http://www.turkishdailynews.com.tr/article.php?enewsid=7782
Coin discovery sheds light on Turkic civilization
Thursday, March 10, 2005
Gktrk find refutes claims that the Turkic peoples were merely plunderers and barbarians
ANKARA - Turkish Daily News
Ancient
coins from the first known Turkic culture, the Gktrks, have
been discovered during archeological excavations in Kyrgyzstan,
Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, reported the Doğan News Agency.
Associate
Professor Yavuz Daloğlu, an instructor at Dokuz Eyll University who
presented the findings of historian Dr. Babayar Gaybullah to the
public, stated that claims asserting that the Gktrk people did not
have any structure of governance have been proven wrong by this
discovery. He commented that this discovery refutes claims that the
Turkic peoples were merely plunderers and barbarians.
Daloğlu,
who attended the Second International Turkish Civilization Congress
sponsored by Kyrgyzstan-Turkey Menas University in Bishkek on Oct. 4-6
2004, met with Uzbek historian Gaybullah. Daloğlu began studying coins
from ancient Turkic civilization brought to the congress by Gaybullah
and came across the Gktrk pieces, which he had never seen before. He
said these were an important discovery in the history of Turkic
civilization. Stating that he was familiar with coins from the Selcuk
and Ottoman eras, he said he had never heard nor read that the Gktrks
had minted coins of their own. On one face of the coin was the
likeness of a khan in the center with three stars and a moon on the
edges.
Coins belonging to the Trgiş of the eighth century,
after the Gktrks, had previously been discovered, but the Gktrk
coins date from approximately 150 to 200 years earlier, around A.D.
576-600. This discovery is as important as the discovery of Orhun
script. Money is used where social trade and economy exist, indicating
an important contribution to world civilization.
The coins
are believed to be in Sogd, Baktri and Pehlevi script with titles such
as Kağan, Hatun, Yabgu, Tegin Tudun, Tarhan and Elteber. The various
levels of authority can be understood from observing these coins, as
the names of state officials are engraved beside the khans' names.
Daloğlu stated that important information has come to light with the
studies conducted on these ancient coins.