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International conference and ceremony : ”Gobustan –Rock Art at the crossroads of cultures ‘’ dedicated to the 50th anniversary of establishment of Gobustan National Historical –Artistic Preserve

The 50th anniversary of establishment Gobustan National Historical-Artistic Preserve and 10th anniversary of including in the UNESCO World Heritage List was celebrated. To celebrate this remarkable days with participation of Azerbaijan and foreign experts and scientists in 13-14 june the International conference "Gobustan - Rock Art at the crossroads of cultures” is held.

At the same time , this anniversary was celebrated and organized by Ministry of Culture and Tourism of Azerbaijan, Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences (ANAS) and Garadagh Executive in Gobustan National Historical- Artistic Preserve .

For the first time in 1939 a prominent archaeologist Isaac Jafarzadeh has registered petroglyphs in Jingirdagh-Yazilitapa and doing this Gobustan monuments which plays the important role in Azerbaijan history and culture presented to the science .

In the second half of XX century investigations were continued by archaelogists Jafargulu Rustamov and Firuza Muradova .

Gobustan petroglyphs distinguish for a variety of topics ,originality of plot and artistic skill dated from Upper Paleolithic to the XVIII-XIX century.

On the rocks can be found male and female, an auroch , bezoar goat , lion , gazelle, Horse , dog , wolf, boar and other descriptions.

Riders and hunting scenes , collective labor scenes , sacrificing, reaping scenes were also noted. Alone and group ceremony dances such as Yally - the national Azerbaijani dance also can be found .

In addition there are medieval inscriptions in Arabic that bases on the different periods of history of Azerbaijan and the Roman inscription confirming the presence of 12th Rome legion at the end of the 1st century in the territory .

A stone called "Gavaldash’’ situating at the foot of the north-east of Jingirdagh arouse a great interest. It is expected that these stones were used as a primitive percussion instrument for the ritual dances .

Gobustan National Historical -Artistic Preserve was founded in 1966 and began to functioning since 1967.<

20 shelters and 40 burial mounds - kurgans were found from the territory. As a result, more than 6,300 rock carvings carved on the 1031 rocks and 105 000 pieces of archaeological material have been included in the reserve fund.

According to the resolution that was accepted in 6 november 2007 by decision of the Cabinet of Ministers Azerbaijan Republic Gobustan got National status.

In 2013 in the Europian Museum Forum Gobustan museum was one of the 8 museums which were awarded “European Museum of the Year Award”. In 2015 Gobustan was included to the PRAT-CARP cultural route.