The formation of the Polovtsian ethnos took place according to the same patterns for all the peoples of the Middle Ages and antiquity. One of them is that the people that gave the name to the entire conglomerate are far from always the most numerous in it - due to objective or subjective factors, it is promoted to the leading place in the emerging ethnic array, becomes its core. Polovtsy did not come to an empty place. The first component that joined the new ethnic community here was the population that had previously been part of the Khazar Khaganate - the Bulgarians and Alans. The remnants of the Pecheneg and Guz hordes played a more significant role. This is confirmed by the fact that, firstly, according to anthropology, outwardly nomads of the 10th-13th centuries almost did not differ from the inhabitants of the steppes of the 8th - early 10th centuries, and secondly, an unusual variety of funeral rites is recorded in this territory. . A custom that came exclusively with the Polovtsy was the erection of sanctuaries dedicated to the cult of male or female ancestors. Thus, from the end of the 10th century, a mixture of three kindred peoples took place in this region, a single Turkic-speaking community was formed, but the process was interrupted by the Mongol invasion.
Polovtsy - nomads
The Polovtsians were a classic nomadic pastoral people. The herds included cattle, sheep, and even camels, but the main wealth of the nomad was the horse. Initially, they led a year-round so-called camp nomadism: finding a place rich in food for livestock, they located their dwellings there, but when the food was depleted, they set off in search of a new territory. At first, the steppe could painlessly provide for everyone. However, as a result of demographic growth, the transition to a more rational management of the economy - seasonal nomadism - has become an urgent task. It implies a clear division of pastures into winter and summer, folding territories and routes assigned to each group.
Polovtsian silver bowl with one handle. Kyiv, X-XIII centuries Dea / A. Dagli Orti / Getty Images Dynastic marriages
Dynastic marriages have always been a tool of diplomacy. The Polovtsians were no exception here. However, relations were not based on parity - the Russian princes willingly married the daughters of the Polovtsian princes, but did not send their relatives in marriage. An unwritten medieval law worked here: representatives of the ruling dynasty could only be married to an equal. It is characteristic that the same Svyatopolk married the daughter of Tugorkan, having suffered a crushing defeat from him, that is, being in a deliberately weaker position. However, he did not give his daughter or sister, but he took the girl from the steppe. Thus, the Polovtsians were recognized as an influential, but not equal force.
But if the baptism of the future wife seemed even pleasing to God, then the “betrayal” of their faith was not possible, which is why the Polovtsian rulers failed to get the daughters of Russian princes married. Only one case is known when a Russian princess (the widowed mother of Svyatoslav Vladimirovich) married a Polovtsian prince - however, for this she had to run away from home.
Be that as it may, by the time of the Mongol invasion, the Russian and Polovtsian aristocracies were closely intertwined with family ties, the cultures of both peoples were mutually enriched.
The Polovtsians were a tool in internecine strife
The Polovtsians were not the first dangerous neighbor of Russia - the threat from the steppe has always accompanied the life of the country. But unlike the Pechenegs, these nomads met not with a single state, but with a group of principalities at war with each other. At first, the Polovtsian hordes did not seek to conquer Russia, being satisfied with small raids. Only when in 1068 the combined forces of the three princes were defeated on the Lta (Alta) river, did the power of the new nomadic neighbor become apparent. But the danger was not realized by the rulers - the Polovtsy, always ready for war and robbery, began to be used in the fight against each other. Oleg Svyatoslavich was the first to do this in 1078, bringing the "nasty" to fight Vsevolod Yaroslavich. In the future, he repeatedly repeated this "reception" in the internecine struggle, for which he was named the author of "The Tale of Igor's Campaign" Oleg Gorislavich.
But the contradictions between the Russian and Polovtsian princes did not always allow them to unite. Vladimir Monomakh fought especially actively with the established tradition. In 1103, the Dolobsky Congress took place, at which Vladimir managed to organize the first expedition to the territory of the enemy. The result was the defeat of the Polovtsian army, which lost not only ordinary soldiers, but also twenty representatives of the highest nobility. The continuation of this policy led to the fact that the Polovtsians were forced to migrate away from the borders of Russia.
The soldiers of Prince Igor Svyatoslavich capture the Polovtsian towers. Miniature from the Radziwill Chronicle. 15th century vk.com
After the death of Vladimir Monomakh, the princes again began to bring the Polovtsians to fight each other, weakening the military and economic potential of the country. In the second half of the century, there was another surge of active confrontation, which was led by Prince Konchak in the steppe. It was to him that Igor Svyatoslavich was captured in 1185, as described in the Tale of Igor's Campaign. In the 1190s, raids became less and less, and at the beginning of the 13th century, the military activity of the steppe neighbors also subsided.
Further development of relations was interrupted by the Mongols who came. The southern regions of Russia were endlessly subjected not only to raids, but also to the "drives" of the Polovtsy, which devastated these lands. After all, even just the movement of the army of nomads (and there were cases when they went here with the whole economy) destroyed crops, the military threat forced merchants to choose other paths. Thus, this people contributed a lot to the shift of the center of the country's historical development.
Polovtsian anthropomorphic statue from the collection of the Dnepropetrovsk Historical Museum A female stele holds a vessel. Drawing by S. A. Pletneva "Polovtsian stone statues", 1974 The Polovtsy were friends not only with the Russians, but also with the Georgians
The Polovtsians were noted for their active participation in history not only in Russia. Expelled by Vladimir Monomakh from the Seversky Donets, they partially migrated to Ciscaucasia under the leadership of Prince Atrak. Here, Georgia turned to them for help, constantly being raided from the mountainous regions of the Caucasus. Atrak willingly entered the service of King David and even intermarried with him, giving his daughter in marriage. He brought with him not the entire horde, but only part of it, which then remained in Georgia.
From the beginning of the XII century, the Polovtsy actively penetrated the territory of Bulgaria, which was then under the rule of Byzantium. Here they were engaged in cattle breeding or tried to enter the service of the empire. Apparently, they include Peter and Ivan Aseni, who raised an uprising against Constantinople. With the tangible support of the Cuman detachments, they managed to defeat Byzantium, in 1187 the Second Bulgarian Kingdom was founded, headed by Peter.
At the beginning of the 13th century, the influx of Polovtsy into the country intensified, and the eastern branch of the ethnic group already participated in it, bringing with it the tradition of stone sculptures. Here, however, they quickly became Christianized, and then disappeared among the local population. For Bulgaria, this was not the first experience of "digesting" the Turkic people. The Mongol invasion "pushed" the Polovtsians to the west, gradually, from 1228, they moved to Hungary. In 1237, the recently powerful prince Kotyan turned to the Hungarian king Bela IV. The Hungarian leadership agreed to provide the eastern outskirts of the state, knowing about the strength of the impending army of Batu.
The Polovtsy wandered in the territories allotted to them, causing discontent among the neighboring principalities, which were subjected to periodic robberies. Bela's heir, Stefan, married one of Kotyan's daughters, but then, under the pretext of treason, executed his father-in-law. This led to the first uprising of freedom-loving settlers. The next rebellion of the Polovtsy was caused by an attempt to force them to Christianize. Only in the 14th century did they completely settle down, became Catholics and began to dissolve, although they still retained their military specificity and even in the 19th century they still remembered the prayer “Our Father” in their native language.
We do not know anything about whether the Polovtsy had a written language
Our knowledge of the Polovtsy is rather limited due to the fact that this people has not created their own written sources. We can see a huge number of stone sculptures, but we will not find any inscriptions there. We draw information about this people from its neighbors. Standing apart is the 164-page notebook of a missionary-translator of the late 13th - early 14th century Alfabetum Persicum, Comanicum et Latinum Anonymi..., better known as the Codex Cumanicus. The time of the appearance of the monument is determined by the period from 1303 to 1362, the place of writing is the Crimean city of Kafu (Feodosia). By origin, content, graphic and linguistic features, the dictionary is divided into two parts, Italian and German. The first is written in three columns: Latin words, their translation into Persian and Polovtsian. The German part contains dictionaries, grammar notes, Polovtsian riddles and Christian texts. The Italian component is more significant for historians, since it reflected the economic needs of communication with the Polovtsy. In it we find such words as "bazaar", "merchant", "changer", "price", "coin", listing goods and crafts. In addition, it contains words that characterize a person, city, nature. The list of Polovtsian titles is of great importance.
Although, apparently, the manuscript was partially rewritten from an earlier original, was not created at once, which is why it is not a “cut” of reality, but still allows us to understand what the Polovtsy were doing, what goods they were interested in, we can see their borrowing of Old Russian words and, most importantly, to reconstruct the hierarchy of their society.
Polovtsian women
A specific feature of the Polovtsian culture was the stone statues of ancestors, which are called stone or Polovtsian women. This name appeared because of the underlined chest, always hanging on the stomach, which obviously carried a symbolic meaning - feeding the family. Moreover, a rather significant percentage of male statues was recorded, in which a mustache or even a beard is depicted, and at the same time there is a chest identical to that of a woman.
The 12th century is the period of the heyday of the Polovtsian culture and the mass production of stone statues, there are also faces in which there is a noticeable desire for portrait resemblance. The manufacture of idols from stone was expensive, and less wealthy representatives of society could only afford wooden figures, which, unfortunately, have not come down to us. They placed statues on the tops of mounds or hills in square or rectangular shrines made of flagstone. Most often they placed male and female statues - the ancestors of the kosh - facing east, but there were also sanctuaries with a cluster of figures. At their foot, archaeologists found the bones of rams, once they discovered the remains of a child. Obviously, the cult of ancestors played a significant role in the life of the Polovtsians. For us, the importance of this feature of their culture is that it allows us to clearly determine where the people roamed.
Earrings of the Polovtsian type. Yasinovataya, Donetsk region. Second half of the 12th - 13th century From the article by O. Ya. Privalova “Rich nomadic burials from the Donbass”. "Archaeological Almanac". No. 7, 1988 Attitude towards women
In Polovtsian society, women enjoyed considerable freedom, although they had a significant part of the household duties. There is a clear gender division of activities both in the craft and in cattle breeding: women were in charge of goats, sheep and cows, men were in charge of horses and camels. During military campaigns, all the worries for the defense and economic activities of nomads were thrown onto the shoulders of the weaker sex. Perhaps sometimes they had to become the head of the kosh. At least two female burials were found with wands made of precious metals, which were symbols of the leader of a larger or smaller association. At the same time, women did not remain aloof from military affairs. In the era of military democracy, girls took part in general campaigns, the defense of the nomad camp during the absence of her husband also assumed the presence of military skills. A stone statue of a heroic girl has come down to us. The size of the statue is one and a half to two times the common one, the chest is “tightened”, unlike the traditional image, it is covered with elements of armor. She is armed with a saber, a dagger, and a quiver for arrows; nevertheless, her headdress is undoubtedly feminine. This type of female warriors is reflected in Russian epics under the name of Polanits.
Where did the Polovtsy go?
No nation disappears without a trace. History knows no cases of complete physical extermination of the population by alien invaders. The Polovtsians have not gone anywhere either. Partly they went to the Danube and even ended up in Egypt, but the bulk of them remained in their native steppes. For at least a hundred years they retained their customs, albeit in a modified form. Apparently, the Mongols forbade the creation of new sanctuaries dedicated to the Polovtsian warriors, which led to the appearance of "pit" places of worship. In a hill or mound, recesses were dug, not visible from afar, inside which the pattern of placement of statues, traditional for the previous period, was repeated.
But even with the cessation of the existence of this custom, the Polovtsy did not disappear. The Mongols came to the Russian steppes with their families, and did not move as a whole tribe. And the same process took place with them as with the Polovtsians centuries earlier: after giving a name to the new people, they themselves dissolved in it, having adopted its language and culture. Thus, the Mongols became a bridge from the modern peoples of Russia to the Polovtsians of the summer.
What did the Polovtsy look like? From many sources it is reliably known that the Polovtsy were fair-haired, with blue eyes (approximately like representatives of the Aryan race), in connection with this, their name is light. However, there are different versions about this. The messages of the Egyptians about how the blond Polovtsy looked, on the one hand, could be made from the point of view of pronounced brunettes. And on the other hand, they belong to the time when the Polovtsians managed to live side by side with the Russians for two centuries and, as a result of incest, acquired the same external qualities.
The appearance of the Polovtsians
One of the explanations for the name Polovtsy (it means yellow in Old Russian) is associated with hair color. The word "Kumans" means all the same - "yellow". The word "esaryk", which was also called the Polovtsy, not only means yellow, white, pale, but is, apparently, the basis of the modern Turkish word "saryshin" - "blond". It is, generally speaking, strange for nomads who came from the east. In favor of the opinion about the blond hair of the Kipchaks, the parchment of medieval Egypt also speaks. For many years, the Polovtsy were part of the ruling elite there and themselves put sultans of their own blood on the throne. Egyptian documents, however, occasionally speak of bright eyes and hair among the Kipchaks.
Polovtsy as a nomadic people
If we consider the Polovtsy as a nomadic people, then you can suddenly find that it was a tribal union of well-trained military affairs, strategically thinking people. Nomads began to study military affairs from a very early age. According to the historian Carpini, already two or three-year-old children of nomads began to master horses and learn to use small bows specially made for them. The boys learned to shoot and hunt small steppe animals, and the girls joined in the nomadic household. In general, children perceived hunting as a trip to a foreign country.
They prepared for it, on the hunt they developed daring and the art of fighting, the most dashing riders, the most keen-sighted shooters, the most skillful leaders were revealed on it. Thus, the second important function of hunting was to teach military affairs to everyone - from the khan to a simple warrior and even his "servant", that is, everyone who participated in military activities: campaigns, raids, barant, etc.
Eurasian territory of the Polovtsian steppe
Cumans now (Hungarian descendants of the Cumans)
On the current map of the world, one cannot find a people with the name "Polovtsy", but they certainly left their mark on modern ethnic groups. Many modern Turkic peoples (Kazakhs and Nogais), as well as modern Tatars and Bashkirs, have traces of Cumans, Kipchaks and Cumans in their ethnic basis. But that's not all: it is safe to say that the Polovtsy not only completely dissolved in other ethnic groups, but also left their direct descendants. Now there are groups of subethnic groups whose ethnonym is the word "Kypchak". In Hungary there is now a modern people known as the "Kuns" ("Cumans"). This people can be called a descendant of the very Polovtsians who lived in the Polovtsian steppe in the 11th - 12th centuries.
On the territory of Hungary there are several historical regions, in which even the names hint at their connection with the Kuns - Kiskunshag (it can be translated as “the territory of the younger Kuns”) and Nagykunshag (“the territory of the senior Kuns”). Despite the fact that there are no large people of Kuns there, in the city of Karcag (the capital of the “territory of the senior Kuns”) there is still a society Kunsovetsheg, whose main task is to preserve information and knowledge about the Kuns and in general about their entire history.
Location of Kunshag on the map of Hungary
Appearance of the Hungarian Cumans
Despite the fact that there is practically no information on this topic in Russian, one can rely on the conclusions of the Russian ethnologist B.A. Kaloev, whose main focus was the study of the Hungarian Alans. Here is how he describes the appearance of the Hungarian Polovtsy: “the special swarthy skin, black-eyed and black-haired, and, obviously competing with similar features of the gypsies, they received the nickname kongur, i.e. “dark”. As a rule, Coons have a "short and dense physique"
Coon language
Of course, they did not have the Polovtsian language left, the main communication is conducted in one of the dialects of the Hungarian language. But they also made a contribution to Hungarian literature, leaving about 150 words in the Hungarian literary language.
Number of kuns
It is impossible to say the exact number of people - the descendants of the Polovtsy. Just as, according to the laws of Hungary, the ethnic composition of the inhabitants should be taken into account according to the principle of the native language, then according to some of the 16 million Hungarian people, one tenth can be considered descendants of the Kuns-Polovtsy.
Fragment from the book "Donbass - an endless story"
... Polovtsian camp. Evening. Polovtsian girls dance and sing a song in which they compare a flower thirsting for moisture with a girl hoping for a date with her beloved. Khan Konchak offers the captive Prince Igor freedom in exchange for a promise not to raise a sword against him. But Igor honestly says that if the khan lets him go, he will immediately gather the regiments and strike again. Konchak regrets that he and Igor are not allies, and calls the captives and captives to cheer them up. The scene "Polovtsian Dances" begins. First, the girls dance and sing (chorus “Fly away on the wings of the wind”). The choreographic action is based on the arias of the Polovtsian girl and Konchakovna, amazing in their beauty and melodiousness. Then the general dance of the Polovtsy begins. The action ends with a general climactic dance ...
The Polovtsy are mentioned or described in detail in a huge amount of historical literature, from Russian chronicles to Byzantine treatises, in the Tale of Igor's Campaign, by medieval Arab authors and, of course, in detailed (to the extent possible) recent studies. I will refer interested readers to the magnificent work of S.A. Pletneva "Polovtsi" (ed. "Nauka", M., 1990), edited by Academician B.A. Rybakov, where the author's preface gives a summary of the most significant studies on this issue. There is no point in retelling them here, the task of this essay is quite different. Namely, using the methods and approaches of DNA genealogy, try to figure it out, or at least outline the outline for resolving the issue, where do the descendants of the Polovtsy live now, in our days, and who were their ancestors, those same Polovtsians, by tribal affiliation?
History, more precisely, its perception by the "popular masses", often turns out to be unfair to certain populations, ethnic groups, superethnoi, nationalities. Yes, history was not made in white gloves. The Russian princes were promiscuous (at first glance) in their military alliances with other princes, Russian and non-Russian, and at the head of their troops and often in temporary cooperation with other princes, khans, murzas, emirs, kagans and other military leaders laid a huge number of their own Russians in the name of their military-political goals, as well as just like that, because of family troubles, in the course of revenge for past insults and humiliations, and for many other reasons. The Polovtsy also fell into the kaleidoscope of this historical mosaic. They were friends with some Russian princes and were at enmity with others. They tied family ties with the Russian princes, they were fathers-in-law, sons-in-law, fathers and children, they died along with the Russian troops on the battlefields, fighting side by side, back to back, on the same side, and also against them. In general, like the vast majority of other tribes, ethnic groups, peoples in those times, as, indeed, at any time, up to the present day.
But if you read epics and annals, then the Polovtsy turn out to be generally "enemies of the Russian people", and sworn enemies at that. What is one Tugarin Zmeevich worth ... This is a historical person, the Polovtsian Khan Tugorkan. For the first time, news about him appears in the writings of the Byzantine princess Anna Komnina (1083-1155), the granddaughter of Emperor Alexei Komnenos, she calls him Togortak. She described the arrival of the Polovtsian troops to help Christian Byzantium against the Pechenegs in the early 1090s. The Pechenegs were defeated by the Polovtsy, and in 1094, after a series of (unsuccessful) battles with the Polovtsy, Prince Svyatopolk made peace with them, " singing wife, daughter of Tugorkan, Prince of Polovtsy"(Complete collection of Russian chronicles, II, 1962, p. 216). In 1095 there was a fatal quarrel between the Polovtsy and the Pereyaslavl prince Vladimir Vsevolodich, who ordered the execution of two influential Polovtsian ambassadors who came with a peace offer, and they were treacherously killed, even before the start of negotiations. The war began again, and next year, after an almost two-month siege of Pereyaslavl, under the onslaught of troops led by Prince Vladimir " run away to a foreigner, and their prince Tugorkan was killed by the bes and his son, and other princes multiplied that padosha"(PSRL, II, 1962, p. 222). Svyatopolk found the body of his father-in-law on the battlefield and buried him: in the morning, Tugorkan was dead, and taking Svyatopolk, like a father-in-law and an enemy, and brought him to Kiev, burying him at Berestove».
After 21 years, Vladimir Monomakh married his son Andrei to the granddaughter of Tugorkan. Tugarin, so to speak, our Zmeevich. And George, the future Yuri Dolgoruky, married the daughter of another Polovtsian khan. Here is how the Nikon Chronicle tells about events a little earlier: “ Volodar came from the Polovtsy to Kyiv, forgetting the blessings of his master, Prince. Vladimir, taught by a demon. Vladimir then in Pereyaslavtsy on the Danube: and there was great confusion in Kyiv. And Alexander Popovich went out at night to meet them, and kill Volodar and his brother, and kill many other Polovtsians, and others in the field". Vladimir Monomakh, Volodar Peremyshlsky and Alexander Popovich appear here, speaking in ancient epics under the name of Alyosha Popovich (link).
Omitting the subsequent complex history of the relationship between the Russian principalities and the Polovtsians, who were also different - Don, Pridneprovsk, Bugodnistrovsky, Crimean (especially at the end of the 12th century), Lukomorsky (the Lukomorsky Polovtsian association included, apparently, the Crimean Polovtsians), eastern, Kumans (western Cumans), Ciscaucasian - we recall that at the beginning of the XIII century. a relative balance was established between the Russian principalities and the Polovtsian nomads. The Russian princes stopped organizing raids and campaigns on the steppes, and the Polovtsy - on the Russian lands. The last time the Polovtsy approached the walls of Kyiv together with Prince Izyaslav was in 1234. This was already after the Battle of Kalka (1223), where the "Tatar-Mongols" defeated the combined Russian-Polovtsian troops.
I take here "Tatar-Mongols" in quotation marks, because this name is a remake. It is not known whether the Mongols were there at all, and they began to be called Tatars later. Tatars as applied to those times is a purely collective term. It is probably more correct to call those military formations Turkic, but the majority of the Polovtsy were also Turks, so here too there is confusion. The name "Mongols" took root in that context because there was no confusion, since there were no Mongols themselves (except, probably, a small number, like other minor ethnic groups in that army). So there was no one to confuse with.
But it is worth considering the reasons and nature of the formation of the united Russian-Polovtsian army, because this will complement the picture of the interaction of these two ethnic groups. The fact is that the Polovtsy met with the "Mongols" before the Russians, and realized that they had met with a formidable force, accompanied by cunning and deceit. Let us give the floor to the Arab historian Ibn-al-Asir (1160-1233), who used the term "Tatars", or it was translated into Russian as such, and he called the Polovtsy the name "Kipchaks" adopted in Arabic and Persian manuscripts:
« The Tatars moved through these regions, in which there are many peoples, including the Allans, Lezgins and (various) Turkic tribes ... Attacking the inhabitants of this country, whom they passed, they arrived at the Allans, a numerous people, to whom the news about them had already reached. They (Allans) used all their efforts, gathered a crowd of Kipchaks and fought with them (Tatars). Neither side prevailed over the other. Then the Tatars sent to the Kipchaks to say: “We and you are of the same kind, and these Allans are not from yours, so there is nothing for you to help them; your faith is not like their faith, and we promise you that we will not attack you, but we will bring you money and clothes as much as you want; leave us with them." The matter between them was settled on the money that they would bring, on clothes, etc .; they (Tatars) really brought them what was said, and the Kipchaks left them (allan). Then the Tatars attacked the Allans, slaughtered them, committed atrocities, robbed, took prisoners and went to the Kipchaks, who calmly dispersed on the basis of the peace concluded between them, and learned about them only when they raided them and invaded their land.».
In the Russian-language historical literature, this is called - in an emotional and artistic vein - "the first betrayal of the Polovtsy", although, unfortunately, there have been plenty of such betrayals in history from all sides. Nevertheless, the Polovtsy learned their lesson. In addition, the “Tatars” took back everything that they gave in the form of a bribe, plus much more.
In this historical evidence, cited almost by a contemporary of the events, attention is drawn to the fact that the Alans and Polovtsy are “different”. We know that the Cumans were mostly Turkic-speaking, and the Alans, most likely, were "Iranian-speaking", that is, speakers of Indo-European languages. Judging by many data, but more often by interpretations, both of them took part in the ethnogenesis of a number of Caucasian peoples, and we will return to this later.
So, the "Tatars", and in fact the united Central Asian Turkic army, not only defeated the Alans and Polovtsy, but occupied their vast pastures, advanced through the Taman Peninsula into the Crimea and began plundering its rich cities. In modern terms, major geopolitical changes began to grow. The Polovtsians rushed across the steppe, some went to the mountains of the Caucasus, some went “to the country of the Russians”, as an ancient Arab historian writes, some went to the Volga or took refuge in the swamps. The chronicle of 1224 reads: “ ... the Polovtsian who ran to the Russian land, and the Russian prince said to them: ... if you don’t help us, we will now be cut with a bull, and you will be cut in the morning"(PSRL, II, 1962, p. 740-741). At a meeting in Kyiv, the Russian princes and the Polovtsian khans decided to meet the "Tatars" in battle. Moreover, "one of the most influential Polovtsy, the" Grand Duke "Basta, hastily adopted the Christian religion, obviously wanting to demonstrate his complete unity with the Russian princes." The "Tatars" sent ambassadors to the Russian princes with a proposal not to interfere in the confrontation between the "Tatars" and the Polovtsy, and promised not to touch Russian cities in the event of Russian neutrality. But the princes already knew how the same recent offer to the Polovtsy by the same "Tatars" ended, and they did not find anything better than to execute the ambassadors.
The result is known. In April 1224, the combined Russian and Polovtsian regiments were defeated on the Kalka River. Before that, they destroyed the forward patrols of the "Tatar" troops, the commander Ganibek was killed. Let us again give the floor to Ibn al-Athir: They (Tatars) turned back. Then the Russians and the Kipchaks had a desire (to attack) them; believing that they returned out of fear of them and out of powerlessness to fight them, they diligently began to pursue them. The Tatars did not stop retreating, and they pursued their tracks for 12 days, (but) then the Tatars turned to the Russians and Kipchaks, who noticed them only when they had already stumbled upon them; quite unexpectedly, because they considered themselves safe from the Tatars, being sure of their superiority over them. Before they had time to gather for battle, they were attacked by the Tatars with significantly superior forces. Both sides fought with unheard of stubbornness and the battle between them lasted several days.».
Historians note two circumstances (among others, of course). The first is that the Russian and Polovtsian squads fought side by side, next to the regiment of the son of Prince Igor Svyatoslavovich, the regiment of the son of Khan Konchak fought, both were killed in the battle - both they and their regiments. The second is that, as a result, the Polovtsy could not withstand the onslaught of the enemy and fled from the battlefield. And this, according to historians, was one of the main reasons for the defeat. “So the second betrayal of the Polovtsy took place,” according to the historian Pletneva.
The next wave of “Tatar-Mongols” that followed a few years later (1228-1229), and the next one seven years later (in which Batu Khan was one of the military leaders, or Batu in Russian literature) actually destroyed the Polovtsy as an ethnic group. Part went to the Caucasus, part to Hungary, Bulgaria, part to Russia. Some researchers see the descendants of the Polovtsy in the part of the Cossacks now living in the south of Russia and Ukraine. After the ruin of the Russian lands, Batu returned to the steppe with an army to finish off the Polovtsy. This was accomplished through the complete and targeted destruction of the Polovtsian aristocracy. As historians note, after this methodically executed operation, from the middle of the 13th century. in the steppes, they stopped erecting stone Polovtsian statues - there were no customers or performers left.
It should be noted that the Georgian king David the Builder played a certain role in the resettlement of part of the Polovtsy to the Caucasus, who sent ambassadors to the Polovtsy with a proposal to resettle the subjects of Khan Atrak. " According to the Georgian chronicle, 40 thousand Polovtsy came with Khan Atrak, including 5 thousand selected fighters". For other reasons, only 5,000 of those "selected" arrived in Georgia. " David settled the Polovtsy who crossed the Darial along the southern and eastern borderlands and in Kartli, the population of which was almost completely destroyed during the Seljuk invasions. Khan Atrak became a court favorite. His influence was based not only on the strength of the warriors, but also on family relations with the king: he married his daughter Gurandukht to him».
As can be seen from the above, it is unlikely that the Polovtsy can only be considered as “cursed infidels”, “filthy Polovtsy”, “Polovtsy, like a brood of cheetahs” (The Tale of Igor's Campaign), which could be addressed in one form or another to any Russian principality, who piled mountains of corpses of his compatriots, although in those days there was no concept of “compatriots”. In fact, at that time there was still no single Russian ethnos, if we understand ethnos (among other definitions) as "a sense of a common destiny." The Polovtsy were not only enemies, but also fighting brothers of the Russians in numerous battles, and this brotherhood was sealed by the blood shed together against a common enemy.
As S.A. Pletnev, " both among the Polovtsy and in Russia there were many people who knew the language of another people well. Mothers and nannies of Russian princes and boyar children were often Polovtsian women: they sang Polovtsian songs to children, spoke to them in their native language. The children grew up bilingual. It was the same with ordinary people in all the principalities bordering the steppe. Thousands of Russians lived in the Polovtsian nomad camps: wives, maids, slaves, captured soldiers».
And now it's time to move on to an additional interpretation of the concept of "brotherhood", which may be unexpected for many. A number of ancient sources, including Byzantine ones, speak of the Polovtsy as blue-eyed and blond people. Chinese sources called them "yellow-headed", that is, again, fair-haired - despite the fact that the Chinese are usually black-haired, like most of the inhabitants of Southeast Asia. Actually, the very Russian word "Polovtsy", according to a number of researchers, means "yellow-headed", from the word "polova". Some researchers associate them with the Dinlins, light-headed Caucasians, and trace their origin from the second half of the 1st millennium BC, from the period of the Warring States (480-221 BC) in Northern China, and who then, at the end of the 1st millennium BC, they moved to the steppes of southern Siberia (for more details, see the new book by Klyosov and Penzev, which will soon be published). They were also called Kimaks, and in the 1st millennium AD. they were Turkic-speaking. The map below shows the migration route of the Kimaks-Dinlins-Kipchaks-Polovtsians during the 1st millennium AD.
So, fair-haired, blue-eyed Caucasians, although there were definitely Mongoloids among them, when their ancestors took Mongoloid women as wives. So the general anthropology here can be varied, but it is important to know that there were Caucasoids there. Further more. Archaeological studies of burials have shown that the Kipchaks-Polovtsy laid their dead with their heads to the east and to the west. This is a characteristic feature of the carriers of the haplogroup R1a, that is, the genus R1a - men on the right side (head to the west), women on the left (head to the east), all facing south. This is how the dead are laid in the burial of R1a carriers in Germany (Eulau), Corded Ware culture, dated 4600 years ago; in burials of the Catacomb culture (from the Dniester to the Volga, II millennium BC); parts of the ancient pit culture (the steppe zone from the Urals to the Dniester, 5600-4300 years ago, that is, the 4th-3rd millennium BC; the early Maikop culture in the foothills of the North Caucasus; the Koban culture; in part of the burials of the Karakol archaeological culture of the bronze century (2nd millennium BC) on the territory of Gorny Altai (Haak et al, 2008; Klyosov and Penzev, 2014, and references there).
If this is so, then it turns out that the Polovtsians (or a significant part of them) were of the same clan, R1a, with a significant part of the Russian Slavs, or ethnic Russians (now ethnic Russians in the south of Russia - Belgorod, Kursk, Oryol regions - the content of the R1a haplogroup reaches 67 %). The language, apparently, is different, Turkic, but the gender is the same. How did it happen?
Those who are familiar with my publications on DNA genealogy over the past few years know that the carriers of the R1a haplogroup, who arrived on the Russian Plain about 5000 years ago from Europe, apparently from the Balkans, dispersed in their part into several migration flows approximately 4500 years ago. The Russians remained on the Russian Plain, mainly the haplogroups R1a-Z280 and R1a-M458 (the latter formed after the departure of the Aryans, about 4050 years ago), the Aryans of the subclade R1a-Z93 left. Possibly, along with the Z93 subclade, part of the Z280 subclade also left, but they have not yet appeared where the descendants of R1aZ93 mainly live, namely in Southern Siberia, Hindustan, the Iranian plateau, and the Middle East. Either they (Z280) have not yet been found there in noticeable quantities, or their lineage was cut off during the Aryan migrations - or later.
So, those carriers of the Z93 subclade (it can be called a haplogroup with the same reason, these concepts are interchangeable, based on the context), who went far to the east, to the Minusinsk Basin, Altai, northern and northwestern China, Mongolia, are known to us now under many names, among which the collective name Scythians is the most common. But it may well include the Dinlins, and the Kipchaks, and the Polovtsy, and other listed variants of the Polovtsy. The Alans are also commonly referred to as the Scythians, but their language is different from that of many other Scythians. Judging by the data received, there were Türkic-speaking Scythians, and there were "Iranian-speaking", according to the current linguistic classification. It turns out that the carriers of R1a-Z93 went east with their Aryan language, aka "Indo-European", aka "Iranian", and it was brought to India and Iran. And those who went further east, to Central Asia, switched to the Turkic languages. But the male haplogroup, the Y chromosome, remained the same, R1a. Thus, the migration of Kimaks-Dinlins-Kipchaks-Polovtsy during the 1st millennium AD. from Central Asia to the west, to the southern European steppes, Crimea, the Black Sea region - this was the return migration of carriers of the haplogroup R1a, descendants of the Aryans, to their ancient lands.
How to check it? In this essay, I will focus on that part of the Polovtsians who migrated to the Caucasus, fleeing from the "Tatar-Mongols", and if the logic of the above is correct, then their modern descendants with a good probability continue to speak Turkic languages and have the haplogroup R1a with its subclade Z93 .
And there are. These are the Karachay-Balkarians of the same haplogroup R1a-Z93. They are a third of the entire people, more precisely, its male part.
Karachays are a Turkic-speaking people of the North Caucasus, they speak the Karachay-Balkarian language of the Kypchak group. The number is about 230 thousand people, of which about 220 thousand live in Russia (mainly in Karachay-Cherkessia, also in Kabardino-Balkaria and the Stavropol Territory), the rest are mainly in Turkey, Syria, the USA, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan.
There are about 150,000 Balkars, who actually represent a single people with Karachays, of which about 113,000 live in Russia, the rest are in the same place as Karachays. Historians place the Alans, Bulgars, Kobans (representatives of the mountainous Koban culture of the Caucasus) as the basis for the origin of the Karachays and Balkars. Some archaeologists attribute the earliest material signs of the Karachay-Balkars to the 13th-14th centuries. AD, that is, approximately 700-800 years ago, although ethnonyms and literary sources make it possible to make datings up to 4-6 centuries, that is, 1700-1500 years ago. As will be shown below, this is generally consistent with DNA genealogy data.
Let's move on to this data. The figure below shows a tree of 12-marker Karachay-Balkar haplotypes. It generally characterizes the Y-chromosomal structure of the (male) population. It can be seen that even at 12 markers, the tree is quite clearly divided into haplogroups. In general, the dominant haplogroup R1a, 31% of it. In second place, with a slight lag, haplogroup G2a, 27%. The third one is haplogroup J (14%), of which almost all haplotypes belong to the J2 subclade (with a shift towards the Balkars). In total, this is almost three-quarters of all studied haplotypes.
The remaining haplogroups are E1b (among those tested are all Karachays), I2a (all Karachays, half of them are one family), Q1a (almost all Balkars), R1b (most Balkars), T (only three of those tested, and two from one families) - occupy only a single percentage each, in the aggregate, about a quarter of all studied haplotypes. Often such small - in quantitative terms - formations are mistaken for recent aliens, but this is far from being the case. These may be ancient autochthonous tribes, but relatively recently bottlenecked populations (pestilence, extermination in wars, etc.), and therefore their numbers are small. This is also studied by DNA genealogy methods, as will be shown below. An example is haplogroup R1b among (mostly) Balkars.
The purpose of this study is to conduct a DNA genealogical analysis of Karachays and Balkars, and answer two main questions - (1) the origin of the main genera (haplogroups) of the Karachay-Balkar people, namely which Eurasian migrations and when formed the Karachay-Balkar ethnic fusion over time, and (2) when the common ancestors of the most influential (princely) families of Karachays and Balkars lived, and from where they (or their ancestors) could come to the Caucasus.
A tree of 229 12-marker haplotypes built according to the data of the Karachay-Balkar FTDNA project. Of these, haplogroup R1a - 71 haplotypes, haplogroup G - 62 haplotypes, haplogroup J - 31 haplotypes. These are 31%, 27% and 14%, respectively, for a total of 72%. There are 145 haplotypes of Karachays on the tree, 64 haplotypes of Balkars (based on how the people who submitted the haplotype called themselves), and 19 haplotypes related to them, according to those who submitted haplotypes to the database (from other countries).
Haplogroup R1a
Let's start with the most quantitatively represented haplogroup. Most of them belong to the Z93 subclade of the R1a haplogroup. This is the southeastern, Aryan branch of the haplogroup, its carriers went along the main migration routes of the ancient Aryans - to the south, through the Caucasus to Mesopotamia and further to the Arabian Peninsula (apparently, the Mitannian Aryans of Syria had the same subclade of the haplogroup R1a), to the southeast , to Central Asia, and then as the Avestan Aryans passed in the middle of the II millennium BC. to the Iranian plateau, to the east and further to India at the same time, in the middle of the 2nd millennium BC, becoming the Indo-Aryans, and further east, to southern Siberia, becoming the Altai Scythians, during the Pazyryk culture and later. All of them were mostly (but not only) carriers of the R1a-Z93 subclade, as were the Karachays and Balkars. The question is - at what stage of history did this subclade become Karachay-Balkarian? When? How?
The most obvious answer, to which the first part of this essay leads, is the Cuman subclade. Kipchak-Polovtsy, as part of the Scythian superethnos, brought their subclade R1a-Z93 to the North Caucasus 750-800 years ago, and their ethnic group eventually took shape in the Karachay-Balkarian ethnos, retaining the Kipchak-Polovtsian language. But one should hardly expect that the common ancestors of the Karachay-Balkars lived only 750-800 years ago. After all, this is only an arrival in the Caucasus, and some DNA lines could really come from that time. But in general, the common ancestor of those who arrived in the Caucasus could have lived much earlier. In principle, he could live as he liked in the depths of time, up to the time of the Dinlings (in the middle of the 1st millennium BC) and earlier, but experience shows that during long migrations, the common ancestor shifts in time to more recent times, and even how long it takes depends on a lot of factors. This should be clear.
Let us try to get closer to answering these questions by constructing a tree of the R1a-Z93 subclade based on the available 285 haplotypes in an extended 67-marker format, among which there are haplotypes of the princely families of the Krymshamkhalovs, Dudovs, Chipchikovs, Kodzhakovs, Temirbulatovs, Karabashevs, Abaevs and others. On the same tree, there are many haplotypes from the Arab countries of the Middle East, India, as well as Bashkortostan, many European and Asian countries. Some of them are random, isolated, some form rather large groups with ancient common ancestors. All this makes up the system in which the Karachay-Balkar haplotypes are embedded, and shows the general connections between populations. The task is to decipher and correctly interpret the connections.
In the following figure, only the branches of the Bashkirs and Karachais-Balkars are marked, Arabs and Indians occupy many other branches, as well as Western Europeans, Russians, Tatars and other carriers of the Z93 subclade. Most of the Karachays, in whom deeper subclades were determined, belong to the subclade R1a-Z93-L342.2-Z2124Z2123, in which, with this spelling, the ancestral chain of tribes is reflected, if they are called that. Each tribe following in this chain was formed from a higher one, and dispersed throughout the world. In subclade Z2123, in addition to Karachays, there are their closest “relatives” in this tribe from Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Lithuania, Poland, England, Spain, Germany, Iraq, India, Pakistan, UAE, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Bahrain, Qatar, Iran, Yemen, Azerbaijan (see below for the composition of subclade Z2123). It is clear that the subclade was formed thousands of years ago, and its descendants dispersed around the world, eventually arriving in the Arab countries of the Middle East and multiplying noticeably there. The fact is that according to modern data, the Z93 subclade went southeast from Europe about 5500-5000 years ago, through the Caucasus about 4500-4000 years ago, and through the Middle East about 4000-3500 years ago. But if we take into account the transition of the Polovtsy to the Caucasus, then this is already 750-800 years ago, after a long migration from Central Asia. So the European Z2123 are definitely reverse migrations, or simply the consequences of single emigrations. Their presence in India, Pakistan, Iran is most likely the consequences of sea crossings and coastal voyages between these regions and the Middle East. Or the consequences of the visits of the Scythians from Central Asia to those parts.
The subclade Z2124, parental to the "Karachai" Z2123, is equally diverse. Its carriers currently live in England, Sweden, Holland, Poland, Hungary, Lithuania, Romania, Russia, Moldova, which in general again shows the direction of the ancient migration of the haplogroup R1a-Z93L342.2, the parent of Z2123. It can be seen that it is difficult to find the ancestors of the Karachays in this way, and we will go the other way, see below.
A tree of 285 67-marker haplotypes of the R1a-Z93 haplogroup, built according to the IRAKAZ-2014 database, with the addition of several haplotypes of the Karachay-Balkar FTDNA project.
Let's take a closer look at the Karachai section of the haplotype tree in an enlarged view:
Assignment of haplotypes (names are given as indicated in the Karachay-Balkar Project and the IRAKAZ-2014 database):
It should be noted that Abaza is a representative of the Abaza people, Yuldash is from Bashkortostan, but according to haplotypes they are part of the Karachai group. Therefore, it should be recognized that the haplotypes here are a more direct characteristic, in comparison with the region or "officially recognized" ethnicity. According to the data shown, the ancestors of one and the other were Karachais, if this is not refuted by deep snips (see below). So far this is not.
The highlighted haplotype numbers and surnames belong to the same branch with the base (ancestral) haplotype, which we will further call the Krymshamkhalov branch:
13 25 15 11 11 14 12 12 10 12 11 29 –15 9 10 11 11 25 14 20 32 12 14 15 16 – 11 12 19 23 17 16 17 19 35 38 13 11 – 11 8 17 17 8 12 10 8 11 10 12 22 22 15 10 12 12 13 8 14 23 21 13 12 11 13 11 11 12 13
All seven haplotypes of the branch had a total of 31 mutations from the specified base haplotype, which gives 31/7/0.12 = 37 → 38 conditional generations (25 years each), that is, 950±195 years from the common ancestor of the entire branch. This is the 11th century, plus or minus two centuries. Does not contradict the Polovtsian times. Here, 0.12 is the mutation rate constant for the 67-marker haplotype (in mutations for 25 years), the arrow is the correction for backmutations (Klyosov, 2009). In principle, this time, within the limits of the calculation error, corresponds to the time of the possible movement of the Polovtsians to the Caucasus from the Crimea or from Ciscaucasia.
The double branch in the figure above also consists of seven haplotypes. But since its two subbranches consist of a different number of haplotypes (four and three), the calculation will have to be carried out separately, since the “weights” of the subbranches are different. A branch of four haplotypes has a base haplotype
13 25 16 11 11 14 12 12 10 12 11 29 –15 9 10 11 11 25 14 20 32 12 14 15 16 – 11 12 19 24 16 16 17 19 35 39 13 11 – 11 8 17 17 8 12 10 8 11 10 12 22 22 15 10 12 12 13 8 15 23 21 12 12 11 13 11 11 12 13
And only 6 mutations (highlighted) differ from the previous one. All four subbranch haplotypes contain 22 mutations from the base haplotype, which gives 22/4/0.12 = 46 → 48 conditional generations, that is, 1200±280 years from a common ancestor. Six mutations between both base haplotypes breed their ancestors by 6/0.12 = 50 → 53 conditional generations, i.e. approximately 1325 years, and them the common ancestor lived approximately (1325 + 1200 + 950) / 2 = 1740 years ago, that is, approximately at the beginning of our era.
A sub-branch of three haplotypes does not give good statistics, although 67x3 = 201 alleles can be worked with. The base haplotype of this sub-branch is as follows:
13 25 16 11 11 14 12 12 10 12 11 29 –15 9 10 11 11 25 14 20 32 12 14 15 16 – 11 13 19 24 16 16 19 20 36 38 14 11 – 11 8 17 17 8 12 10 8 11 10 12 22 22 15 10 12 12 13 8 14 23 21 12 12 11 13 11 11 12 13
All three subbranch haplotypes contain 9 mutations from the base haplotype, which gives 9/3/0.12 = 25 → 26 conditional generations, that is, 650±220 years from a common ancestor. Ten mutations between both base haplotypes (subbranches of 3 haplotypes and branches of 7 haplotypes) breed their ancestors by 10/0.12 = 83 → 91 conditional generations, i.e. approximately 2275 years, and them the common ancestor lived approximately (2275+650+950)/2 = 1940 years ago, that is, again around the beginning of our era, given that these estimates have an error of plus or minus two centuries. In general, this does not contradict the assessments given in the introduction to this study.
It is interesting to compare the Karachay R1a haplotypes with the Bashkir haplotypes, since they also belong to the Z93 subclade. Base haplotype of Bashkir haplotypes
13 24 16 11 11 15 12 12 12 13 11 31 – 15 9 10 11 11 24 14 20 31 12 15 15 15 – 11 12 19 23 16 15 19 20 36 38 14 11 – 11 8 17 17 8 12 10 8 11 10 10 22 22 15 10 12 12 13 8 14 23 21 13 12 11 13 11 11 12 13
It differs very significantly from the Karachaev ones, namely, by 20 mutations (noted) when compared with the base haplotype of the Krymshamkhalov branch and related ones. The common ancestor of the Bashkir haplotypes lived 1400 ± 200 years ago (96 mutations per 15 haplotypes), but at such a large distance from the Karachai haplotypes (20/0.12 = 167 → 200 conditional generations, that is, approximately 5000 years) them common ancestor lived (5000+950+1400)/2 = 3675 years ago. This is the late time of the Aryan migrations (and their descendants, the early Scythians) across the Russian Plain and the Trans-Urals.
Genomic analysis of a representative of Karachais and Bashkirs showed that they belong to different subclades of the Z93-Z2123 group. It turned out that subclade Z2123 consists of at least five of the following subclades, which include representatives of Pakistan (Y2632), India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka (Y47), India (Y875), Bashkirs and Indians (Y934), and Karachays (YP449). Such an unusual at first glance combination of Bashkirs and Indians in one subclade suggests that the Aryans during their migrations in the III-II millennium BC. passed through the territory of present-day Bashkortostan, left the descendants of the subclade Z93-L342.2-Z2124-Z2125-Z2123-Y934 there, and brought it to India. Or it could be Scythians, descendants of the Aryans. Karachays are another direction of migration, to the Caucasus, with the formation of the subclade Z93-L342.2-Z2124Z2125-Z2123-YP449. Snip YP449 has a carrier of the central haplotype of the Krymshamkhalov branch in the figure above.
Previously, we described the basic haplotype of the Arabs of the haplogroup R1a, with a common ancestor who lived 4050±500 years ago (Rozhanskii and Klyosov, 2012)
13 25 16 11 11 14 12 12 10 13 11 30 –15 9 10 11 11 24 14 20 32 12 15 15 16 – 11 12 19 23 16 16 18 19 34 38 13 11 – 11 8 17 17 8 11 10 8 11 10 12 22 22 15 10 12 12 13 8 14 23 21 13 12 11 13 11 11 12 13
And another basic Arabic haplotype of the same haplogroup, but of a different branch, with a common ancestor only 1075±150 years ago:
13 25 16 10 11 14 12 12 10 13 11 29 –15 9 10 11 11 24 14 20 33 12 15 15 15 – 12 11 19 23 16 15 16 20 35 37 13 11 – 11 8 17 17 8 11 10 8 11 10 12 22 22 15 10 12 12 13 8 14 23 21 12 12 11 15 11 12 12 13
The first, more ancient, differs from the base haplotype of the Krymshamkhalov branch (see above) by only 8 mutations, the second, more recent, by 20 mutations. For the base Bashkir haplotype, there is also a difference of 20 mutations (see above). This already shows that the base haplotype of the Krymshamkhalovs is closer to the ancient Arab and Bashkir haplotypes (more precisely, to the common ancestors of the ancient Arab and Bashkir haplotypes) than to relatively recent ones. Let's check it out.
Eight mutations of the difference between the two base 67-marker haplotypes is equivalent to 8/0.12 = 67 → 72 conditional generations (25 years each), that is, approximately 1800 years, which places the common ancestor of the Arabian haplotypes and the Krymshamkhalov branch by approximately (1800+4050+950) /2 = 3400 years ago. Approximately at the same time when the common ancestor of the Krymshamkhalov and Bashkir haplotypes lived (about 3675 years ago). Twenty mutations of the difference is equivalent to 20 / 0.12 = 167 → 200 conditional generations, that is, approximately 5000 years, and the common ancestor of this late Arabic branch and the Krymshamkhalov branch is approximately (5000 + 1075 + 950) / 2 = 3500 years ago. As you can see, the data converge quite reproducibly, within the limits of the calculation error, and show that the Krymshamkhalov branch is unlikely to have descended from Arab ancestors, especially during the period of Islamization, only 1300 years ago. It should be noted that at such long distances in time as 3500-4000 years ago, the calculation error is 10-15%, that is, 4050±500, 3400±400, 3500±400 years ago, that is, all these values overlap within errors. This is due to the fact that the number of mutations in haplotypes is not an absolute and predetermined value, and is subject to small statistical fluctuations, like any statistical value. But, of course, the difference between 3500±400 and 1300±150 years cannot be explained by statistics. These are differences of another rank.
The remaining two sub-branches in the figure above (in the upper part) are further from the ancient Arabic base haplotype, namely by 10 and 12 mutations. But this gives almost the same times to common ancestors within the calculation error - 3760 and 3740 years, respectively. In other words, all Karachay branches identified so far diverge from the same or close ancestors of the R1a haplogroup, from which both Bashkir and Arab haplotypes diverge. They are not descended from one another, they just have common ancient ancestors. So the question of the origin of the Krymshamkhalovs and their Karachay relatives along the branches of the haplogroup R1a from the Arabs can still be considered closed. But the origin from the Polovtsians is much more likely.
Since the Ashkenazi Jews, according to some assumptions (so far unproven), descended from the Khazars, we will check, just in case, this, at first glance, a very strange hypothesis about the possibility of the origin of the Krymshamkhalov branch from the Khazar Jews. The base haplotype of the Jews of haplogroup R1a (the same subclade Z93) with a common ancestor 1300±150 years ago (Rozhanskii and Klyosov, 2012):
13 25 16 10 11 14 12 12 10 13 11 30 - 14 9 11 11 11 24 14 20 30 12 12 15 15 - 11 11 19 23 14 16 19 20 35 38 14 11 - 11 8 17 17 8 12 10 8 11 10 12 22 22 15 10 12 12 14 8 14 23 21 12 12 11 13 10 11 12 13
The difference with the base haplotype of the Krymshamkhalov branch is 22 mutations (equivalent to a distance of 5600 years), which places the common ancestor of the Ashkenazi Jews of the haplogroup R1a and the Krymshamkhalovs at approximately (5600+1300+950)/2 = 3925 years ago. This is still the same common ancestor, and the Bashkirs, and Jews, and Arabs, and Karachays (branches of the Krymshamkhalovs), which is equidistant in relation to all of them. In all likelihood, this is the ancient Aryan ancestor of the haplogroup R1a-Z93, from which the Scythians of the same haplogroup, and the Arabs, and the Indians, and the Iranians came - all this is one common genus, dispersed over the millennia into branches and fractional subclades-snip. For the Bashkirs, this is snip Y934, for the Jews Y2630, for the branch of the Krymshamkhalovs YP449.
Thus, there are two main methodological ways to show the commonality or difference in DNA genealogical lines - either to compare base haplotypes and calculate the lifetimes of common ancestors, or to compare deep snips. It is optimal, of course, to do both, but so far this is rare, since there is little data on deep snips. Among the Karachays - only one representative. But even this turned out to be enough to draw fundamental conclusions.
Now about the Alans. On the one hand, the time of the appearance of the main branches of the Karachays of the haplogroup R1a, at the beginning of our era, is consistent with the beginning of the mention of the Alanian tribes in written sources - namely, from the 1st century AD, and precisely in Ciscaucasia. If we consider only this evidence, then the issue can be solemnly closed by recognizing the Alans as the direct ancestors of the Karachais. But then it should be recognized that the Ossetians, in whom the R1a haplogroup is practically absent, have practically nothing to do with the Alans, with the possible exception of their ancient military elite, for whom there is no DNA data. Actually, I already described it. Further, then it should be recognized that the common ancestor of the Bashkirs and Karachays of the haplogroup R1a, dated approximately 3675 years ago (and the SNP Z2123), was also the ancestor of the Alans, which is quite simple to recognize, these are all Aryan-Scythian lines, one genus R1a. The revealed parallels seem somewhat unexpected, but upon reflection, quite natural.
It is too early to put an end to these considerations. The problem is that linguists and archaeologists have their own ideas, and a reasonable consensus with DNA genealogy data is needed. Here, the Ossetians sharply fall out of the Alanian concept, their haplogroup is mainly - two-thirds for the Digorians and three-quarters for the Irons - this is haplogroup G, apparently unusual for the Scythians, but there is no data for such a definite conclusion yet. There are rather general considerations. According to them, the Alans were hardly the ancestors of the vast majority of today's Ossetians. Most likely, the Polovtsy were not them either, especially since ancient historians draw a distinction between the Alans and the Polovtsy. Above, historical evidence was noted of how the "Tatars" successfully divided the Cumans and Alans on the basis that they are different, and eventually defeated both.
On the other hand, haplogroup G is common for Ossetians and a quarter of Karachay-Balkars, but this relationship is quite distant, going back millennia. There are practically no descendants of the Polovtsi haplogroup R1a among the Ossetians. Simply put, Karachay-Balkarians and Ossetians are very distant relatives in the male line.
As a result, the Alans in this system simply “freeze”. As already noted, judging by the testimony of ancient historians, the Alans and Polovtsy are different peoples, or different ethnic groups. If both have the main haplogroup R1a, then it should differ in both subclades. At the R1a level, they cannot be distinguished. But data on deep subclades in Karachay-Balkarians are not yet available, with the exception of single Z93-L342.2-Z2124-Z2125-Z2123-YP449 (snip YP449 has a carrier of the central haplotype of the Krymshamkhalov branch). If another deep snip of the R1a haplogroup is revealed among the Karachai-Balkarians, it may refer to the Alans, but it is almost impossible to prove this until a DNA analysis of the fossil skeletal remains is carried out, for which it has been proven with good certainty that these are Alans or Cumans, or someone then another. So far there is no such data.
Haplogroup G2a
Haplogroup G2a is typical for the northwestern and central Caucasus, and appears in two main subclades - G2a1 and G2a3. Among Ossetians, for example, the former prevails, both among Irons and Digors, and makes up 90% or more of all carriers of haplogroup G. Among Georgians, the share of the latter rises to a third of all carriers of G, among Abkhazians they are equally divided, among Circassians and Shapsugs the second subclade predominates (in the Shapsugs it is more than 90%). So the "swing" of these two subclades in the Caucasus reaches almost absolute extreme points.
In Karachays and Balkars, the first subclade almost absolutely prevails (90%), as in Ossetians (for this, you should look at the tree above, there is a spreading branch G2a1 on the top right, and a small branch G2a3 below). But it is somewhat different than that of Ossetians, if we consider the haplotypes, and this leads to the conclusion that the ancestors of the G2a1 haplogroup in Ossetians and Karachais were different. This is a somewhat unexpected conclusion, but quite reliable. Let's see. Below is the base haplotype of the G2a1 Ossetian subclade, its age is only 1375 ± 210 years, approximately the 7th century, plus or minus a couple of centuries:
14 23 15 9 15 17 11 12 11 11 10 28 – 17 9 9 12 11 25 16 21 28 13 13 14 14 – 11 11 19 21 15 15 16 18 37 38 12 9 – 11 8 15 16 8 11 10 8 12 10 12 21 22 14 10 12 12 15 8 13 21 22 15 13 11 13 10 11 11 13
And here is the basic haplotype of Karachays:
14 22 15 10 15 17 11 12 11 12 10 29 – 17 9 9 11 11 24 16 21 28 13 13 14 14 – 10 10 20 21 15 15 15 18 36 38 11 10 – 11 8 15 16 8 11 10 8 12 10 12 21 22 14 10 12 12 15 8 13 21 22 16 13 11 13 10 11 11 13
The common ancestor with this haplotype lived 3650 ± 510 years ago, that is, much earlier than the common ancestor of the Ossetians. Between the two base haplotypes, Karachays and Ossetians, there are 13 mutations, which breeds their common ancestors by 13/0.12 = 108 → 121 conditional generations, that is, by about 3025 years, and them common ancestor lived (3025+1375+3650)/2 = 4025 years ago. These are the times when carriers of haplogroup G2a arrived in the Caucasus from Europe, which will be discussed below.
Thus, the Karachay and Ossetian genera G2a1 have a common ancestor more than 4 thousand years ago, and since then their DNA lines have only diverged. It is clear that these lines have nothing to do with the Alans, they are much older.
Confirmation of this position can be obtained by comparing the Karachai base haplotype with the base haplotype of the G2a1 haplogroup throughout the northwestern and central Caucasus (only 37-marker haplotypes were available):
14 22 15 10 15 17 11 12 11 12 10 29 –17 9 9 11 11 24 16 21 28 13 13 14 14 – 10 10 19 21 15 15 15 18 37 38 11 10
Its common ancestor lived more than 4 thousand years ago, that is, within the error, at the same time that the common ancestor of the Karachai haplotypes of the G2a1 group also lived. Perhaps it was the same ancestor. Two mutations of the difference on 37-marker haplotypes breed common ancestors by only 2/0.09 = 22 conditional generations, that is, by 550 years. Indeed, the common ancestor of the 37-marker haplotype shown above throughout the northwestern and central Caucasus (Ossetians, Shapsugs, Georgians, Circassians, Abkhazians) lived 4875 ± 500 years ago.
Where did haplogroup G2a come from in the Caucasus more than 4 thousand years ago? It appeared, by all indications, from Europe, where they found a number of ancient burials dating back 5-7 thousand years ago, DNA analysis of which from bone remains showed the haplogroup G2a. These burials were in Spain, France, Germany. By the way, the “ice man Otzi”, who was killed in the Alpine mountains on the border of Austria and Italy 4550 years ago, also had the G2a haplogroup. The study of fossil haplotypes and their modern descendants showed that during the III millennium BC. in Western Europe, almost all the haplogroups of "Old Europe" disappeared, namely G2a, E1b-V13, I1, I2, R1a, and they appeared, having all gone through the bottlenecks of populations, that is, they practically zeroed out, outside of Central Europe. R1a fled to the Russian Plain, appearing there about 4600 years ago, I1 - to the British Isles, Scandinavia, the Russian Plain, I2 - to the Danube and the British Isles, and the same subclade broke into two halves between these territories, E1b - to the Balkans and North Africa. G2a left Europe and, apparently, went through Asia Minor to Anatolia, Iran and the Caucasus. It was in the same III millennium BC.
Why were they all running, or, to put it more neutrally, moved such great distances? A hint is given by the fact that it was in the III millennium BC. western and central Europe. They did not run anywhere, the bottlenecks of the population did not pass, and populated Europe by historical standards very quickly, starting from 4800 years ago, when the culture of bell-shaped goblets (the main haplogroup R1b) began settling Europe from the Pyrenees, and after a few hundred years they were already on territory of modern Germany. As a result of this invasion of Erbins, carriers of G2a moved to the Caucasus. Such is the history of the appearance of the genus G2a in the Caucasus. The Karachays of this haplogroup have been living on their land ever since.
The ancient surnames of the Suyunchevs (Sunshevs), Shakhmanovs, Uruzbievs have the haplogroup G2a1. A comparison of their haplotypes showed that they are actually related, although very distant, and their common ancestor lived 3325±1300 years ago. Such a large calculation error is due to the fact that all three families determined for themselves only 12-marker haplotypes, and there were seven mutations between them. This already shows that they are by no means close relatives with each other, but by and large relatives belonging to one large genus-haplogroup.
Haplogroup J2
This haplogroup is expressed among the Balkars in comparison with the Karachays. Since it is in this sample of only 27 haplotypes (most of which have only a 12-marker format) from different subclades that have not been identified, DNA analysis can only be very approximate. But since a more detailed DNA genealogical analysis of the haplotypes of the northwestern Caucasus has already been carried out (Klyosov, 2013), and the Karachay-Balkarian haplotypes show the same patterns, general conclusions can be drawn. The share of haplogroup J2 among the Karachay-Balkars is approximately the same as among the Ossetians-Digorians, that is, it is small, approximately 12%. The origin of these haplotypes is very ancient, with common ancestors about 7 thousand years ago and ancient, and the source of these ancient migrations was in Mesopotamia. This, apparently, is evidence of ancient Uruk migrations to the Caucasus.
Haplogroup R1b
This haplogroup is scarce among Karachays and Balkars, and it is mainly found among Balkars. It is noteworthy that almost all R1b haplotypes belong to an unusual group that is not found in Europe, and, apparently, is an archaic vestige of some very ancient common ancestor. Her base haplotype
13 22 14 11 14 15 12 12 13 14 13 32 – 16 9 9 11 11 24 15 19 31 13 15 17 17 – 10 10 20 25 16 17 16 19 34 37 12 10 – 11 8 16 16 8 10 10 8 10 10 12 22 23 17 10 12 12 16 8 12 24 20 14 12 11 13 11 11 13 12 (Balkarskaya)
Extremely different (mutations highlighted) from the most common base European haplotype R1b-P312, with an age of approximately 4200 years ago:
13 24 14 11 11 14 12 12 12 13 13 29 – 17 9 10 11 11 25 15 19 29 15 15 17 17 – 11 11 19 23 15 15 18 17 36 38 12 12 – 11 1 9 10 10 8 12 23 23 16 10 12 12 15 8 12 22 20 13 12 11 13 11 11 12 12 (European, P312)
There are 43 mutations between them (!), which breeds their common ancestors by 43/0.12 = 358 → 546 conditional generations, or approximately 13650 years. The basic Balkar haplotype itself is relatively recent, its carrier lived 1300 ± 255 years ago. It is clear that this branch passed the bottleneck of the population, and miraculously survived until about the 8th century AD. This places the ancient ancestor of the Balkar (and European) haplotypes at (13650+4200+1300)/2 = 9600 years ago. At that time, the haplogroup R1b migrated between the Urals and the Middle Volga, but it may have already come to the Caucasus. There is practically no data from that time. In any case, this is one of the oldest DNA datings in the Caucasus.
In conclusion, it should be noted that the consideration of Karachay and Balkar haplotypes and haplogroups from the point of view of DNA genealogy made it possible to identify the ancient migrations of the main clans that make up the Karachay-Balkar people and put the origin of a number of ancient princely families in the context of the origin of the Karachay-Balkarian people. The data obtained allow us to assume with great reason that a third of the Karachays descended from the Polovtsians of the haplogroup R1a, and to dismiss the Arab origin of the Krymshamkhalov branch. Of course, the results obtained should be carefully discussed together with historians, archaeologists, linguists, ethnographers in order to reach a certain consensus. So far, representatives of the listed disciplines are far from it, and, perhaps, independent DNA genealogy data will make it possible to shift the current stalemate.
Anatoly A. Klyosov,
doctor of chemical sciences, professor
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We all know from history that in ancient times the Russians often fought with the Polovtsians. But who are these Polovtsy? After all, now in the world there is no people with such a name. Meanwhile, their blood, perhaps, flows even in ourselves ...
"Unfortunate" people
Where the ethnonym "Polovtsy" came from is not exactly known. At one time there was a version that it was associated with the word "field", because these peoples lived in the field, the steppe. Modern historians, for the most part, believe that the word "Polovtsian" comes from "sexual" - "yellow-white, yellowish, straw." Most likely, the hair of the representatives of this people was light yellow, straw-colored. Although this is strange for the Turkic tribes. The Polovtsy themselves called themselves Kipchaks, Kimaks, Kumans...
It is interesting that the word "Kipchak" (or, as the speakers themselves pronounced it, "Kipchak") in Turkic dialects means "ill-fated". Most likely, the ancestors of the Kipchaks were the tribes of the Sirs, who roamed in the IV-VII centuries in the steppes between the Mongolian Altai and the eastern Tien Shan. There is evidence that in 630 they formed a state called Kipchak, which was subsequently destroyed by the Uighurs and the Chinese.
At the beginning of the 11th century, the Polovtsian tribes came from the Trans-Volga region to the Black Sea steppes, then crossed the Dnieper and reached the lower reaches of the Danube. Thus, they managed to populate the entire territory from the Danube to the Irtysh, which was called the Great Steppe. Eastern sources even call it Desht-i-Kipchak (Kipchak steppe).
From raids to the Golden Horde
Starting from the second half of the 11th century, the Polovtsy continually raided Russia, devastating the lands, taking away livestock and property, and taking the local residents into captivity. The border principalities - Pereyaslav, Seversk, Kiev, Ryazan - suffered the most from the Polovtsian attacks.
At the beginning of the 12th century, the troops of princes Svyatopolk Izyaslavich and Vladimir Monomakh managed to push the Polovtsy to the Caucasus, beyond the Volga and the Don. Subsequently, they made up the majority of the population of the Golden Horde. It was from them, according to historians, that the Tatars, Kirghiz, Gagauz, Uzbeks, Kazakhs, Karakalpaks, Nogais, Kumyks, Bashkirs, Karachays, Balkars went.
Where to look for the descendants of the Polovtsians?
During the existence of the Golden Horde, Russian princes often married Polovtsian princesses. The beginning of this tradition was laid by the son of Yaroslav the Wise, Prince Vsevolod, who in 1068 married Anna, the daughter of the Polovtsian Khan, who went down in history as Anna Polovtska. His son Vladimir Monomakh also married a Polovtsian. The Kyiv prince Svyatopolk Izyaslavich was married to the daughter of the Polovtsian Khan Tugorkan, Yuri Dolgoruky - to the daughter of Khan Aepa, Rurik, the son of the Grand Prince of Kyiv Rostislav Mstislavich - to the daughter of Khan Belok, the son of Novgorod-Seversk
Prince Igor Svyatoslavich, the hero of The Tale of Igor's Campaign Vladimir - on the daughter of Khan Konchak, Prince Mstislav Udatny of Galicia - on the daughter of Khan Kotyan, who, by the way, became the grandmother of Alexander Nevsky!
So, mother vladimiro-suzdal
Prince Andrei Bogolyubsky, son of Yuri Dolgoruky, was a Polovtsian. The study of his remains was supposed to serve as a confirmation or refutation of the theory of the Caucasoid appearance of the Polovtsians. It turned out that there was nothing Mongoloid in the appearance of the prince. According to anthropological
According to the data, they were typical Europeans. All descriptions indicate that the "Kipchaks" had blond or reddish hair, gray or blue eyes ... Another thing is that in the process of assimilation they could mix, for example, with the Mongols, and their descendants already acquired Mongoloid features.
Where did the Caucasoid features come from among the Polovtsians? One of the hypotheses says that they were descendants of the Dinlins, one of the oldest nations in Europe, who, as a result of migration processes, mixed with the Turks.
Today, among the Nogais, Kazakhs, Bashkirs, Tatars, Kirghiz, there are descendants of tribes with generic names "Kipchak", "Kypshak", "Kypsak" with similar genetic haplogroups. Among the Bulgarians, Altaians, Nogais, Bashkirs, Kirghiz there are ethnic groups with the names "Kuman", "Kuban", "Kuba", which some historians refer to as part of the Polovtsian tribes. The Hungarians, in turn, have the "Plavtsy" and "Kunok" ethnic groups, which are descendants of related tribes - the Polovtsians and Kuns.
A number of researchers believe that the distant descendants of the Polovtsy are also found among Ukrainians, Poles, Czechs, Bulgarians and even Germans.
Thus, the blood of the Polovtsy can flow in many peoples not only in Asia, but also in Europe, and even Slavic, not excluding, of course, Russians ...
The Polovtsy remained in the history of Russia as the worst enemies of Vladimir Monomakh and cruel mercenaries from the times of internecine wars. The tribes that worshiped the sky terrorized the Old Russian state for almost two centuries.Who are the Polovtsy?
In 1055, Prince Vsevolod Yaroslavich of Pereyaslavl, returning from a campaign against the Torques, met a detachment of new nomads, previously unknown in Russia, led by Khan Bolush. The meeting was peaceful, the new "acquaintances" received the Russian name "Polovtsy" and the future neighbors dispersed. Since 1064, in Byzantine and since 1068 in Hungarian sources, Cumans and Kuns are mentioned, also previously unknown in Europe. They were to play a significant role in the history of Eastern Europe, turning into formidable enemies and insidious allies of the ancient Russian princes, becoming mercenaries in a fratricidal civil strife. The presence of the Polovtsians, Kumans, Kuns, who appeared and disappeared at the same time, did not go unnoticed, and the questions of who they were and where they came from still worry historians.
According to the traditional version, all four of the above-mentioned peoples were a single Turkic-speaking people, which was called differently in different parts of the world. Their ancestors, the Sars, lived on the territory of Altai and the eastern Tien Shan, but the state they formed was defeated by the Chinese in 630. The rest went to the steppes of eastern Kazakhstan, where they got their new name "Kipchaks", which, according to legend, means "ill-fated". Under this name they are mentioned in many medieval Arab-Persian sources. However, both in Russian and in Byzantine sources, the Kipchaks are not found at all, and a people similar in description is called "Kumans", "Kuns" or "Polovtsy". Moreover, the etymology of the latter remains unclear. Perhaps the word comes from the old Russian “polov”, which means “yellow”. According to scientists, this may indicate that this people had light hair color and belonged to the western branch of the Kipchaks - “Sary-Kipchaks” (Kuns and Cumans belonged to the eastern and had a Mongoloid appearance). According to another version, the term "Polovtsy" could come from the familiar word "field", and designate all the inhabitants of the fields, regardless of their tribal affiliation.
The official version has many weaknesses. Firstly, if all the aforementioned peoples originally represented a single people - the Kipchaks, then in this case, how to explain that neither Byzantium, nor Russia, nor Europe, this toponym was unknown. In the countries of Islam, where the Kipchaks were known firsthand, on the contrary, they did not hear about the Polovtsians or Cumans at all. Archeology comes to the aid of the unofficial version, according to which, the main archaeological finds of the Polovtsian culture - stone women erected on mounds in honor of the soldiers who fell in battle, were characteristic only of the Polovtsy and Kipchaks. The Cumans, despite their worship of the sky and the cult of the mother goddess, did not leave such monuments.
All these arguments "against" allow many modern researchers to move away from the canon of studying the Polovtsians, Cumans and Kuns as one and the same tribe. According to the candidate of sciences, Evstigneev, the Polovtsy-Sars are the Turgesh, who for some reason fled from their territories to Semirechye.
Weapons of civil strife
The Polovtsians had no intention of remaining a "good neighbor" of Kievan Rus. As befits nomads, they soon mastered the tactics of sudden raids: they set up ambushes, attacked by surprise, swept away an unprepared enemy in their path. Armed with bows and arrows, sabers and short spears, the Polovtsian warriors rushed into battle, at a gallop bombarding the enemy with a bunch of arrows. They went "raid" through the cities, robbing and killing people, driving them into captivity.
In addition to the shock cavalry, their strength also lay in the developed strategy, as well as in new technologies for that time, such as heavy crossbows and "liquid fire", which they borrowed, obviously, from China since the days of living in Altai.
However, as long as centralized power was maintained in Russia, thanks to the order of succession to the throne established under Yaroslav the Wise, their raids remained only a seasonal disaster, and certain diplomatic relations even began between Russia and the nomads. A lively trade was carried on, the population communicated widely in the border regions Among the Russian princes, dynastic marriages with the daughters of the Polovtsian khans became popular. The two cultures coexisted in a fragile neutrality that could not last long.
In 1073, the triumvirate of the three sons of Yaroslav the Wise: Izyaslav, Svyatoslav, Vsevolod, to whom he bequeathed Kievan Rus, fell apart. Svyatoslav and Vsevolod accused their elder brother of conspiring against them and striving to become "autocratic", like his father. This was the birth of a great and long turmoil in Russia, which the Polovtsy took advantage of. Without taking sides to the end, they willingly took the side of a man who promised them big "profits". So, the first prince who resorted to their help - Prince Oleg Svyatoslavich, whom his uncles disinherited, allowed them to rob and burn Russian cities, for which he was nicknamed Oleg Gorislavich.
Subsequently, the call of the Cumans as allies in the internecine struggle became a common practice. In alliance with the nomads, Yaroslav's grandson Oleg Gorislavich expelled Vladimir Monomakh from Chernigov, he also got Murom, driving out Vladimir's son Izyaslav. As a result, the warring princes faced a real danger of losing their own territories. In 1097, on the initiative of Vladimir Monomakh, then Prince of Pereslavl, the Lubech Congress was convened, which was supposed to end the internecine war. The princes agreed that from now on everyone had to own his "fatherland". Even the prince of Kyiv, who formally remained the head of state, could not violate the borders. Thus, fragmentation was officially fixed in Russia with good intentions. The only thing that even then united the Russian lands was a common fear of the Polovtsian invasions.
Monomakh's War
The most ardent enemy of the Polovtsians among the Russian princes was Vladimir Monomakh, during whose great reign the practice of using the Polovtsian troops for the purpose of fratricide was temporarily stopped. Chronicles, which, however, actively corresponded with him, tell about him as the most influential prince in Russia, who was known as a patriot who spared neither strength nor life for the defense of Russian lands. Having suffered defeats from the Polovtsians, in alliance with whom stood his brother and his worst enemy - Oleg Svyatoslavich, he developed a completely new strategy in the fight against nomads - to fight on their own territory. Unlike the Polovtsian detachments, which were strong in sudden raids, the Russian squads gained an advantage in open battle. The Polovtsian "lava" broke against the long spears and shields of Russian foot soldiers, and the Russian cavalry, surrounding the steppes, did not allow them to run away on their famous light-winged horses. Even the time of the campaign was thought out: until early spring, when the Russian horses, which were fed with hay and grain, were stronger than the Polovtsian horses that were emaciated on pasture.
Monomakh's favorite tactic also gave an advantage: he provided the enemy with the opportunity to attack first, preferring defense at the expense of footmen, since by attacking the enemy exhausted himself much more than the defending Russian warrior. During one of these attacks, when the infantry took the main blow, the Russian cavalry went around from the flanks and hit the rear. This decided the outcome of the battle. Vladimir Monomakh needed just a few trips to the Polovtsian lands to save Russia from the Polovtsian threat for a long time. In the last years of his life, Monomakh sent his son Yaropolk with an army beyond the Don, on a campaign against the nomads, but he did not find them there. The Polovtsy migrated away from the borders of Russia, to the Caucasian foothills.
On guard for the dead and the living
The Polovtsians, like many other peoples, have sunk into oblivion of history, leaving behind "Polovtsian stone women" who still guard the souls of their ancestors. Once they were placed in the steppe to "guard" the dead and protect the living, and were also placed as landmarks and signs for fords. Obviously, they brought this custom with them from their original homeland - Altai, spreading it along the Danube. "Polovtsian women" is far from the only example of such monuments. Long before the appearance of the Polovtsy, in the 4th-2nd millennium BC, such idols were placed on the territory of present-day Russia and Ukraine by the descendants of the Indo-Iranians, and a couple of thousand years after them, by the Scythians.
"Polovtsian women", like other stone women - not necessarily the image of a woman, among them there are many male faces. Even the very etymology of the word “woman” comes from the Turkic “balbal”, which means “ancestor”, “grandfather-father”, and is associated with the cult of veneration of ancestors, and not at all with female beings. Although, according to another version, stone women are traces of a matriarchy that has gone into the past, as well as a cult of veneration of the mother goddess, among the Polovtsy - Umai, who personified the earthly principle. The only obligatory attribute is the hands folded on the stomach, holding the bowl for sacrifices, and the chest, which is also found in men, and is obviously associated with the feeding of the clan.
According to the beliefs of the Polovtsy, who professed shamanism and tengrism (worship of the sky), the dead were endowed with a special power that allowed them to help their descendants. Therefore, a Polovtsian passing by had to make a sacrifice to the statue (judging by the finds, these were usually rams) in order to enlist its support. This is how the Azerbaijani poet of the 12th century Nizami, whose wife was a Polovtsian, describes this ceremony: “And the back of the Kipchaks bends before the idol... flock, What to leave a sheep in front of an idol is necessary.
