Barrows
The settlement of first humans around the Keshikchidagh complex of caves goes back to the Stone Age. The traces of revealed settlement culture around the ridge that Keshikchidagh locates go back to 3–4 thousand years BC. Nearly 300 kurgans have been discovered in 3 km to the south of the complex of caves, belonging to the Late Bronze–Early Iron Age, to the beginning of the II millennium BC.
The kurgan type of graves around the Keshikchidagh complex of caves covers an area of several hectares. The diameter of covering in kurgans reaches sometimes to 10–12 m. River stones are used in kurgan coverings. There have been carried out excavations in one the kurgans to determine the period of them. Animal bones, 2 ceramic wares have been found in the grave chamber discovered in the center of the kurgan. No human remains were revealed in the grave. Human skeleton was not discovered in some grave monuments of Khojaly–Gadabay culture, spread in the western part of Azerbaijan. The kurgan excavated in the territory of Keshikchidagh complex of caves is just one of these types of grave. The kurgan can be referred to the Late Bronze–Early Iron Age – the end of the second millennium BC, on the basis of found ceramic ware data. The tens of kurgans were discovered 10 km to the south of Keshikchidagh complex of caves. The difference of these kurgans from the ones near Keshikchidagh was that their coverings were higher (up to 2 m) with larger volume. In one of them Upper Paleolithic tools made of obsidian was found at the foot of covering. It seems that here existed an ancient human camp in the Stone Age, the kurgans were built in the Bronze Age. Stone Age tools were thrown in and mixed while building the covering of this kurgan.
Exhibition author | Musa Mursaguliev