The origins of Hunnish Runic Writing (20) The age of unification of Székely character set

 

The age of unification of Székely character set

 

Due to the widespread use of the Neolithic character set, it is easy to find the parallels of five-ten Székely signs in the later sign systems of Eurasia, Africa and America. A larger number of correspondences in shape can indicate either a closer relationship of the sign systems in question or to the unification of the character sets and the beginning of their use for real writing.

Various authors demonstrate 10-20 or even more coincidences of shape between the signs of the Tatárlaka, Tordos and Vinca Neolithic cultures, Sumerian script, Egyptian hieroglyphs, early Chinese script, proto-Khwarismian rock drawings of the Bronze Age on the  one hand, and Székely runes on the other.[1] I also found a strikingly large number of parallels among the signs of Tepe Yahya (South Iran, between 3000 and 500 BC.) published by Makkay János and Tordos, and also among the Urartian hieroglyphs (Fig. 35). Of course, we cannot be sure that all the signs are correctly identified. Signs could have been included in the lists without good reason, others could have been omitted by mistake. Therefore, the above figures are only approximate numbers, which, however, draw attention to a definite group of related scripts.

It seems as if the older a system is, the more numerous and the moreconvincing coincidences in shape to Székely signs it contains. As if the development of most new and divergent character forms were caused by the fading of common religious traditions, the birth of dynastic and nationalistic feelings, and the later changes in culture, economy and writing technology.

In trying to clarify the structure of the oldest sign systems, the self-evident explanations are striking. The Székely “alphabet” seems to be able to help read the pebbles from Mas d'Azil though they contain more characters. The words in parentheses are, however, only theoretical possibilities for deciphering the inscriptions, as we have no accurate knowledge about the language and the writing system. Still these and the other pebbles representing the equivalents of Székely “nt” and “us” (Fig. 29) give the impression of a phonetic script whose forms and system is very similar to those of Székely runic script.

The same conclusions can be drawn from the American Indian “jm” ligatures, which form a world model (Fig. 10). They are the unambiguous equivalents of the world model on the Csángó painted egg made up by “j” and “m” characters (Fig. 4). They reinforce the view that the phonetic predecessor of Székely runic script had already existed at that early age. It is not accidental that these world-representations (one of them painted on an egg), together with the Irani idea of the egg of the world (from which the first man was born) and Jima, the name of the first man of Avesta,  form a system.

The question that arises concerning the Mas d'Azil signs: is it possible to write longer texts on pebbles? It is a reasonable question: pebbles are hardly suitable medium for the technology of real writing. Therefore, the isolated signs painted on them could rather be symbols, hieroglyphs (or more precisely phonetic word or syllable signs that were also used as symbols).

Only those pebbles that have several signs on them suggest genuine writing.

 

Fig. 29 Mas d'Azil signs comparable to Székely runes; syllable signs and letters used as symbols (the words in parentheses are only examples of  possible interpretations)

 

It seems reasonable to assume, that the scribes of this Neolithic culture were able to write down  (carve in wood?) longer phonetic texts. Scribes of the glacial period, like the Huns much later, could use their signs both as symbols and as sound-representations at the same time.

In this early age, state (scientific and economic) requirements hardly demanded a use of writing, rather we can assume a use of symbols in village communities for religious, genealogical and calendar purposes. Otherwise (remembering the arguments about the time sequences of early megalithic cultures) our views on the origin of statehood must be reassessed.

This early writing system that can be traced back to both the Mas d'Azil and the American Indian cultures seems to have been developed in one central area that surrounds Mount Ararat, where the cultivation of plants, animal husbandry and urbanization started around the 10th millennium BC. Then, owing to early religious and commercial connections, the sign-culture of the first civilizations (not necessarily city-states) left an impression on a great part of the world.

The rapid distribution of the first religious symbols and the scripts that developed from them was helped by the common essence of the most ancient religious concepts. Our knowledge at present is too limited to decide in what measure are coincidences between symbol-sets of the Neolithic world the result of long-distance trade of the first states. It seems more probable that the coincidences between the first symbol-sets are due to religious, philosophical reasons.

The only thing that is certain on the basis of finds from thousands of years later (Fig. 1) is that signs that were similar to Székely runes were used in quite a large geographic area. They were applied to form picture structures (world models and ligature montages) which were also similar to the Székely ones. This similarity implies that the signs (the prototypes of Székely characters) meant basically the same all over the “civilized” world of that time.

The Hungarians knew these symbols right from the very birth of the nation,[2] that is why the structure and meaning of these world models can be understood with the help of Székely character names and mythology. The ancient Hungarian language, mythology and symbolic system form such an indissoluble union that even the Creator seems to have aligned the stars with Székely alphabet (Fig. 23, p 77.).

The agglutinative grammar and irregular sound system of the Hungarian language have forced our ancestors to use syllable and letter script from the start, and the development and regular use of the present form of Székely script have depended only on the changes in language and the demands for writing.

There is only one way to summarize the above paragraphs: the beginning of Székely script coincides with the beginning of writing itself.

The later reforms in Székely script are connected to the turning points of our history.

The Hungarian vocabulary for horse breeding and metallurgy shows that the Hungarians already formed a developed society when they took part in the conquest of the steppe and the domestication of horse around 4000 and 2000 BC (cf. Veres/1997/109), around the area of Mount Ararat and the Aral sea. That is, no later than this time state administration made it necessary to use a script, similar to the Székely runes, which was suitable to record longer passages.

At that early era highly organized nations could have migrated to the steppe from the South, where writing had already been in use, where the earliest (around 2800 BC) horse representation engraved in bone was found around Susa,[3] and where a lot of parallels with Székely runes were discovered at Tepe Yahya (3000-500 BC). At that time the use of vowels was rare, and the syllable (vowel-omitting) script could have been similar to the samples we know from Thelegdi or from the runic calendar.

The character set must have changed through the years, for example, some features of “c,” “u,” and “v” suggest later addition. According to Hungarian linguists, the sound “c” is a relatively new addition to the Hungarian sound system seems to have got later into the original “abd” sequence. However, the character for “c” is of ancient origin (Fig. 29), therefore, it probably stood for a different sound or syllable at one time.

The forms of “u” and “v,” (which were simplified from representations of metal ingots in the shape of an ox-hide), developed  in the Bronze Age. In other words, they seem to be new compared to the other Székely characters, which could be the reason for their location at the end of the sign set. Aegean metal ingots of similar shape from Cyprus have been described by Buchholz. Of course, this character could represent the ox-hide itself, which served as a means of exchange even before the Bronze Age.

Székely script could also have been modified through historical necessity under the influence of other scripts.

Thus, after the collapse of the Hungarian-speaking Avar Empire, the Hunnish-Avar script was influenced by Frankish script in the West, by Bulgarian in the South, and by Turkish in the East. These did not necessarily cause great changes in the structure of writing but rather alterations in the style and content of texts. The ligature “ALBeRT,” for example, suggests Frankish influence.

Similar circumstances may explain some contradictions in Hungarian historiography of the Hunnish and Avar times, which could have entered the medieval Latin chronicles through adoption of the runic texts of Hunnish and Avar annals.

The original Hunnish and Avar chronicles have survived only in undeciphered fragments. The Avar-Hunnish scribes, who lived through a major changes and worked under governors appointed by Bulgarian and Frankish dynasties, had to adapt to new power structures. The Hungarian conquerors then adapted the local variants of the original Avar-Hunnish chronicles that were thus created with their own chronicles. At that time a writing change seems to have occurred since the few discovered runic scripts of the Hungarian conquerors is not identical to that of Székelys (the descendants of Huns and Avars) who received them.

Developing connections with the West and the adoption of Christianity reformed and further confused this summarization process.[4] At last the chronicles were translated into and continued in Latin,[5] but still preserved data that were originally recorded in runes by our ancestors. For example the name of the heavenly triad in the ancient Hungarian religion has survived as Enedubelianus, the ancestor of Álmos.

Today we only perceive the uneven data frequency and the contradictory time sequences of the chronicles of Hungarian ancient history. Not only the diversity of Hungarian history is behind this phenomenon, but also the greatest tragedy of the history of Székely script: the almost complete destruction of runic chronicles, which could have preserved traditions of thousands of years.

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[1] Forrai/1994/23, 25; Novotny/1978; Galánthay/1913; Szekeres/1993/62; Varga/1993/109, 131, 155.

[2] Hungarian is generally assumed to be six thousand years old, but - due to the lack of suitable sources, such as the experience offered by Székely writing - linguistics has little to say about the earliest periods.

[3] The data are mentioned by Götz László adopted from Hancar/1956 (Götz/1994). Horse-breeding, however, could be much earlier; from the discoveries at Dereivca, Ukraine, from 4000 BC David W. Antony and Dmitrij Tielegin have suggested large herds of horses, riding, and herdsmen.

[4] The law declaring the annihilation of all runic remains and attributed to Saint Stephen has never existed, though it has been mentioned and quoted countless times by the media. The text of the "law" is a rather primitive forgery from the 20th century. As Forrai Sándor wrote, its first known variant was written on a typewriter.

[5] Despite the influential historical and philosophical changes, Latin writing has hardly been able to make an effect on Székely runic writing in the past 1500 years. Probably the only examples are the fading of Székely vowel omission and the recent alignment of Székely character order to the Latin one. Both the spreading and the fading of vowel omission depend on writing technology as well. Due to the different materials used for writing throughout history, this process could have changed direction several times.

Contents

Preface to the English edition	7.
Preface	9.
History of the scientific views on the origins of Székely runic script	10.
Principles of deriving the origins of Székely script	26.
The development of writing	28.
The shapes of runes and the objects they represent	29.
The mythology, names, and sound values of runes	32.
Rituals and runic script	35.
Types and number of characters	37.
Order of characters	39.
Direction of reading and characters	48.
Syllabic signs	52.
The regular use of syllable and vowel signs	55.
The birth of letter scripts	58.
Comparing of writing systems	61.
The academic historical-geographical preconception	68.
The Turkish connection	70.
What the historical sources say	71.
Székely script of the Huns	73.
The age of the development of Székely character forms	79.
The age of unification of Székely character sets	82.
Hungarian vocabulary connected to writing	87.
Ligatures that survived millennia	92.
Migrations of peoples	97.
Summary	101.
Bibliography	109.

Varga Géza

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