#sumerian linguistics

[sumerianlanguage]

Hello, could you help me detect when cuneiform symbols complete a word, in a literary text for example? Because the symbols are printed on the clay tablet without spaces between words. How do you identify the end of one word and the beginning of another?

Hello! The short answer is that you can identify where words in Sumerian cuneiform begin and end with context only. So, for example, telling whether a pair of signs is ki la "to grovel, heed, excavate" or kila "weight, excavation, cellar, water meter" would depend on the surrounding signs and where in a line the signs are placed. One useful trick is that the main verb of a sentence always comes at the end - so if you can identify that verb (by a line break, its conjugation signs, etc) you can sometimes work backwards to piece together which signs go together and which do not.

The longer answer is, "what is a word? where do words begin and end?" is an ongoing and contentious question across linguistics and among scholars of many languages, including cuneiform languages. We don't know how, precisely, Sumerian speakers conceived of where the "words" of their language began and ended. So what constitutes an attached word, rather than a separate particle, is largely a modern convention rather than a reflection of some ancient concept of "word"-ness.

If you want to know a common standard for dividing up words in Sumerian, I recommend this article on the ETCSL's hyphenation policy, which, by extension, also covers when not to hyphenate (i.e. when to separate words). I hope that's helpful!

[1-lightofjustice]

Using "Sibling Title" in Romantic Relationship Is NOT Incest

You know, interacting with majorly English community about Asian media made me realize that English doesn't have any "sibling title", something that was so common in Asia (and perhaps other continent too cmiiw), thus I noticed some of them have a little difficulty on perceiving what "sibling title" actually meant. Combined with shipping war and incest allegory, many misunderstanding are created. Somehow yesterday I happen to stumble upon two of them in almost the same moment so I wanna make this post to vent my frustration.

First is this :

The segment that they meant is when Kota called Izuku "nii-chan" and Ochako "nee-chan" after Ochako's speech.

Yes, Kota called Izuku "Big Brother" and Ochako with "Big Sister". But really, even the translator clearly explained in their translation that "nii-chan" and "nee-chan" are not only title for older siblings but also title/name for a young teen or 20-ish boy/girl (overall people still in youth). Other people on twitter (X who?) pointed out that Kota means those title in relation to him and not to Izuku-Ochako, which is true, Kota may think of Izuku and Ochako as his big brother and sister at that situation. But even if he's not, he will still use "nii-chan" and "nee-chan" titles toward Izuku and Ochako because that's the title that was correct from person on Kota's age to people on Izuku/Ochako's age. Of course, that doesn't mean Izuku and Ochako are bounded by sibling/familial relationship in any form.

For example, this is a "7 years old" kid Conan ("a young boy" in disguise, for complicated reason) called 18 years old Heiji and Kazuha with "nii-chan" and "nee-chan" while at the same time helping them to hook up. He didn't really think of them as his brother/sister like in personal level, but he still used "sibling title" because that was the appropriate ethic for him.

Next is the example in broader sense, but the point is still because they are "brothers", there's no way Gilgamesh and Enkidu have romantic relationship.

let's pretend it's not completely bizarre to input arabic perception on a story with a language that way predates arabic, with different time, culture, and setting. Let's use arabic now. Brother in Arabic is "akhi", derived from Akkadian "ahu", the language that was used on 12 tablet Epic of Gilgamesh standard version ("Ses" is Hittite/Sumerian version).

This is the excerpt from Epic tablet by Andrew George, when the word "ahu" is used to described Gilgamesh and Enkidu :

The thing is, "ahu" may meant brotherhood, but they don't necessarily mean bounded by familial forbid-to-marry relationship. The word "ahu" can mean brother of same social standing, close male associate, or the proof of companionship, for example King Tushratta used "brother" (ahu in akkadian, shesh in sumerian) to Pharaoh Egypt which they have brother-kingdom relationship. Of course they are not "family" with each other and their family can marry each other.

Even if, as the commenter said, translated into arabic, "akhi" is not meant for strictly brotherly relationship. The word itself means "brother, close male friend, male associate". In fact, there's webtoon in my country (Muslim majority) that has female lead called her love interest "akhi". And this is her pray so God can make her meet her "akhi".

Translation : "There has been 6 years passed but I still haven't meet "akhi". Please God lead him to be close to me"

Of course when the female lead called her crush "akhi" she doesn't mean that there's familial feeling from her to him that prevent her for wanting to marry "akhi". And readers from my country completely expect her to still call her husband "akhi" even after marriage.

Those "sibling title" are not and never strictly platonic. Those are title for almost-familial-but-not-really attachment, usually to emphasis social construct. It just, I don't know the exact term but I call it "polite endearment title". When it comes to romantic relationship/marriage, even with "sibling title" there will be no incest feeling involved as long as the couple are not bounded by blood of close family, share the same mother's milk/wetnurse, nor raised together from before puberty (the latter may depend on situation).

P.S : I wonder, do English users find it weird if we Asian use the exact same title for sibling and for romantic partner? Like, you guys know that Korean fangirls called their idols that they want to date/marry as "oppas" in the same word as they call their "oppa" in home, right? I am Javanese, I call my blood-brother "mas", and I expect to use that word for my husband too, like my sister who called her husband "mas" even though she's older than him.

[lady-of-heaven]

How to Read Sumerian Cuneiform

Silim!

It is relatively difficult to translate between Sumerian and English in an exact, 1:1 way, so it requires a degree of creativity and contextual comprehension that AI and computer programmes have yet to achieve. I would like to demonstrate the process by which Sumerian can be translated into modern English in a way that still sounds coherent to a native English speaker. 

I will use a line from one of my recent posts as an example. First, the cuneiform:

𒀉𒌫 𒈾𒉘𒉣𒈨𒋳𒍫𒉉𒉉 𒈾𒉘 𒊮𒋤𒀀𒁀 𒈾𒆪

This can be broken down into modern transliterated sign names

A2.UR2 NA.AG2.[NUN.ME.TAG].ZU5.[NE x A].[NE x A] NA.AG2 ŠA3.SUD.A.BA NA.KU

NA.AG2 is the emesal version of NAM (𒉆)

[NUN.ME.TAG] is how the word GAŠAM is written. Together, these signs form the word naŋgašam, which means “craftsmanship” (being the abstracted version of gašam, which means “expert, craftsman”)

ZU5.[NE x A].[NE x A] can be read as zu.ne.ne, which is the 2nd person plural possessive suffix. Altogether, this gives us naŋgašamzunene, which means “Your craftsmanship.”

NA.AG2, as with NAM, can also mean fate, destiny, determined order, will, testament, or in this case, concern. 

ŠA3.SUD is how the word šagsug is spelt, which means “empty.”

A.BA is a locative addition that means “back” or “behind.”

A2.UR2…KU can be read a’ur dab, which means “to hide”

NA before 'dab' acts as a negator, making it “to not hide” or “not to hide,” or in this case as an imperative, “do not hide.” This gives us literally: “Your craftsmanship concern empty behind do not hide.”

We can rearrange this into English word order and get: “Do not hide your craftmanship behind empty concern.”

This is where the creativity and context come in. Craftsmanship can be interpreted as actions, deeds, or works. Empty concern can be understood as meaningless sentiment or a dishonest façade or performance. 

This would make it: “Do not hide your actions behind meaningless sentiment.”

Or: “Do not hide your deeds behind a dishonest façade.”

All of this can be more easily communicated in English by simply saying “Practice what you preach.”

If you would like to dive in to this more, here are some links to some very good resources I’ve found online that try to reconstruct Sumerian:

Pennsylvania Sumerian Dictionary:

http://oracc.iaas.upenn.edu/epsd2/index.html

Šašková Cuneiform Sign List:

Sumerian Grammar

I am also working on compiling all of this information into a more approachable format with the hope of laying the foundation for resurrecting the Sumerian language in the 21st Century. 

I will also be posting an English translation of my earlier post eventually, but I want to see if anyone takes a stab at translating it on their own first. If you think you've got it, feel free to message me your translation!

©️𒀭𒀹𒁯 2024

[jayjuno]

Conjunctions in languages

A linguistic digression:

The "eh" and "ee" sounds stand for "and" in many European languages. After that, most European languages use a variation of "oh" or "ah" sounds to stand for "and"; or "un" or "und" sounds if they're Germanic.

Languages and linguistics is another hobby of mine that I'm still learning about, but I've already noticed this pattern of "eh" or "ee" for many European languages.

It's spelled "et" in French, but the t is silent in pronunciation. Spanish spells "y" but it's pronounced "ee". In Russian, "and" is transliterated into English with a capital I from the original character- which resembles a reversed or upside-down capital N from the English alphabet- but is pronounced "ee" here too.

Latin's "et" has the silent t like French- it's pronounced "eh" which is similar to the French pronunciation, which sounds more like "eeh".

I don't believe learning a second or more languages is as hard as some academics want everyone to believe- it's really just about noticing patterns like this "eh/ee" sound and other sounds being used across different languages, and then just taking the time to commit it to memory. If you practice reading slowly for about 20 minutes or more 5 days a week, you'd probably get the basics of a language within a few months.

I lost the book, but a linguistics book I read talked about how most languages descended from the original Proto-Indo-European (PIE) language share similarities. Almost all modern European languages are descended from PIE, which helps explain why most of them would have similarities to each other.

This book also talked about how memorizing conjunctions like "and" across different European languages is like a cheat code for learning multiple languages, at least ones derived from PIE. Even if you don't know many words, if you learn the conjunctions that many European languages share, then you should get to the point where you can read any of these languages and get the basic gist of what's being said. After memorizing conjunctions, you slowly build on that foundation with individual words that are unique to each language.

The words "god" and "deity" and "zeus" are all ultimately derived from PIE- English, German, Greek, Latin, French, Spanish, and even Russian all have a common ancestor (so to speak). The original PIE word for a god is something like "d'ues" or "deus", like Zeus, but with a D instead of a Z sound at the start.

And even though Ancient Sumerian is an isolated language, and thought to have no connection with PIE, I have a hard time believing these two languages, which existed at roughly the same time period, had absolutely no influence on one or the other.

Sumerians used "gah" for "and", which kind of reminds me of the "jah" in Finnish (pronounced "yah"). This is not proof that there's a connection between Sumerian and prehistoric European languages- but it might imply there's something to Noam Chomsky's theories of Universal Language, even if his particular ideas ultimately missed the mark.

I need to do more research...

End of digression.

[vampirejuno]

Ok I know this is probably a long shot but. Does anyone know of an etymological dictionary for Sumerian and/or Hittite lol. Or at least something that mentions the evolution of the words in some way?? If anyone has something like this or knows where to find it I will love you forever

[wordsmithic]

Just passing by with my frantic notes of when I found out the Hellenic -poulos is probably common with the Sumerian and Akkadian word. It means child for us too for...two thousand years and more.

[meluhha]

kur - Sumerian word of the day

- A mountain or mountains, usually identified as the Zagros mountains to the east of Sumer.

- In Sumerian mythology, a dark shadowy underworld, located deep below the surface of the earth.  

- Ancient Mesopotamian underworld with a staircase down to the seven gates with bolts which a soul needed to pass. galla, seven demons. the ruler was goddess/queen Ereshkigal

- “ground” or “earth”

- all souls would be treated the same in afterlife regardless of a person’s life actions, ie. no judgement or evaluation like in the Egyptian afterlife. family members would ritually pour libations into the dead person’s grave through a clay pipe allowing the dead to drink or eat grains - which is why it was important to have as many descendants as possible to be able to drink for many years (or else they’d haunt the living. also, music could alleviate the bleak conditions of the highly privileged

- in later babylonian religion, she had senior status among the “transtigridian snake gods”

-  various deities originally associated with nature but with urbanization became patrons of various cities

synonyms:

- arali, irkalla, kigal, kukku, ki, ninkigal; ersetu (Akkadian)

anagrams:

kru, ukr, urk, ruk

[memoriae-lectoris]

Sumerian bilingual dictionaries consist of roomfuls of clay tablets sorted into categories—​occupations, kinship, law, wooden artifacts, reed artifacts, pottery, hides, copper, other metals, domestic and wild animals, parts of the body, stones, plants, birds and fish, textiles, place-​names, and food and drink, each with its matching term in the unrelated language of Sumer’s Akkadian conquerors.

As they are organized by field, they correspond directly to today’s SPDs, or “special purpose” dictionaries—​Business French, Russian for the Oil and Gas Industries, German Legal Terminology, and so forth. Some of them are multilingual (as are many of today’s SPDs) and give equivalents in Amoritic, Hurritic, Elamite, Ugaritic, and other languages spoken by civilizations with which the Akkadians were in commercial if not always peaceful contact.

[lingocurio]

AI translates 5,000-year-old cuneiform tablets into English

[siduribythesea]

“Ironically, destructive conflagrations have preserved some of ancient Mesopotamia’s greatest libraries — because they were made of clay. In contrast, all of ancient Egypt’s papyrus libraries have burnt or crumbled to dust, though many individual codices survive.”

Steven Roger Fischer, “A History of Writing.”

Library of Alexandria: 🫨

[emporium]

Down a Rabbit Hole I Went

I screwed up. I didn't think that using an ancient language on a piece of tumblr merch was necessary but I forgot what site I was on :) . This is tumblr, of course it has to be in linguistically accurate cuneiform. I went and hired an expert on Ancient Semitic Languages and Cultures. There aren't as many as you'd think that are willing to translate text for an internet gag so I'm so happy I found Paul.

Notes on the translation from the translator:

I used the ventive suffix on the imperative "give (rib+am)" which is a special feature of Akkadian that indicates the motion of direction. It makes it a little bit more authentic. The longer version actually includes the words "to me (ana iasim)", but a typical Akkadian speaker probably wouldn't have needed to say that.

Also, for the word "money" I used the Sumerian (KUG.BABBAR) instead of spelling out the Akkadian, because that was a common feature in Akkadian scribal writing. For the font I was happily surprised that Google has a Cuneiform font, so not only is it correct but it looks pretty neat too. Right now you can buy both versions in the shop but cuneiform version won't ship for a week or so as I have to order new stock with the new design.

[ulfdis-voludottir]

Cuneiform is absolutely bonkers

It has to be up there with Japanese (possibly even higher) in the ranking of ridiculous writing systems.

[whats-in-a-sentence]

Thus, Sumerian writing came to consist of a complex mixture of three types of signs: logograms, referring to a whole word or name; phonetic signs, used in effect for spelling syllables, letters, grammatical elements, or parts of words; and determinatives, which were not pronounced but were used to resolve ambiguities.

"Guns, Germs and Steel: A Short History of Everybody for the Last 13,000 Years" - Jared Diamond

[langwij]

love how sumerian was a language isolate. like mfs were the first civilisation to appear and just kinda decided to not spread out at all. absolutely based. like literally no traces of their shit anywhere outside of their own language. making it real difficult for thise linguists to figure out. i fully support making the jobs of future people way harder. also means that their language changed so little in the like 4000 years they were around that is was never able to be classified as a language seperate from the first traces sumerian.

[beautiful-basque-country]

ON BASQUE AND ITS TIES WITH GEORGIAN, ARMENIAN, AND TAMAZIGHT.

American linguist Morris Swadesh (1909-1967) created a world map of current languages according to comparative linguistics, taking into account their common origin. The lexico-statistical or glottochronological Swadesh method is based on taking 215 words in two groups of 100; key words such as personal pronouns, low numerals, parts of the body, kinship names, some action verbs, some adverbs of time and place, objects of nature, very common actions, bodily actions and questions.

Swadesh claimed that in the basic vocabulary the rate of change is so regular in languages, that he had been able to create a system of measuring the elapsed time in which two languages were related in the past and that today are separated geographically.

According to Swadesh, that basic vocabulary of 100 or 215 words changes less than 20% per millennium in each language. These variations in vocabulary leave a common ground between two or more languages related to each other, which is measured chronologically, thus establishing the time distance between a language and its more modern relatives. If the number of words with the same root between two languages in these two groups of 100 is less than or equal to 5%, it is considered a similarity by chance (the figure does not respond to anything specific, the method has many random parts), and if it is greater it would be the result of some common past.

There is a formula to know the time elapsed between the period in which the contact occurred and the current moment, and the result with Basque was the following (with the rest of the languages with which Basque has been compared by this method the result is inferior and not significant):

list 215    list 100

Northwest Circassian Caucasian:

6.62% 7.52%

Northwest Avar Caucasian:

3.80%     5.37%

Georgian, South Caucasian:

4.73% 7.52%

Rift Tamazight (northern Morocco):  

6%         9.67%

Southern Tamazight (southern Morocco)    

7.38%       10.86%

Many of the similarities considered good are more than questionable, since the evolution of words and languages is not taken into account, some borrowings from other languages are considered good, etc.

Nor can we forget American linguist R.L. Trask, that compared Hungarian and Basque and found in 2 hours of searching 65 similar words that could only be the result of chance, but that lead to question many investigations: this exercise tested by other researchers with other unrelated languages has given the same surprising result. R.L. Trask said “I can't understand why some linguists get so excited when they find two dozen Basque words that look like two dozen other Berber or Sumerian words.”

Basque and the languages of the Caucasus

The Caucasus is located 4,000 kilometers from Garonne-Pyrénées-Ebro where the Basques live. In the Caucasus, about 50 different peoples coexist with almost 22 languages. The main difficulty in establishing the Basque-Caucasian relationship consists of this lack of unity.

Swadesh's lexico-statistical ratio of Circassian and Georgian to Basque is 7.52%, higher than any other language in the world. The supposed contact would have occurred in the Magdalenian, about 10,000 years ago. With the rest of the languages of the Caucasus, current Basque is similar in typology (verbs, the ergative, etc.) and in the etymology of some words, but its lexical-statistical relationship with all of them is less than 5%.

There are also parallels between Basque and Georgian in syntactic aspects, such as the use of the ergative (transitive-intransitive verbs, “Nor-Nork” forms) that do not occur in any other European language, the reflexive way of making sentences such as: “I have seen my head in the mirror” (nire burua ispiluan ikusi dut), and not: “I have seen myself in the mirror”, the use of base twenty to count, etc.

But many current or recent renowned linguists are skeptical about the relationship with the Caucasian languages. Basque linguist Koldo Mitxelena (1915-1987) said that: “In summary, there are some Basque-Caucasian lexical similarities that cannot be demonstrated to be possible, but on the other hand there are a large number whose extraordinary implausibility can be demonstrated (…). Even if Basque and the Caucasian languages go back to a common origin, the number of missing intermediate links must be so high that it is to be feared that, due to not knowing them, the ancient ties of kinship will not be established."

If there is a relationship, for both Koldo Mitxelena and Xabier Kintana, it has to go back to the fifth and sixth millennia or earlier.

Basque and Armenian

Armenian linguist and Basque philologist Vahan Sarkisian, creator of the Basque-Armenian Dictionary and a Grammar of the Basque Language in his language, is the main promoter of the "Basque-Armenian theory" and the one who has done the most work in recent years on ethnolinguistic kinship between both peoples.

This prestigious Armenian linguist affirms that "the best promoters of this theory were neither Basques nor Armenians and, therefore, they had no direct interests in the issue. I am referring to the Englishman Edward Spencer Dodgson and the German Joseph Karst. The former knew well Basque. In Paris he began to study Armenian and quickly detected the similarities, which he initially summarized in a list of 50 words. Karst was an Armenianologist and, when he came into contact with Basque, he compared issues related to anthropology, the phonetic system, the grammar and the lexicon and extracted more than 400 similarities. (...) We understand without problems, for example, what Zabaltegi, or Ormazabal means, because it means exactly the same in Armenian. We feel at home, and that already means something. Armenian is considered an Indo-European language (Basque is the only pre-Indo-European language in all of Europe, prior to the invasions of these peoples), but if we bring to light the twenty most important regularities of the language we will see that they coincide more with Basque than with any other neighboring languages such as Georgian or Persian. And not only referring to the lexicon. In Armenian, for example, words are not formed with an initial -r, our throat has a hard time pronouncing it. The same thing happens to the Basque language, to the Basque throat.

Neither Armenian nor Basque recognize the accumulation of consonants, they are unpronounceable to us, while in other languages neighboring ours, such as Georgian, groups of up to five or six consonants are common. We could mention many other characteristics that separate us from our neighbors and bring us closer to Basque, such as the postponed article, the way of forming the plural, not to mention toponymy, which provides an enormous amount of similarities. (…) I believe that this type of coincidences - which even affect the articulation apparatus, which has a physiological nature - cannot arise from mere contact, they cannot be imported or exported. Karst said that Armenian and Basque are two varieties of the same linguistic stem (…) The only thing I would dare to say with any certainty is that perhaps in ancient times the entire area was occupied by the same ethnic-cultural element, which gave way terrain to other elements, leaving vestiges in Euskadi and Armenia, as survivors of a great and ancient civilization.”

It is curious that Armenian – which does not give any relationship with Basque through the Swadesh method – and Georgian are, apparently, more similar to Basque than to each other when they are neighboring peoples. To conclude this short summary, let's share a toponymic curiosity: in Georgia there is Mount Gorbeya (like the highest mountain in Bizkaia and Alaba), in Armenia is the sacred Mount Ararat (like the Aralar mountain range between Alaba, Gipuzkoa and Alta Navarra), and also a mountain named Gora (mountain in the language of the area and "up" in Basque). The curiosity is even greater because the Araxes River bathes Mount Aralar, and in the Armenian Mount Ararat there is a river called... Araxes.

Basque and Tamazight

Tamazight, by the Swadesh method, is not related to Arabic or Egyptian; nor with Georgian, but with Basque, as well as the Cadmitosemitic languages from which it comes. Therefore, Basque is a language that may have common elements with Georgian and Berber, but they do not have any with each other.

The percentage of lexical-statistical relationship of Swadesh of Basque with Southern Tamazight is 7.38% and with Rift Tamazight is 6% (taking the 215 words because with 100 the percentage increases). Therefore, by this method there would be a relationship or common substrate between both languages. Based on the percentage relationship, contact would have taken place about 8,000-9,000 years ago.

In Berber the names given to animals are very similar to those given in Basque. «Aker» & «iker» (billygoat), «asto» & «ezet» (donkey); They also coincide in the way of saying horse, crow, river, brother, lie, name ("Izen" and "isem"), "I" and others.

Within this analysis we must mention the Guanches, native inhabitants of the Canary Islands before the arrival of the Spaniards. From the writings found (archaeology confirms this) it is believed that the Guanches would speak a Tamazight language that, due to the isolation of the islands, would maintain a greater degree of relationship with Basque. There are those who even see Basque place names in the Canary Islands such as: Los Llanos de Aridane (Harrigane: stone peak), Argindei, Tinizara (Tinitzaha), Tajuia, Tenegia, Jedei (Iedegi) in La Palma and in Lanzarote: Masdeche (Mahats- etxe: grape-house), Haria, Orzola, Guinate (Gainate: high step), Yaiza (haitza: rock), Ajache, Tesegite, Mozaza etc.

An anecdote that is often told is that the first conquerors of the Canary Islands believed that the natives spoke Basque.

Between Basque and Tamazight the similarities are reduced to the lexical or lexicographic level, since syntactically and grammatically there does not seem to be any relationship, both in current speech and in the past; there are just similarities in verbal articulation or in the use of some particles.

Julio Caro Baroja said in this regard: “I must warn in any case that the relationship between Basque and the African languages called Hamitic is not as founded as claimed. On the contrary, the hypothesis of a relationship between Basque and the Caucasian languages, which is perhaps the one that has produced the least interest in the Peninsula, seems to be the most prudent, because it is based on linguistic, morphological and strict observations.

Koldo Mitxelena had the same opinion, and believed it was necessary to study more the relationship between Basque and the Caucasian languages which, unlike the supposed kinship with Tamazight, did cause serious doubts.

[x]

@knario47

[unhonestlymirror]

Kamyana Mohyla is believed to contain the first writing in the world.

According to the Ukrainian scientist I. M. Rassokha, most of the inscriptions of Kamyana Mohyla have direct parallels with the ancient Ogamic inscriptions of the British Isles, Germanic "coniferous" runes, ancient Slavic "strokes and cuts", etc., that is, it can be a monument of the most ancient sacred writing of the era of Indo-European unity, namely the Seredniy Stog culture of the 4th millennium BC.

The famous linguist N. Marr proved that the Ukrainian verb "to search" (шукати - shukaty) comes from the Sumerian "shu" - "hand". The Kyivan researcher S. Paukov believes that the Ukrainian words "shana" (honour) and "shanuvaty" (to pay respect) also came from the Sumerian "Shu-Nun" (which is believed to mean "the hand of the queen).

The Sumerologist A.G. Kyfishyn studied the inscriptions of the Kamyana Mohyla (VII-III millennia BC) for a long time and found many parallels with inscriptions on clay tablets of the civilizations of Elam and Mesopotamia (Sumeria): This "writing", as he believes, was invented by the "proto-Sumerians" who lived in "Ukrainian Aratta" as early as the 12th millennium BC, and from there this ancient ethnic group apparently moved to Mesopotamia after the flooding of the Northern Black Sea, which, according to G.A. Kyfishyn, reflected in the biblical message about the World Flood.

Kamyana Mohyla has been occupied by russians since 2022.