“UNSEEN BY EYE, UNHEARD BY EAR”: THE ARCHAEOLOGY OF THE EARLY TÜRKS AT BAGA GAZARYN CHULUU, MONGOLIA Joshua Wright, Chunag Amartüvshin “Unseen by Eye, Unheard by Ear” is a phrase found in Bilgä Kaghan’s funeral inscription (Tekin 1969) describing the great numbers of the Türkish people over whom he ruled, but we think that it is an apt beginning to a chapter about the archaeological traces of those people, ordinary subjects of the great kaghan, because they are also numerous but difficult to see. Türk History The Türks themselves left a compelling picture of their own history and this along with many other historical sources provide us with a picture of a politically fluid world that Denis Sinor (Sinor 1997) calls “tessellated” civilization. The speakers of the Turkic languages appear out of the cultural, mythical and linguistic melange of northern Inner Asia during the first centuries of the first millennium AD (Sinor / Klyashtorny 1996; Sinor 1997). Their predecessors in the region include the Xiongnu and Xianbei, of whom less is known from textual sources, but whose common material culture suggests a regional continuity. Türk political history and theories are known from a series of long inscriptions, the first indigenous historical documents in Inner Asia. The runic script of the early Türks was first noted in the 17th century, but remained unread until the late 19th century when the bilingual Orkhon inscriptions were published (Radloff 1892–1899; Vasiliev 1992) and the biographies and political theories of Bilgä Kaghan and Kül Tegin; and later Tonyukuk – their chief minis- ter – were revealed in the words of their contemporaries. Bumin (d. 553 AD), the first Kaghan of the Türk Empire, led a rising against the weakening Juan-Juan confederation and quickly gained in power and victories. In 551 AD he founded the first Kaghanate of the Eastern Türks (551– ca. 630 AD). His successor, Ishtemi (reigned 553–573 AD) was the greatest ruler of the Kaghanate during which time the Türks contested with the Chinese States to their south and became the paramount regional power in Central and Inner Asia. In 563 AD a delegation of Türks arrived in Constantinople to open diplomatic and economic relations with the Byzantine Empire. In 630 AD Xuanzang described the sumptuous court of the ruler of the Western Türks in the Altai. By the early 7th century the Türk Empire declined under internal political, climatic and military pressure and eventually broke apart – and the imperial ambitions of the Türks became dormant for 50 years under the domination of the Sui and Tang Empires (Christian 1998; Sinor / Klyashtorny 1996; Sinor 1990).