Gamigaya rock petroglyphs – ancient cultural and art treasures of Azerbaijan
Baku, March 11, AZERTAC
The land of Nakhchivan, one of the ancient cultural centers of Azerbaijan, is rich in ancient monuments, settlements, magnificent castles, petroglyphs and stone ram statues that vividly reflect the historical past of mankind.
The monument Gamigaya, which witnessed the millennial history of Nakhchivan, attracts more attention today.
Located in Ordubad region of the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic of Azerbaijan, Gamigaya is one of the oldest human settlements in the world. These monuments are located northeast of Tivi and Nasirvaz villages of the region, at an altitude of 3000-3500 meters above sea level in the Lesser Caucasus. Pictographic inscriptions on the stones were recorded in Garangush, Gamisholan and Nabiyurdu pastures.
The age of the Gamigaya pictographies and the description of the dwellings are at least 5-6 thousand years.
As a result of investigations, it was possible to observe the life and cultural development path of the people lived there. The Gamigaya pictographies are investigated from 1968. As a result of investigations, the round planned dwelling houses characteristic for the ancient architecture of Nakhchivan (the diameter of the walls 5-12m, were built of big sized rock pieces) and pictographic descriptions (on the rocks around the dwelling houses) were discovered.
The most part of the ancient art works constitute the animal paintings, of which- goat, ox, deer, dog, leopard, wolf and others.
Naturally, all animal paintings are in the form of alone, double, or in a flock form. The Gamigaya pictographies are distinguished for their compositions simplicity and complication and also for their plots. The ox pictures are of the realist style, the horns are long and arch bent. There are depicts of the bull carts. The human pictures were given alone or in the staged compositions. Some human paintings were given in the fantastic form with their zoomorphic features. Among the pictures discovered the armed stages of the hunters with arrows and bows etc. and the stage of dance draw the attention of people.
The most attractive symbolic signs of pictographic character - circles, square, triangle, the sign of the fortune of wheel were engraved in Gamigaya. These kinds of signs were scratched in the clay plates, painted potteries discovered from the Bronze Age layer, belonging to the 2nd millennium of Kultapa I, in Nakhchivan. The comparative analysis of the Gamigaya petrographies with the analogical monuments gives an opportunity to arrive at scientific conclusions about the moral culture and art of the ancient Azerbaijan and all these give a grounded confirmation to say that they belong to the Nakhchivan culture of the Azerbaijan descriptive art.
In 2013, a building for Gamigaya Historical-Fictional Reserve and Museum was commissioned.
The museum, featuring two auxiliary rooms and an exhibition hall, hosts more than 200 exhibits. Petroglyphs which have paintings on them, various books, newspapers, paintings, photographs of rock petroglyphs on the research work carried out in Gamigaya, as well as materials of scientific symposiums on the history of Nakhchivan were collected in the museum.
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