Qobustan

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Qobustan is an administrative district, or rayon, of Azerbaijan. It is famous for a chain of outcroppings where petroglyphs were found in the mid 1930s. Some of the carvings were reportedly produced during the Neolithic age, ca 5000-8000 BC. The rock chain was declared a state preservation area in 1966 and was subject to intensive archeological research. Nowadays it is open to visitors as an open-air museum under the control of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of the Azerbaijan Republic.

[edit] Prehistoric images

Main article: Gobustan State Reserve

The rock carvings and petroglyphs at the site 54 kilometers from Baku display mesmerizing images of prehistoric life in the Caucases. The well-preserved sketches display ancient populations travelling on reed boats; men hunt antelope and wild bulls, women dance.[1] The famed Norwegian anthropologist Thor Heyerdahl returned many times to Azerbaijan between 1961 and his death in 2002 to study the site, which he argued to be evidence that modern-day Scandinavians migrated north through the Caucases in prehistoric times. He found similarities in the drawings to those found in Scandinavia, particularly some in Alta, Norway. According to Icelandic Sagas, written in the 13 th century, the Norse God Odin (Wotan) migrated from the Caucases in the first century AD. [2] The tantalizing images have attracted legions of tourists to Azerbaijan, particularly since the country became independent of the Soviet Union. And yet the site has been the subject of relatively little systematic professional archeological research.

[edit] External links

Gobustan from "Window to Baku"
The Rock Engravings of Gobustan from a site devoted to Jean Auel's books.
Archaeoastronomy relating the petroglyphs to other ancient carvings and the theories of Thor Heyerdahl