Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 23
By Ilhama Isabalayeva - Trend:
The Russian Geographical Society has offered the Institute of Archeology and Ethnography of Azerbaijan’s National Academy of Sciences (ANAS) to conduct joint expeditions in the Caspian Sea, head of the Absheron archaeological expedition of the Institute of Archeology and Ethnography of ANAS Idris Aliyev told Trend.
Aliyev noted that representatives of the Russian Geographical Society, who visited Azerbaijan this year, offered assistance in the form of allocating equipment and personnel for underwater archaeological expeditions.
“They included this work in the plan for 2019,” he said. “The expedition is planned to be held in the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian Sea.”
Aliyev reminded that holding underwater archaeological expeditions with the participation of Azerbaijan began in 1968, but this work was stopped in the late 1990s.
He noted that there are many archaeological monuments in the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian Sea.
“There was a port in antiquity in Bilgah settlement in a place called Amburan,” he said. “Ships used to moor here before and during the Safavid dynasty rule, caravans departed from here to Baku. In antiquity, another port was located near Pirallahi settlement, and a place called the Zira Gardens was an urban-type settlement. Nowadays, fragments of pottery dating back to the X-XV centuries are sometimes brought to the shore by the sea waves.”