The procedure of creating Yenisei epitaphs

The Yenisei runic epitaphs of the 9th-11th centuries contain the text of a sad lamentation made by the deceased person himself, and his large carved personal symbol, i. e. a personal and family tamga, graphically marking that the individual belonged to the ruling elite by right of birth. Like the stele itself, the both of these elements expressed the belief widely spread at that time according to which the soul of man is eternal and when the person dies is embodied in stone. The placement of written lines and stamp marks indicates that the tamga was carved in the stone before the inscription. The appearance of writing on the funerary stele that were anepigraphic since ancient times turns out to be the last element of the external manifestation of the local memorial rite.