On the Time of Settling the Vilyui by the Yakuts
The article discusses the time of settling the Lena river basin by the Yakut population. The outdated conception by G.V. Ksenofontov about the original settlement of the Vilyui by the Yakuts is being challenged. It is proven that the Yakuts began to inhabit the Vilyui in the second half of the 17th century, published works by classical authors in Yakut studies, numerous documents and archaeological monuments being referred to. Numerous folklore materials correspond to this. From the 30’s of the 17th century the Yakuts of the Kangalassian tribe began to populate the Vilyui. Mostly they were Dzharkhans and Bordonians, people of Prince Boydon (Bordon, Bordong). In folklore, this was reflected in the appearance of a story about the origin of the Vilyui people from the sons of Jarhan (Daarhan, Daardaah), Tigyn’s wife. She was from the Nyurbachaan (Nyurbachan) tribe, once exterminated by the Tumat tribe. Tumats were a legendary tribe that inhabited the Vilyui before the arrival of the Yakuts’ ancestors from the Middle Lena. They were at enmity with the Tungus clan Nyurbachaan (its Yakut pronunciation known in documents being Nyurmagan or Nyurmagat). At the same time, in archival documents “Tumats” is the name for the “unmounted” Yakuts from the Lower Vilyui engaged in fishing and hunting. Thus, the Tumats are probably the name of the early T?rkic (Yakut) population from the Vilyui, displaced first from the Middle Lena and then from the Lower Lena to the Upper Vilyui. A peculiar origin of the Vilyui people was reflected in the appearance of the names of settlements repeating the names of the Tungus clans assimilated by the Yakuts. These are Yugyulets, Sologons, Nyurbachaans. A synthesis of the Tungus-Yakut ethnonyms and toponyms reflects the complex character of the formation of the Vilyui uluses, participation of the Tungus in their ethnogenesis.