The museum preserving stone monuments

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Published on Wednesday, 23 May 2018 12:43

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 As a result of care and attention to the activities of museums, important work is being done in our ancient land to create new museums, these cultural institutions are built on the new achievements of museology, remain in the history as a successful measure in the life of society.

Museum in the Open Air was established in Ajami Space in the city of Nakhchivan on the basis of the Decree of the Chairman of the Supreme Majlis of Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic dated June 11, 2002.

Nazakat Asadova, the head of “Khan Palace” State Historical-Architectural, Momina Khatin and in the Open Air Museum Complex, Honored culture worker of the Republic of Azerbaijan informed us about this cultural institution. She stated that the main aim in the establishment of the museum is to protect, study and propagate material and cultural examples reflecting mythological and religious views of our people.  For the first time, the museum began to function with 80 exhibits, but now there are more than 400 exhibits being exhibited. Here are exhibited 226 ram statues,   stone inscriptions, gravestones, column bottoms, various stone figures, gravestone sandugas and household items related to mythological and religious outlook. Millstone, stones used for construction, pestle stone, stone pots were widely used in the life of our people. The zoomorphic monuments exposed in the exposition are the monuments of natural processes.

During the Middle Ages, masonry masters living in Nakhchivan produced various types of art from stones. Stone monuments preserving in the museum today give broad information about the handicrafts, outlook, taste of our people of different periods. The museum director also emphasized that one of the oldest examples of stone-engraved descriptions is the description on the Gamigaya monument by the method of carving, hewing, scratching in the Ordubad region of IV-III millennium before our era. The descriptions of goat, scorpion, bird and other animals on the stone inscription taken from Gamigaya which are valuable exhibits of the museum, reflect the outlook, artistic-aesthetical thinking of ancient residents of this land.

Ram statues, tombs, carvings on stones were related to the ancient beliefs of Azerbaijanis. The main symbols of the museum are ram figures. Majority of ram figures were created in the form of simple ram.   Various descriptions related to the life, occupation and art of our people were depicted on them. Ram figures with a sword description are considere the symbol of heroism and courage, horse means manhood, and the sun symbolizes heat, life, light.

Ram was considered as a symbol of power, strength and abundance in ancient Turkic nations. These figures were first put into the graves, ie the person buried, but this custom was temporarily forgotten by the appearance of Islam. Then during the reign of Aghgoyunlu and Aghgoyunlu tribes in Azerbaijan this tradition came back. The white and black ram description on both states' flags proves this fact. Over the time this tradition was replaced with statues putting over graves.

  Over the grave stones of that time are often found household items, mirrors, scissors and daggers that reflect the profession and art of the deceased. Over the sandugas, the small architectural works, there depicted sentences from the holy book "Koran".

Memorial commemorative monuments occupy a special place among the exhibits. One of them is the ancient gravestone memorial monument exhibited there. This monument, which is a product of the tribal period, resembles a statue upright on the grave. 

Column bottoms exhibited in the museum were used as decorations near the gates in the medieval ages. Stone products were not only used as construction material but also applied in farming and family life.

Nazakat Asadova notes that exhibits reflecting all periods of our history are preserved in the museums and measures have been carried out and is carried out to hand them down next generations. The mill stone of XVI century taken around Alinjagala in the territory of Julfa region which weighs 5 tons, as well as stone monuments taken from Tivi and Bilav villages of Ordubad region and gravestone monument having sentences from "Koran" are exhibited in the exposition. As a result of the archeological researches, findings covering different periods prove that our history has more ancient roots and that our people created the initial examples of the East and Islamic culture. 

Today, museums play a great role in the development of tourism in the autonomous republic, as well as displaying the pages of each page of our history, the treasure of material and moral values reflecting the overall rise of our culture, the development of national consciousness.  In the Open Air Museum which occupies one of the first places in tourism destinations, attracts attention of the tourists with its suitable position, situating in the center. Every year, thousands of viewers, in particular representatives of India, Iran, Turkey, Germany, Austria, Hungary, Israel, the Netherlands, USA, Belgium, Norway, Romania, Cuba and other foreign countries, as well as more than 60 thousand foreign tourists visit the museum. This is of great importance to promote and propagate our rich historical-cultural heritage.

                                                               Guntaj SHAHMAMMADLI

                                                                "Sharg gapisi" newspaper

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