Altai in the light of the cult of the mountain and sky: to the problem of the origin of the toponym

The article suggests a working hypothesis that the root of the toponym «Altai” is the semantics of the sacred mountain, which at the tribal, tribal, and then national-ethnic level symbolizes the sacred center of the universe, associated with the cults of ancestors and deities. The ethnographic materials of T. D. Dyrenkova testify to the close connection of the cult of mountains with the spirits-ancestors of shamans, who acted as defenders of the genus and tribe of the Turks of the Altai-Sayan highlands. This information, in our opinion, is confirmed by etymological experience of comparisons of Turkic-Mongol and partly tunguso-Manchu terms. The semantic unity or close similarity of the concepts of mountain, ancestors and sky can shed light on the archaic beliefs of the Turkic ethnic groups, whose shamanism dates back to the common Altaic layer of culture. Thus, it can be assumed that the cult of the sacred Altai existed in the Neolithic past, even before the bronze age and the culture of the early nomads of the Scytho-Saka world.