Don Runes and the Genesis of the Saltov-Mayatsk Culture
The question of the genesis of the Saltovo-Mayatsk archaeological culture becomes more and more urgent as the diversity of its ethnic picture is revealed. The runic monuments of the Don basin could have brought some clarity, but attempts to decipher them from the Turkic or Iranian languages did not give convincing results. At the same time, the parallels of the Don runes with the Balkan alphabets in origin give grounds for phonetic comparisons. The translations received reflect the vernacular vocabulary that may reflect influences from the Danube as well as cultural influences from the former provinces of Rome.