The Kypchaks (they are Polovtsy) are a Turkic-speaking people who, through conquest, were able to occupy the territory of the Pechenegs, reach the Dnieper and the lower reaches of the Danube.

Name

There are several versions of the origin of the name. Moreover, it is important to note that the Kypchaks were called not only Polovtsy, but also Cumans (Byzantines). The very word "Polovtsy" is associated by a number of historians with the field. Supporters of the historian Arist Kunik believe that the name comes from the word "sexual". It means straw color.
If you translate Kypchak into Tatar, you get a chariot, and in translation from the ancient Turkic it means "lucky" (according to another version, "unfortunate").

Story

The ethnos of the Kypchaks developed in the 8th century AD. Under their auspices were Karluks, Kyrgyz and Kimaks. The conquests allowed them to occupy the territory that now belongs to Kazakhstan. From the 9th century, the Polovtsians began to move towards Southern Rus', devastating the lands and capturing people. In the 10th century, the Polovtsians were at first friendly towards Pereyaslavl, but after a short period of time they attempted to capture part of the territory. The attempt is crowned with success, the army, led by Khan Iskal, begins to devastate the Pereyaslav lands. From the middle to the end of the 11th century, the Polovtsy make regular raids on Russian lands.
The reason for the regular defeats of Russian soldiers was the fragmentation of Rus' as such. When the troops began to unite, they were much easier to fight. This led to an unchanging string of successes. The 12th century became fatal for the Polovtsy, they began to be pushed to the Don, and then to the Caucasus. However, in Georgia they were accepted into service, which helped the Georgian king David to get rid of the Seljuks. The Kypchak troops played a significant role in civil strife, helping the Suzdal and Seversk princes to fight against the Khvalyn ones.
The Polovtsy fought with the Pechenegs on the side of Byzantium, had a serious influence on the Bulgarians during the Second Bulgarian Kingdom, acting as its ally. They fought on the side of the Alans, speaking out against the Mongol army. Thus, the Kypchaks formed the image of mercenaries, acting under various banners, helping the princes to strengthen their power.

Life

The Kypchaks were good cattle breeders, they raised sheep, horses, camels. Their way of life was close to nomadic. Parking happened only in winter and summer periods. The main way to get money was robbery and ruin. Contemporaries claim that the Polovtsy managed to loot a lot of gold and silver, which they exchanged for the goods they needed. Almost no cities were built, preferring to capture settlements and use them for their own needs.
Capturing territories, the Polovtsians could collect tribute. The Kypchak population was divided mainly into warriors and artisans, khans, who led a luxurious lifestyle, stood separately. Women were engaged in all life, and in society they were valued very highly. It is known that blood feud was common among the Polovtsians.
Military science has become a key development factor in the life of the Polovtsy. The peoples they conquered noted high organization and excellent battle tactics. The main weapons used by the Kypchaks in battle were bows, darts and curved sabers. Warriors wore quivers closer to their sides so that they could quickly get arrows.
One warrior could have several horses with him, and the main force of the army was cavalry. In battle, the Polovtsy threw lassoes on the enemy soldiers, stabbed the enemies with spears.
The gradual development of military affairs led to the appearance of heavy warriors dressed in chain mail. To protect the body, the Polovtsians began to use shells and helmets. Heavy crossbows and a special type of weapon - Greek fire, which is a combustible mixture, became common weapons.
To improve their combat skills, the warriors not only trained, but also hunted. Hunting became one of the main occupations of the Polovtsy, helping to get food and furs from which fur coats were made. Women sewed outfits for warriors from sheep's wool, which helped to overcome long distances in the cold. Thus, many of the activities of the Kypchaks were somehow connected with military affairs.

Religion

Tengrianism became the religion of the Polovtsians. They worshiped the great Tengri, the lord of the sky. Totemism was widespread, in particular the worship of the spirit of the wolf. Like other pagans, the Kypchaks associated themselves with this predator, believing that it could give them strength. Women honored the goddess Umai, associated with the harvest and fertility. Religious representatives were shamans, who were called "kam". They performed rituals of divination, played the role of healers, communicated with spirits.

culture

The main cultural achievement of the Polovtsy was the statue of stone women. These figures symbolize ancestors and are a tribute to them. Stone statues were placed in high places in the steppe or at mounds where there were burials. The figures could be not only female, but also male. Their faces were always turned to the east. In one sanctuary there were several statues. There are several types of Polovtsian statues:

• men with mustaches and beards;
• armed men;
• women with children;
• women with bowls and goblets.

In the 12th century, the Polovtsy began to regularly order the production of statues. This allowed masons and sculptors to develop their activities. For some time, the statues had amazing detail, but by the end of the 12th century they became more primitive. Many faces have disappeared, which, however, indicates the emergence of a different way of decorating - the face of the statue was well polished in order to apply the image with paints.

dwelling

The Kypchaks called their dwelling "vezha". It was folded from branches of a cylindrical shape. The walls were wicker, the roof had a conical shape and was made up of poles. The circle in the center served as a hole for the exit of smoke. Such houses could be put on wagons and transported over long distances. Vezha was easily strengthened in the ground, which was necessary for winter parking.

Appearance

Cloth

The nomadic life of the Polovtsy contributed to the creation of clothing that was necessary for every nomad. Therefore, women's and men's costumes did not differ much from each other. The Kypchaks wore caftans, shirts, pants and boots. Women focused on jewelry, while men sought to get reliable armor. However, some of them were decorated with exquisite ornaments. An obligatory element of the costume of the Polovtsy was a belt.
On it, men fixed weapons and armchairs, and women carried handbags, a mirror and other items with them. A big difference existed in the headdresses. The men's headdress was a hat-cap; on the battlefield, men put on a helmet. Women, on the other hand, used headdresses that differed in variety. They also sought to embellish the skirts worn over the caftan.

Famous people

There are many famous personalities among the Kipchaks. Atrak became one of the most famous khans. His military strength was so great that he was even mentioned in Russian epics. Another famous khan was Tugorkan, who was also honored with a mention in folklore. The Russians considered him the worst enemy, in the epics he was called Tugarin and associated with the serpent. The khan became famous for his ferocity during the battles with the army of Svyatopolk Izyaslavich.

Food

The Polovtsians, like any other nomadic people, ate hearty food and drank koumiss, which helped them to stay strong on a long journey.

1. The main types of meat were beef, horse meat, lamb and camel meat.
2. Poultry was rarely eaten, as they did not have the opportunity to breed it.
3. The Polovtsy ate a lot of flour, because it was pastries that helped to gain enough calories.
4. In addition to koumiss, they used cow and goat milk.
5. They used lagman from soups, made sausages, kazy (some kind of sausages).

The traditional Cuman cuisine has had a great influence on modern Kazakh cuisine. It was the Kipchaks who were among the first to use the koktal maker, which is still used to prepare fish dishes.

The Kypchaks were known as glorious mercenaries, they were called the most dangerous enemies of Rus', but they must be given their due. This people was able to create an army, the equal of which was hard to find. It was the Kypchaks who influenced the development of the peoples of Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. They created sculptures that surprise even today with their attention to detail. Their life was built on constant preparation for battle, and for this, even in Russian epics, they were portrayed as strong warriors.

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The Polovtsians (11th-13th centuries) are a nomadic people of Turkic origin, who became one of the main serious political opponents of the princes of Ancient Rus'.

At the beginning of the 11th c. The Polovtsy moved out of the Trans-Volga region, where they had lived before, towards the Black Sea steppes, displacing the tribes of the Pechenegs and Torks along the way. After crossing the Dnieper, they reached the lower reaches of the Danube, occupying the vast territories of the Great Steppe - from the Danube to the Irtysh. In the same period, the steppes occupied by the Polovtsy began to be called the Polovtsian steppes (in Russian chronicles) and Desht-i-Kypchak (in the chronicles of other peoples).

Name of the people

The people also have the names "Kipchaks" and "Kumans". Each term has its own meaning and appeared in special conditions. So, the name “Polovtsy”, generally accepted on the territory of Ancient Rus', came from the word “stripes”, which means “yellow”, and came into use due to the fact that the early representatives of this people had blond (“yellow”) hair.

The concept of "Kipchak" was first used after a serious internecine war in the 7th century. among the Turkic tribes, when the loser nobility began to call themselves "Kipchak" ("ill-fated"). The Cumans were called the Polovtsy in Byzantine and Western European chronicles.

History of the people

The Polovtsy were an independent people for several centuries, but by the middle of the 13th century. became part of the Golden Horde and assimilated the Tatar-Mongol conquerors, passing on to them part of their culture and their language. Later, on the basis of the Kypchan language (which was spoken by the Polovtsy), Tatar, Kazakh, Kumyk and many other languages ​​were formed.

The Polovtsy led a life typical of many nomadic peoples. Their main occupation was cattle breeding. In addition, they were engaged in trade. A little later, the Polovtsy changed their nomadic lifestyle to a more sedentary one, certain parts of the tribe were assigned certain land plots where people could run their household.

The Polovtsy were pagans, professed Tangerianism (worship of Tengri Khan, the eternal radiance of the sky), worshiped animals (in particular, the wolf was, in the understanding of the Polovtsy, their totem ancestor). Shamans lived in the tribes, who performed various rituals of worshiping nature and the earth.

Kievan Rus and Cumans

The Polovtsy are very often mentioned in ancient Russian chronicles, and this is primarily due to their difficult relationship with the Russians. Starting from 1061 and up to 1210, the Polovtsian tribes constantly committed cruelty, plundered villages and tried to seize local territories. In addition to many small raids, one can count about 46 major Polovtsian raids on Kievan Rus.

The first major battle between the Polovtsy and the Russians took place on February 2, 1061 near Pereyaslavl, when the Polovtsian tribe raided Russian territories, burned several fields and robbed the villages located there. The Polovtsians quite often managed to defeat the Russian army. So, in 1068 they defeated the Russian army of the Yaroslavichs, and in 1078, during the next battle with the Polovtsian tribes, Prince Izyaslav Yaroslavich died.

The troops of Svyatopolk, Vladimir Monomakh (who later led the all-Russian campaigns of Rus' against the Polovtsy) and Rostislav also fell from the hands of these nomads during the battle in 1093. In 1094, the Polovtsy reached the point that Vladimir Monomakh was forced to leave Chernigov by force. However, the Russian princes constantly collected retaliatory campaigns against the Polovtsy, which sometimes ended quite successfully. In 1096, the Polovtsy suffered their first defeat in the struggle against Kievan Rus. In 1103 they were again defeated by the Russian army under the leadership of Svyatopolk and Vladimir and were forced to leave the previously occupied territories and go to serve in the Caucasus to the local king.

The Polovtsy were finally defeated in 1111 by Vladimir Monomakh and the Russian army of many thousands, which launched a crusade against its longtime opponents and invaders of Russian territories. To avoid final ruin, the Polovtsian tribes were forced to go back across the Danube and into Georgia (the tribe was divided). However, after the death of Vladimir Monomakh, the Polovtsy were able to return again and began to repeat their early raids, but very quickly went over to the side of the Russian princes warring among themselves and began to take part in the permanent on the territory of Rus', supporting one or another prince. Participated in raids on Kyiv.

Another major campaign of the Russian army against the Polovtsy, which was reported in the annals, took place in 1185. In the well-known work The Tale of Igor's Campaign, this event is called a massacre with the Polovtsy. Igor's campaign, unfortunately, was unsuccessful. He failed to defeat the Polovtsy, but this battle entered the annals. Some time after this event, the raids began to fade away, the Polovtsians split up, some of them converted to Christianity and mixed with the local population.

End of the Cuman tribe

The once strong tribe, which brought a lot of inconvenience to the Russian princes, ceased to exist as an independent and independent people around the middle of the 13th century. The campaigns of the Tatar-Mongol Khan Batu led to the fact that the Polovtsians actually became part of the Golden Horde and (although they did not lose their culture, but, on the contrary, passed it on) ceased to be independent.

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 Rus', devastating the lands, taking away livestock and property, and taking 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 Kiev 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 Duke of Kiev 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 ...

ANTHROPOLOGY AND ETHNOLOGY IN THE XXI CENTURY

Yu.A. Evstigneev

Polovtsy: who are they? to the question of the ethnic identity of the Polovtsy

An attempt was made to identify the Polovtsy, different from that available in traditional historiography. As the main arguments, information about the self-name of the Polovtsy, their language, and habitat before coming to the Northern Black Sea region is considered; the tradition of erecting stone sculptures of a special type. Based on a comparison of the indicated information with similar data on other ethnic groups of the 10th-11th centuries. the conclusion is made: the ethnos "sary", known in the Russian chronicle as "Polovtsy", was a part of the Turgesh (a medieval ethnos that lived in the Semirechye), which, as a result of socio-political events, found itself far from their original habitats.

Keywords:

stone statues, Kipchaks, Cumans, migration, Polovtsy, Sars, Turgesh Sars, Semirechye, ethnic identification, ethno-political situation

Polovtsy... Nomadic neighbors of the southern borders of Rus', "heroes" of the monument of ancient Russian literature "The Tale of Igor's Campaign", enemies and allies of Rus'. Who are they from the point of view of modern science - history and ethnology? In modern historical literature, an opinion based on the tradition of Eastern, primarily Arab-Persian, authors of the 11th-19th centuries has firmly established itself. consider all the nomadic tribes of the Eurasian steppes from the lower Danube to the Irtysh (in the writings of Muslim authors - Desht-i Kipchak, translated from Farsi - "Kipchak steppe") as Kipchaks. Meanwhile, in the written sources of European countries, including Rus', Hungary and Byzantium, up to the works of P. Karpini and V. Rubruk, the Kipchaks are not reported, just as the eastern authors of that time do not know the Polovtsians or the Cumans and Kuns are almost forgotten. . Hence the firmly established opinion of modern researchers that the Polovtsians (aka Kumans) are the western branch of the Kipchaks.

The archaeological material and the political history of the Polovtsians, given in connection with their relations with Russia, are quite fully and colorfully presented in the book by S.A. Pletneva. The purpose of this article is to determine, based on the available data, the ethnicity of the Polovtsians. The fact that the Polovtsy are not Kipchaks (and not Sary-

Kipchaks, as S.A. Pletnev) testify to their self-name and the complete absence of mention of the ethnonym "Kipchak" in ancient Russian and European sources. But if not the Kipchaks, then who? Cumans? But unlike the Polovtsy, known for their stone sculptures, the Cumans did not have such a tradition; according to the testimony of the daughter of the Byzantine emperor Anna Komnenos, "the language of the Cumans is the same as that of the Pechenegs", i.e., according to Mahmud al-Kashgari, the western dialect of the ancient Turkic language, while the Polovtsians have the eastern one. Before coming to the Northern Black Sea region, the Cumans roamed in the Northern Aral Sea region.

So, the Polovtsians are first mentioned in the Russian chronicle in 1054/1055. As you know, ethnic identification begins with an ethnonym. This ancient Russian name of a tribe that suddenly appeared caused a number of judgments by researchers, amateurs and professionals, about this tribe and its ethnonym. To date, of the several versions of the semantics of the term "Polovtsy", only one has been recognized by specialists: "Polovtsy" (from the Old Russian "polov" - straw) in terms of color meaning is a tracing paper of the Turkic "sary" (yellow), which became the self-name of the Polovtsy. Indeed, in the Laurentian Chronicle

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under 1096, the endoethnonym of the Polovtsians is called "rekshe: sarini esmi".

It is known that the Polovtsians came from the east. Therefore, let us consider the available information about the migrations of large groups of nomads. Two Eastern authors independently pointed out such a movement: the Armenian historian Matthew from Edessa (now the city of Urfa in Turkey) and the court physician of the Seljuk sultans, a native of Merv, Sharaf al-Zaman Tahir Marvazi. Matthew of Edessa, writing in the middle of the 11th century, reported that a certain "people of snakes" attacked the people of the "yellows", and together they rushed to the "side of Rum", i.e. Byzantium. Marvazi, who lived later and knew more about it, wrote (about 1120) in more detail: the Kai attacked the Kuns tribe, forcing them to invade the land of the Shary (Sary) tribe, the Shars fled to the territory of the Turkmens, the Turkmens pushed the Oguzes, the Oguzes rushed on the Pechenegs. Marvazi confirmed the message of Matthew of Edessa, specifying (the people of snakes is the Mongolian "kai", the yellow ones are the Turkic "sars") the ethnonyms of the main participants in the migration. The “Turkmens” named Marva-zi (as in the 10th-11th centuries in the East the Turkic tribes who converted to Islam were called, in this case they were the Karluks of the Western Semirechye) did not take part in the movement to the west.

What caused the Kai tribe to attack the Kuns tribe is unclear. It is possible that the catalyst for the attack and subsequent migration was the war between the Muslim rulers of the Karakhanid state and the union of the pagan tribes of the Basmyls and Yabaku, whose neighbors were the Kai and Kuns. Marvazi writes about the sars that they fled to the Basmyls out of unwillingness to convert to Islam (“for fear of circumcision”) and surrendered themselves under the protection of the Basmyls, accepting their representative as their leader. The fact is that around 1048/49 one of the Karakhanid beks made a successful campaign against the Yabaku and their allies. The defeat may have caused a chain of attacks and the migration of the most affected tribes to the west.

Among the migrating tribes, the Sarahs are of interest - after all, the ethnonym "Sary" was the self-name of the Polovtsians. On the eve of the attack on them by the Kuns, the Sars were near or on the very territory of the Basmyls (whose back was the leader of the Sary), who roamed northwest of the Uyghur state of Kocho (Turfan oasis). But where did the Sarahs flee from, fleeing Islamization? According to Ibn al-Athir, in 1043 about 10 thousand families of nomads converted to Islam, whose winter quarters were located near the city of Balasagun, located

zhennogo in the Chui valley (ruins near the city of Tokmak in the Chui region of Kyrgyzstan). Ibn al-Athir did not mention the name of the tribe, but it is likely that they were the Sars, descendants of the Turgesh Sars. This assumption is based on the fact that the tribe mentioned by Ibn al-Athir and the Türgesh Sars lived on the same territory - in the Chui valley (see below), where, in addition to them, in the 11th century. Muslims lived - Sogdians and Karluks.

The Türgesh are one of the ten tribes of the Western Turkic Khaganate (603-659), mentioned (“Tulish”) in the “History of the Sui Dynasty” in 635. the struggle of the local tribes of Semirechye for independence and created the Turgesh Khaganate (699). The latter was administratively divided into 20 regions headed by tutuk-mi, the kagan himself ruled the country from the capital in the city of Suyab in the Chui valley, and his governor was in the Ili valley. In the history of the Tang Dynasty, it is reported: “Sogevy descendants make up a yellow aimag, Sulue-in generations make up a black aimag.” (Soge is the son of the founder of the Türgesh Khaganate, Sulu is the son of the governor, ruler of the Ili Valley. “Aimak is an Eastern Turkic and Mongolian word that has approximately the same meaning as the word il,” and also “to denote a political association. For example, Northern Mongolia was divided into four“ aimag” by the names of the four khans, that is, the possessions of the khans ". Yellow color in China has always been considered "imperial", black denoted submission). Later, these, in fact, territorial administrative names turned into ethnonyms: Sary-Turgesh, Kara-Turgesh, even later - just Sary and Kara.

The struggle for power in the Khaganate between the leaders of the Sary and Kara led to the fall of the Türgesh Khaganate (766), the Chui valley with the capital city of Suyab was captured by the Karluks, the Ili Türgesh recognized the authority of the Uighur Khaganate. The ethnonym "Turgesh" disappeared from the pages of Chinese chronicles and works of Muslim authors, but the ethnic group did not disappear, only its name changed. In the anonymous work "Hudud al-Alam" ("Boundaries of the World", 982), the tyur-gesh are reported, divided into tukhsi and azov. Judging by the fact that the Chui valley was the habitat of the tukhsi, they were the descendants of the Sary Turgesh. Mahmud al-Kashgari writes about tukhsi and their language in his work “Divan lugat at-turk” (1074). It reports that the Tukhsi roam in the neighborhood of the Chigili tribe in the Ili Valley, they speak the Tukhsi in an Eastern dialect.

Polovtsian dwelling ("terme", in the annals - "vezhi"). Drawings from the Radzivilov Chronicle

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Reconstruction of male and female costumes, made on the basis of Polovtsian stone statues (according to S.A. Pletneva). From the book: Dode Z.V. Medieval costume of the peoples of the North

Caucasus. M., 2001.

Polovtsian dwelling ("terme", in the annals - "vezhi"). Drawing from the Radzivilov Chronicle

new dialect of the Turkic (Old Turkic) language. In the message about the place of migration of the Tukhsi, the fact of their migration from the Chui valley to the Ili valley is interesting. What prompted the tukhsi to leave the rich pastures near Balasagun, one of the capitals of the Karakhanid state, and go to less convenient pastures? Maybe events related to Islamization or migration? The sources do not answer this question.

In addition to the ethnonym, the ethnic connection of the Polovtsy with the Sary-Turgesh can also be evidenced by the Türgesh custom of installing stone statues, male and female, holding a vessel in both hands on their stomachs. The same statues, with an abundance of female figures, are also known in the Northern Black Sea region, in the places of settlement of the Polovtsy.

In addition, in the monument of the Cuman language "Code Cumanicus" the features of both dialects of the Turkic language - Western (the language of the Cumans) and Eastern (the language of the Polovtsy), as well as Arabic Persian words and Muslim titles borrowed by the Sars (Polovtsy) from Muslims during their life in Semirechye, i.e. in the state of the Karakhanids.

Islam has been spreading among the population of Semirechye since 960, when it was accepted by a large group (200 thousand tents) of nomadic tribes (mainly the Karluks). Turgesh Sars, known since the 10th century. as tukhsi (they also include sars), lived in the vicinity of Muslim Karluks, probably experiencing their influence, including borrowing certain words from Muslim usage, which later turned out to be in the Codex Kumanikus.

Based on the above facts, one can imagine the chronological framework for the migration of the Kuns and Sars tribes to the west: 1048-1049. - the campaign of the Karakhanid bek Arslan-tegin against the nomadic pagans, which may have caused the attack of the kaya and the subsequent migration; Kuns and Sars move along the southern border (north of the Syr Darya) - 1050-1051. (message

Bibliography:

Matthew of Edessa); 1054-1055 - meeting of Prince Vsevolod with the Polovtsians on the border of the Pereyaslavl principality.

Analysis of the above information about the Polovtsy and Turgesh allowed us to draw the following conclusions: 1) the identity of the ethnonyms of the Polovtsy (Sars) and part of the Turgesh; 2) proximity or even identity of their languages ​​- the eastern dialect of the ancient Turkic language; 3) typological similarity of stone sculptures and the presence among them of a large number of female statues, characteristic only of the Turgesh and Polovtsians; 4) the presence in the language of the "Code Cumanicus" of Muslim titles (for example, Sultan), borrowed during the period of Sarah's life among Muslims, may be evidence that Semirechie was the original territory of the Polovtsians. Finally, the chronological framework of the movement of the sara from the east to the southern borders of Rus' quite logically connects the “yellow” Matthew of Edessa and the sara of Marvazi with the Polovtsy, whom the Pereyaslavl prince Vsevolod met.

All this gives reason to assume that the Polovtsy are a group of Sary - Turgesh. This group fled from the Muslim Semirechye to the country of the pagans Dzungaria because of their unwillingness to accept Islam; in Dzungaria they were attacked by the Kuns and together with them migrated to the west, finding a new home in the Northern Black Sea region. The Sars, who remained in their native places, shared the fate of other local tribes: the invasion of the Khitan (Karakitai) in 1130, the Naimans in 1210, the Mongols of Genghis Khan in 1218. At the beginning of the 20th century. in the Ili valley of Kazakhstan, the Kazakhs of the "tribe" Albanians roamed. Albans (Mongolian Alban - “service”, obviously, these tribes were subordinate to the Mongol khans) were divided into branches of sary and chibyl; chibyl are the descendants of the chi-gils known in the state of the Karakhanids, and the sars are the descendants of the Polovtsy, though not those who roamed in the neighborhood of Russia, but those who remained in Semirechye and converted to Islam.

Bartold V.V. Works on the history and philology of the Turkic and Mongolian peoples / V.V. Barthold; Prep. to ed. S.G. Klyashtorny; Rep. ed. A.N. Kononov. - Reprint. from ed. 1968 - M.: Vost. lit., 2002. - 757 p. - (KOV: Classics of Russian Oriental Studies: Main in 2001)

Collection of information about the peoples who lived in Central Asia in ancient times [Text] / N.Ya. (Iakinf) Bichurin. - Almaty: Zhalyn Baspasy, 1998. - T. 1. - 389 p.

Vostrov V.V., Mukanov B.S. Tribal composition and resettlement of the Kazakhs (late XIX - early XX centuries). - Alma-Ata: Nauka, 1968. - 256 p.

Evstigneev Yu.A. Kypchaks / Cumans / Kumans and their descendants (on the problem of ethnic continuity). - St. Petersburg: Asterion, 2010. - 112 p.

Klyashtorny S.G., Sultanov T.I. States and peoples of the Eurasian steppes. Antiquity and the Middle Ages. - 2nd of th. - St. Petersburg: Petersburg Oriental Studies, 2004. - 368 p.

Kononov A.N. M. Kashgari and his “Divan Lugat at-at-Turk” // Soviet Turkology. - 1972, No. 1.

Pletneva S.A. Polovtsy / S.A. Pletnev. - M.: Nauka, 1990. - 208 p., ill.

Khudyakov Yu.S. The problem of the genesis of the ancient Turkic culture // Altaica. - M.: Institute of Oriental Studies RAS, 1999. - Issue. III. - S. 130-138.

... 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 (as far as 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. 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 amount 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 one 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 Polovtsians and the Pereyaslavl prince Vladimir Vsevolodich, who ordered the execution of two influential Polovtsian ambassadors who came with an offer of peace, 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, Dnieper, Bugodnistr, 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 Kiev 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 put “Tatar-Mongols” in quotation marks here, because this name is a remake. It is not known whether there were Mongols there at all, and they were 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's 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 areas, 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, or Batu in Russian literature was one of the commanders) actually destroyed the Polovtsy as an ethnic group. Part went to the Caucasus, part to Hungary, Bulgaria, part to Rus'. 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 Polovtsians 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 blood shed together against a common enemy.

As S.A. Pletnev, " both among the Polovtsy and in Rus' 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, IV-III millennium BC; early Maikop culture in the foothills of the North Caucasus; Koban culture; in part of the burials of the Karakol archaeological culture of 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 Polovtsy (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.

We will 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 branch haplotypes 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 their 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 their 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) their 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 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 Arab 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 branch of the Krymshamkhalovs 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 Karachais (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 was 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 separated 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, 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 Karachays-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 the 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 get a look. 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. There are 13 mutations between the two base haplotypes, Karachais and Ossetians, which breeds their common ancestors by 13/0.12 = 108 → 121 conditional generations, that is, approximately 3025 years, and their 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 haplogroup G2a1 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 when 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 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 the populations, that is, 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, G2a carriers 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. Comparison of their haplotypes showed that they are actually relatives, 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 only 12-marker haplotypes for themselves, 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 9 15 16 8 10 10 8 10 10 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 Karachai 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-Balkarian 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 these 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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158 comments: Modern descendants of the Polovtsy - Karachays and Balkars?

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