattle were marked (Abkh. "adam yga," Abaz. "damyg a," Kabard. "dam yg e," Megrel. "dag ea," etc.). This sign, made of iron, was welded to a long iron rod with a wooden handle. As is believed, later the Mongols began to mark trees, carpets, and other objects with it, thereby designating their ownership. The Abkhazians marked horses, bulls, buffaloes, mules, and donkeys in this way, burning the clan brand mainly on the rump in various places, and sometimes even, according to V.P. Pozhidaev, on the inner side of the thigh. In rare cases, the brand was also placed on the cheeks of the animal's muzzle. The marking process itself was called "adam y g ntsara," i.e., "to apply, to place a tamga."

Undoubtedly, the word tamga must have penetrated with the very custom of branding horses and cattle by burning a sign on the animal's body with a hot stencil. From that time on, not only the instrument for the branding operation, but also the sign itself began to be called tamga, thus becoming not only a graphic but also a materialized symbol of the clan or family. This fact suggests that before the Mongol invasions, the custom of branding by burning a sign did not exist among these peoples; otherwise, it is difficult to explain two facts: firstly, the absence of iron tamga stencils in archaeological materials of the pre-Mongol period, which is an important indication of their relatively late appearance, and, secondly, how the word tamga could have spread so widely among many peoples if this custom existed among them earlier and was not borrowed together with the term. After all, it cannot be that so many peoples did not have their own original word for clan or family sign for such a long time. In that case, it must be recognized that when marking horses, cattle, and others as property, the clan sign was not used before the Mongol conquests.

Of course, there is no doubt that livestock was marked from very ancient times. As mentioned above, L.I. Lavrov and other researchers believe that tamga appeared as a sign of property among pastoralists, primarily engaged in herd horse breeding, at the end of the 2nd millennium BC. But the branding of horses and others before the appearance of the iron stamp was probably carried out by the same methods used to mark small cattle, and in the past also cows until very recently. This marking among the Abkhazians, as noted above, was called "akhtsara" ("akhtseara").
It was carried out in various ways, each of which had its own name and consisted of special and varied forms of cuts, incisions, notches, and through cuts in the ears of livestock and their combinations. (The main ones: arrow - akhumpal, akheympal; circle - akyltsara, akyltseara; truncated notch - akhsazats, akhsazatse).

At the same time, other types of marking were probably also used, for example, shaving the hair on the muzzle. This is indicated by the name of the tamga of the Dzhgerda community called ach sara, a e sara, which was burned on the animal's muzzle. Literally, the word consists of two parts - a e y - muzzle and asara - to shave.

However, the above does not mean that clan signs, which probably originally carried only a magical and identification function, were not used to denote belonging or ownership already in ancient times, as evidenced by signs on dishes, container ceramics, and other objects of ancient and medieval archaeology, which played the role, one might think, not only of indicators of ownership but in some cases also of stamps, even in that distant time. The clan sign as a sign of ownership was carved or burned on fruit trees, on trees in the hollows of which wild bees nested; at the entrance of caves and on rocks with the same wild bees; on stones and rocks at watering places and pastures; carved on weapons, musical instruments, stirrup soles, etc.; woven as a pattern on carpets; embroidered, applied as appliqué or braid on tobacco pouches, bedspreads, leather pillows, banners (on which it was sometimes painted) etc.

Over time, tamgas acquired new functions. Thus, the function of a signature was performed by the tamga sign if it was drawn under a document, or if a guest, as a sign of gratitude for hospitality and refreshment, carved or burned his tamga on doors, house pillars, or, as among the Abkhazians, on door thresholds, and on wooden cups acha (ae a) with carved zoomorphic handles, from which they ate sour milk (Abkh. "akhrae a").
At the same time, they were also placed on another type of cup acha (Abkh. "akhmachy r"), from which they drank wine. Thus, as a sign of presenting a valuable gift, the tamga was applied to the cup, after uttering the ancient fossilized expression: "Uaea ianup," i.e., "it lies, applied on your 'aea'." The same phrase was also uttered when presenting gifts to the bride. And during a wedding or ceremonial feast, the gift-giver, after a toast, would add: "arakhetiaa uaea ianup" — i.e., "on your 'aea' lies the gifted cattle."

After drinking wine from a specially served cup, he would cut his sign on it with a knife. Such cups "aea," with tamgas applied to them, were considered honorable, kept as heirlooms, passed down by inheritance, and "served with wine exclusively to a dear and noble guest."

When the standard-bearer of a military unit or militia raised the banner with the image of the leader's tamga on a campaign, the graphic symbol served as a heraldic sign — a coat of arms. The sign also served as a coat of arms and identification mark when carved on funerary monuments and pillars (but, as a rule, on the graves of fallen warriors). And as Sh.D. Inal-Ipa writes, "based on folklore evidence, in the past, the boundaries of possessions were also established by cuts on trees," in which one can discern tamgas.
In this regard, the testimony of O. Dapper, who visited Abkhazia in the early second half of the 17th century (see above p. 175), is of particular importance. He drew attention to the fact that among the Abkhazians, on one of the hills of the territory of a united group of households (15-20), surrounded by a palisade and ditches, "an identifying symbol was erected," which, undoubtedly, was either a banner with the clan sign at the top of the pole, or, more likely, a banner with a large tamga in the center of the cloth, so that it could be seen from afar. Here it served, first and foremost, as a distinctive identification symbol.

At the same time, starting with V.P. Pozhidaev, who declared that tamgas belonged only to privileged families, almost all researchers, including L.I. Lavrov, write about the exclusively class character of this institution. But apparently, it was not always so. Once upon a time, the clan sign was a sign of the entire collective, but over time it became attached to the most privileged family that had appropriated supremacy in the clan and was already passed down by inheritance only within it, becoming, in the words of Kh. Yakhtanigov, a "classic document of social symbolism." We know such signs with affiliation from quite early times. For example, the signs of the Parthian Arsacids, the Sasanians of Iran, the Siyavushids, the Rurikids, the Bagratids, and others are known. These signs belonged to ruling and sovereign houses, but we unfortunately do not know whether signs for ordinary clans not connected with the rulers were preserved at the same time.

In the Caucasus, dependent peasants, according to almost all scholars who have studied this issue, usually used the tamga of their owner, and the tamgas of extinct clans were usually appropriated by families that were vassals to them. In the post-reform period, many peasants, "following the example of their former owners, acquired their own tamgas," however, not without resistance from the latter. The latest of them among the Abkhazians were signs in the form of Russian and Georgian letters.

The opinion first expressed by V.P. Pozhidaev and supported by almost all researchers — that in former times the tamga sign was an attribute only of privileged families — can be challenged, at least with regard to the earlier period, and in Abkhazia, partially, also to the later period. This is evidenced by the multitude of Sarmatian signs from the turn of our era from the Northern Black Sea region, hundreds of tamgas depicted on the rock of Kunityga in the valley of the Malka River (above the village of Sarmakovo) at the cattle-driving road in Kabarda, as well as the coincidence of tamga designs among unprivileged Abkhaz and Abazin families, which appeared in the North Caucasus at a time far removed from the 19th century. This is also evidenced by the frequently coinciding contours of tamga designs of peasant families with signs of the most ancient scripts, which they could not have borrowed at a later time. All the above suggests that long before the 19th century, many free independent peasants were holders of their own tamgas, as evidenced by data from ancient historical-heroic songs, which often mention not only princely and noble but also peasant banners, undoubtedly bearing on their cloth the image of the family tamga. This position is also confirmed by the peasant tamgas of the pre-reform period, sketched in the gendarmerie administration of Abkhazia back during the preparation of the reform in the late 1860s and early 1870s. Sh.Sh. Khuranov also writes that before the abolition of serfdom, tamgas were held not only by princes and nobles but also by the wealthiest part of the free peasantry of Abazinia, and possibly also some freedmen. But this is a question of social significance and must be additionally and specifically studied.

Often Abkhaz tamgas repeat the mysterious signs applied to ancient and medieval vessels and other objects. They are also found among the carved signs of the Guarap stone, in the upper reaches of the Kodori River basin (near the Dzhanpal River) and on other rocks and stones at pasture sites in Abkhazia. They also occur in the sacred, almost inaccessible grotto of Aagtsa, where, according to L.N. Solovyov, they date from the early Middle Ages.

A large number of signs found on archaeological objects from Abkhazia can also be found in the work of G.F. Turchaninov, who saw in many of them signs of local ancient writing. V.N. Yurgevich, who published the signs depicted on the stone at Krivoy Rog, drew attention to their similarity to the signs on the Olbian lions and Caucasian tamgas.
Sh.D. Inal-Ipa also compared some Abkhaz-Abazin tamgas with Sarmatian signs of the Northern Black Sea region. And L.I. Lavrov compared many Caucasian tamgas not only with various ancient signs but also with signs of ancient and later scripts of the peoples of the world. In his remarkable work on Caucasian tamgas, he provided comparative tables and considered the genetic connection of some Caucasian tamgas with Sarmatian and Bosporan signs, Nogai-Tatar-Central Asian signs, and signs of runic writing to be indisputable. At the same time, L.I. Lavrov suggested a connection between some Caucasian tamgas and "letters, hieroglyphs, and other signs of the Mediterranean," in connection with which the view of A.I. Nemirovsky on some signs on local ceramic vessels is undoubtedly of interest. In his opinion, in Colchis in antiquity, as early as the 3rd–1st centuries BC, two systems of number notation coexisted, the most ancient of which went back "to Asia Minor and ultimately to cuneiform." This conviction is based on the observation of Vyach.V. Ivanov, who "managed to identify analogies between Etruscan and Roman ideographic notations of numbers and Lycian," i.e., ancient Asia Minor.

A.I. Nemirovsky also sees in some signs on locally produced amphorae from Esher and Vani, which have correspondences in some tamgas, graphemes that have precise correspondences with Etruscan number signs. Therefore, he believes that in these signs, continuing the ancient Asia Minor tradition, one can see "numbers indicating the volume of vessels in measures still unknown to us, or batch numbers."
Thus, Abkhaz tamgas performed the functions of identification (probably the earliest), signs of ownership, inscriptions, signatures (partly pledges), stamps, and coats of arms.

However, even after L.I. Lavrov's research, the problem of determining the semantics of tamga figures and most other mysterious signs remains extremely complex. It is still difficult to answer firmly the question: are they simplified pictograms or ideograms, or borrowings from writing and other sign systems, or simply a random combination of various lines. This remains to be clarified, which may require the efforts of more than one generation of scholars.

Below is a list of surnames and tables of their tamgas, which unfortunately does not include several Abkhaz tamgas from the overall valuable work of Kh.Kh. Yakhtanigov, as their sources are not indicated in the book. It is regrettable that the "Abkhaz signs of ownership" from the collections of the Museum of Ethnography in St. Petersburg, mentioned by Sh.D. Inal-Ipa in the above-mentioned work, also remained unused. It is highly probable that stencils of Abkhaz tamgas are also located in the Ethnographic Museum of Georgia in Tbilisi.

Also of interest are the signs in the work of Ulap Mustafa Mahir. It provides drawings of 257 Caucasian tamgas: Ingush, Chechen, Kabardian, Abazin, North Caucasian Armenians, Shapsugs, Ubykhs, and, strangely, not a single Abkhaz one. It is quite probable that among the tamgas listed by him simply as Caucasian without specification, there are also Abkhaz signs. L.I. Lavrov included them in his fundamental work "Caucasian Tamgas" under the numbers 1205, 1214, 1215, 1218, 1238, 1242, 1246, 1251, 1254, 1257, 1258, 1261-1263, 1275, 1297, 1299, 1300, 1310, 1318, 1319, 1333, 1339-1343, 1345, 1346, 1348, 1353, 1369, 1371, 1372, 1378, 1380-1382. They may also be hidden under some tamgas of Abazin surnames, since in the Middle East the word "abaza" covers not only Abazins but also Abkhazians (Nos. 20, 839, 1377 in Lavrov L.I.).

At the same time, Sh.Sh. Khuranov suggests that of the 58 tamgas given by S. Bronevsky in his work, one called "Yazeg" is Abkhazian.
It would be very important to collect all the tamga stencils preserved in Abkhazia, as well as among the Abkhaz diaspora. One can hope that the memory of the tamga design has been preserved in families, or the stencils themselves, since the latter embodied the honor of the clan, were always kept by the eldest, and were passed down by inheritance like the alabasha. It is also necessary to collect various signs both from ethnographic objects and items (funerary monuments, crypts, buildings, rocks, stones, carpets, adaps, leather pillows, wooden cups acha, etc.), as well as from archaeological objects and items with tamga-like appearance, and to publish a complete corpus of both the most ancient and later signs, with tables of analogies.

Head of the Department of Ancient History
and Medieval Studies
Abkhaz State Museum
M.K. Khotelashvili (Inal-Ipa)


Materials:

North Caucasian Tamgas. Yakhtanigov 1993