Архитектура древнего и раннесредневекового Азербайджана

S U M M A R Y

The Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic is a country of rich artistic and architectural heritage with the sources in remote past. One of the insufficiently studied fields in the history of Azerbaijan architecture and art is the creative work of ancient and early medieval architects, artists and sculptors. Discoveries in Azykh and some other caves have proved the Kura—Araks lowland and mountains surrounding it to be one of the rare places on earth where 500 thousand to 1,5 million year old material culture has remained. The present work has been very complicated by the fact that only individual elements of material culture have come to us, while a great number of regularities in architecture and art seem to have irrevocably disappeared. Restorated ancient structures—from the Neolithic, Bronze and Iron Ages up to the early Middle Age— have gradually exposed regularities in paleoarchitectonics, one of the construction bases for ancient structures. Systematizations and comparative analyses allowed to determine the paths architecture was developing along for the space of milleniums retaining initial layout and volumetrical—spatial approaches as well as new shapes and construction methods. They were perfectly well incarnated in cult and ritual structures and symbolical sculptures in which we can see now the cosmogonical ideas of ancient nations fixed in clay or stone. Studies of cult architecture and related ritual works of art helped to reveal the bases of paleoaesthetics. The main task of the nowadays Soviet history of architecture and artia is a thorough Marxist investigation of Weltanschauung platform as a basis for ancient man's creative work. At the beginning of the Paleolithic Age there were no permanent settlements yet, so small groups of people were living nomad life. Later the colder weather made the man live in natural caves. Archeologist examined a lot of caves where things of ancient people were found. Obviously interesting are ancient settlemenis dated back to the age of settled agricultural and cattle breeding society developed in some Near Eastern countries many regions of Azerbaijan including. Having analysed some individual ancient settlements we classified them into several types of structures with similar architectural layouts. Settlements built on the whote spontaneously but with rather well thought out schematically picturesque groups of dwelling houses (Gargalar-tepesi in Kazakh region of 5th—4th mil. B. C., Qaraghepek-tepe in Physuli region of 3d mil B. C., Kara-tepe in Milskaya steppe of 1st mil, B. C., etc,). Settlements with dwelling houses built around a large cult building or central square (Kultepe| in the Nakhichenan ASSR of the 6 th— 5 fh mil. B. C., in the vicinity of Mardakyani—village with chromlech in the centre of the 3d mil. B. C.). Settlements consisting of individual fenced in yards (Shomutepe of the 6 th mil. B. C., Ilanli—tepe of the 5 th mil. B. C., etc). Settlements with more or less regular streets formed by dwelling houses (Khanlar region, of the 3d— 2nd mil. B. C.). Townlike settlemenfs (Uzerlik—tepe of the 4 th mil. B. C., Karakepek—tepe of 3d—2nd mil. B. C., fortress—like towns of Apsheron of the 2 nd—1 st mil. B. C. and in Nakhichevan ASSR of the 2 nd mil. B. C. Most of dwelling houses of the above ancient people's settlements were built of convexo-plane air-dried bricks; dwelling houses and ritual buildings in the Apsheron Peninsular, Physuli region and Daghestan are typical for the Eneolithic and Bronze Ages. There were four types of buildings; with round, oval or elliptical section and rectangular buildings with rounded — off corners often combined with round section buildings. They had pseudodome-shaped, step-beam (darbazi) or marquee—style ceilings. "Eternal" fires burning on the shore of the Apsheron Peninsular in the oil gas natural outlets were taken by the ancestors for embodiment of their worshipped "deity". And they used them for making their home—fires so as to bring a little part of the "deity" into their dwelling houses. This was the origin of the prehistorical home practised fireworshipping. It was the stalling microcult point for the following generations to build various cult and ritual structures.