Tamga

A tamga or tamgha "stamp, seal" (Mongolian: тамга, Turkic: tamga) is an abstract seal or stamp used by Eurasian nomadic peoples and by cultures influenced by them. The tamga was normally the emblem of a particular tribe, clan or family. They were common among the Eurasian nomads throughout Classical Antiquity and the Middle Ages (including Alans, Mongols, Sarmatians, Scythians and Turkic peoples).

Similar "tamga-like" symbols were sometimes adopted by sedentary peoples adjacent to the Pontic-Caspian steppe both in Eastern Europe and Central Asia. Archaeologists prize tamgas as a first-rate source for the study of present and extinct cultures.

Medieval tamgas

Mongol empire

Since the time when the ancients, including the Mongol nations have developed into relative groups, origins, and ethnic groups, the symbol and belief of a clan have emerged, and a custom to distinguish their origins and relatives have been established. Consequently, when labor distributions within clans began to develop and people started to manage an economy, various tamgas, drawings, notes and earmarks have been used as an identification sign for labor instruments and utilities as well as in domestication of animals. Every time the clan branched off due to internal clashes, the number of derivative tamghas been gradually developed into personal, family, lineage, khans, and state tamghas. Those new tamghas were created through adding new markings on the original tamgha, in order to conserve the tradition.

Tamga (genus)

Tamga hamulifera is a disk-shaped fossil from Precambrian strata of the White Sea area, in Russia.

Description

The small (3–5 mm in long), disk-shaped fossil has seven hook-like isomers in a star-like arrangement in the clearly expressed peripheral undivided zone. T. hamulifera is probably a member of Proarticulata, as it is strongly similar to Praecambridium sigillum in the general shape, and the presence of hooklike isomers; Tamga is also similar to Onega stepanovi in the flattened body with a compact group of ledges-isomers in the central part encircled by an undivided zone. The fossils of Tamga could possibly be sclerites, for example, as sclerites of palaeoscolecids show a similar shape, a disk with a ring or rows of tubercles in the center. But the size of Tagma's fossils is two orders of magnitude less than those of palaeoscolecid sclerites, and no mineralized sclerites of any sort have ever been found or diagnosed in the Vendian–Ediacaran communities.

Etymology

The generic name is taken from the Turkish word, "tamga", meaning seal or cattle brand. The specific name is a crasis compound word, taken from Latin, of hamulus (small hook), and the feminine form of feros, "to bear." Thus, the scientific name can be translated as a "seal that bears small hooks."