The tool for applying the tamga sign (ancestral family sign) on display in the Adygeysk Museum of Local Lore, belonged to the Donezhukov family from the Assokolai village in the Teuchezhsky district of the Republic of Adygeya. In 1995, this tool was given to the museum by Yusuf Shabanovich Donezhuk, who at that time worked as the director of the rural house of culture in Krasnoe village. The past owner commissioned this item. Yusuf Donezhuk learned exactly what his ancestral tamga looked like from his father Shaban Donezhuk.

Tamga is a special sign that people in the Caucasus used to mark their cattle and property. Tamga played an important role in the lives of the people of the North Caucasus. It was both a family coat of arms, the so-called “memory of the family”, a sign of ownership, and a kind of brand that did not disclose the name of the owner.

The Adyghe people had many tamgas of various shapes. Ancestral signs were placed on the door of the kunatskaya (guest house or living room), on cups, musical instruments and gravestones. Each horse breeder had their personal tamga, which only they had the right to use. The horses were branded with the tamga on the left side of the rump which was believed to be the honorable side. Small cattle were marked differently: incisions were made on the ear or a property sign was branded on the horns and cheeks. Tamga forgery was penalized.

Since the early Middle Ages, the Adyghe people had various flags and banners which depicted ancestral tamgas of famous dynasties. They were used for combat, marching, signaling, ceremonial purposes and sporting events.

Craftspeople of the North Caucasus have used tamgas in the form of signet rings and brands for a long time. Among the Adyghe people, only wealthy and well-known people could own a tamga. Early signet rings used the family tamga. Later, with the spread of Islam, two variants of the tamga arose: with the initials of the owner, and — sometimes — with the first and last name in Arabic.

From the second half of the 19th century, Arabic letters began to give way to Russian ones. By the end of the first quarter of the 20th century, signet rings and brands became rare. The growing literacy of the population and the emergence of factory production became no longer useful.