okunevo

Source: TW

The Okunevo had a rather complex ancestry for their time with the IE Afanasievo from Yamnaya, the Baikal Early neolithic type, another Altai contribution with ANE & Paleosiberian. This makes us think that their unprecedented iconography indeed had connection with that of some “First Americans”.

The Okunevo are so strange & alluring that we often wonder what it might have been in their midst. What language did they speak? Did they retain an early branching IE tongue of their Yamnaya ancestors or had they shifted to a Paleo-Siberia or Altaic one? We suspect it was IE but with major cultural influences of these more eastern groups.

The Ancient North Asia represented by the Devil’s Cave hunter/gatherers has spread far & wide probably overruning the continental Jomon early on. If one really wanted an Altaic monophyly, one possibility would be descendants of an ancient ANA group. Remain skeptical of anything thing like that but putting it out there.

Stelae

One of the most remarkable cultures which came about from a hybridization of Yamnayan IE and NE Asians is the Okunevo. Their stelae are ripe with symbolism but full of mystery. The dendritic face figures& the 4 spiked circles are their trademarks.

Reuse

Okunevo stone from Khakassia with a horned 3-eyed element &snake-like figure. Some of these were worshiped down to the last century by the Mongolized Uralics of the region. Thus, it is remarkable that though the Okunevo werelong gone the sanctity of their installations continued.

In 1887-1889, the explorer Aspelins made an expedition to Siberia+Mongolia. He found this Okunevo stone by the Uibat river on which the Blue Turks had carved their inscription. It mentions a certain Tarkhan Sangun& possibly Bük chur the title of Qapaghan Khaghan.

Uibat-I stone: An Okunevo stone recorded by Aspelins: it was reused by the Blue Turks as a memorial with an inscription for their Bek named Chabysh Tun Tarqan. Also mentioned in it is a Khan named Qara (black). This & the previous Uibat-III demonstrate the reuse of Okunevo stones.