I.L. Kyzlasov

Key words: South Siberia, Tuva, Altai, early Middle Ages, Yenisei runic script, commemorative stelae of the Turkic-speaking population, Chik people.
In studies of the early medieval Yenisei runic script with its original alphabet we encounter inscriptions that were left by representatives of different educational centers in South Siberia. To the archaeologist, epigraphic features are not the only means to distinguish the ethnic and cultural background of the epitaphs. The distinction is especially evident in the cases when the commemorative stelae belong to cult sites of different types and with different rites. The article identifies a new type of commemorative site in Tuva and the Altai, small kurgans with stone stelae to the west or northwest (fig. 6). Three of them have Yenisei inscriptions (E 57, E 58 and E 60) (fig. 1, 2, 4, 5) which prove beyond doubt that it was a Turkic-speaking population that left the sites in question. Excavations reveal only the remains of pits which used to hold poles (fig. 1-3, 7). Kurgans without stelae have the same structure. The topography of the sites that were identified (fig. 8) allows connecting them with the medieval Chik people, whose presence in Eastern Altai is confirmed also by the characteristic personal and family tamgas carved in the rock above the estuary of the river Chuya. In South Siberia this type of site dates back to the turn of the eras.