FIND AND PRESERVE

The Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) main oil export pipeline and the Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum (BTE) gas pipeline have done more than just open up tremendous economic prospects for Azerbaijan. During the construction of the BTC conduit, a huge number of unique monuments were discovered, which will allow us to examine the country's ancient history from a somewhat different angle and to make new discoveries. Oil giant BP, which built and which operates the multi-billion dollar pipeline pumping oil from the Caspian Sea to overseas markets, while accepting full responsibility for the discovered artefacts, has done everything in its power to make sure that these historical remains pass on the information they bear to local scholars.

Oil came first

Science knows no limits. The historical monuments discovered along the BTC route have whetted appetites, and not only of Azerbaijani scholars. A variety of foreign researchers have expressed their willingness to cooperate with the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS). For example, professors at the Berlin Institute of Architecture and a French academy have offered to collaborate and jointly conduct excavations with the NAS administration. French professor Bertille Monet suggested that such collaboration could include training for young French and Azerbaijani specialists. In addition, a project to research Azerbaijan's ancient monuments has been developed in conjunction with a Chicago university.

The key step taken so far in revealing the outcomes of archaeological excavations along the BTC route was the signing, in March, of a grant agreement with major US research group and worldwide museum complex, the Smithsonian Institution. The deal was inked by BP Azerbaijan on behalf of its partners in the BTC and the South Caucasus Pipeline (SCP) projects. BP Azerbaijan President Bill Schrader announced at the signing ceremony that the programme is estimated to total $1 million. Its beneficiaries are the Qobustan state historical preserve, the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography and Georgia's national museum. The programme envisions a plethora of activities, including the publication of a catalogue of archaeological discoveries made during the construction of the BTC and the SCP pipelines in the three host countries -Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey- as well as creating a website on cultural heritage, conducting an international conference on the topic and finalizing research on archaeological discoveries. Moreover, training sessions will be held for employees of the beneficiary organizations on the management of museums, handling discoveries and samples of cultural heritage, estimating the damage inflicted to rock carvings, etc. Research on the flora and fauna of the Qobustan preserve will also be carried out.

It is significant that the BTC and SCP projects have sponsored the first-ever large-scale archaeological excavations in Azerbaijan and Georgia since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. In collaboration with an expedition from the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography, 54 excavations have been conducted so far on the corridor along which the two pipelines run. Over 30 archaeological monuments have been discovered along the BTC route alone. Over 40 employees of the Institute have been involved in researching them, including specialists on the Stone Age, the Neolithic Period, antiques and the Middle Ages. Most of the operations were carried out in the area of the Sangachal oil terminal as well as in the areas crossed by the pipeline, stretching as far as the Azerbaijani-Georgian border. The most remarkable discoveries, attributed to the later Neolithic Period, were made in the Ganca-Qazax region. The archaeological discoveries in the Boyukkasik village of Azerbaijan's Agstafa district (Boyukkasik, Poylu, Soyuqbulaq burials) aroused a great deal of interest. The remnants of ancient human settlements dating back to the Neolithic Period provide evidence of close cultural ties between Azerbaijan and Mesopotamia. A total of 80 potential sites were spotted during the operations. Nine of them were chosen as the most attractive for further research - in the Qazimammad, Yevlax, Samkir, Goranboy, and Agstafa districts. A barrow and three burial mounds were uncovered in the Borsunlu village of Goranboy. The discoveries made there are attributed to the Bronze Age and date back to the 13th century BCE. Such prominent archaeologists as Farhad Quliyev, Nacaf Museyibli, Viktor Kvachidze, Fuad Huseynov and Idris Aliyev, whose outstanding research is known far beyond Azerbaijan, were involved in the excavations. 

The BTC Co. pipeline consortium allocated over $100,000 for archaeological excavations along the BTC route in Azerbaijan's territory. Moreover, the company allotted funds for the repair of a museum of the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography which displays all the items discovered in the course of research.

Continuation of history

The Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography experts believe that the excavations have furthered the work launched in the 1980s. Their key objective was to reveal and study the ethnic origin of the Azerbaijani people, which began to take shape after the Bronze and Stone Ages. This is why this period holds particular interest for scientists. In 1985 professor Ideal Narimanov discovered monuments dating back to the Neolithic Period in the Agstafa district that were dramatically different from those previously discovered. These were Shomutepe and Gultepe, later called by the same title of Leylatepe. The scholar hypothesized for the first time that the remains found testified to migration processes that went on in Azerbaijan more than five millennia ago. When excavation work resumed in the area five years ago, scholars discovered monuments dating back to the first half of the fourth millennium BCE, which confirmed Narimanov's theory that the Leylatepe remains belonged to ancient migrants who settled in Azerbaijani territory from Mesopotamia. It was thus established that migrant Mesopotamian tribes had contributed to the formation of Azerbaijanis' ethnicity. A number of similar monuments were discovered later, which once again confirmed Narimanov's conclusions. Moreover, the excavations carried out in Aghstafa and the Tovuz district (Agyldere) also confirmed a theory that Mesopotamian migrants entered the northern Caucasus through the South Caucasus. The excavations shed light on a range of historical facts which had previously only been theories within the scientific community. For instance, research revealed the way the dead were buried by ancient Azerbaijanis; babies were buried in jugs rather than the burial mounds designated for adults.

Overall, the work in the oil pipeline area is divided into three stages. In 2000-2001 a group of zoologists, botanical experts and environmentalists walked along the entire BTC route from the Sangachal terminal on the Caspian Sea coast to the Boyukkasik station on the Georgian border. They registered all existing and potential archaeological monuments in the 44-metre construction corridor. The key goal was to divert the pipeline route from significant archaeological sites, to preserve them and to prevent their destruction. During the second stage in 2002, exploration operations were carried out in the locations of monuments that would remain on the pipeline route. Prospecting shafts were placed and the monument's area and the approximate cost of its research were determined. In 2003 complex stationary operations were launched involving two groups of archaeologists and a mobile monitoring group. These specialists were present during the removal of the upper layer of soil. When any given section revealed traces of material culture, it was fenced off, while pipe laying continued, and the section in question was examined.

These operations continue to this day, and 27 archaeological sites have already been examined. One of the sites has been described in a book dedicated to the analysis of findings published in Azerbaijani, Russian and English, while another book on the Zeyamchay necropolis is currently in production. Some of the discoveries are sent abroad for complex analysis. The artefacts discovered undergo radio-carbon and radio-argon analysis, without which they would not be recognized by scientists worldwide. Azerbaijan unfortunately does not currently have such facilities. 

Scholars believe that some adjustments will be made to certain periods of Azerbaijan's history based on the recent discoveries.

Historical monuments were discovered in the village of Klde in the Akhaltsikh region of southern Georgia during BTC construction. According to archaeologists' preliminary estimates, the burial dates back to the 3rd century CE. Construction workers also found a burial from the pagan and ancient Christian period in the Samtskhe-Javakheti region. BP experts developed a plan jointly with Georgia's Centre for Archaeology Research on handling cultural heritage and they conducted research in the territories stretching along the Georgian section of the conduit. The company allocated $2 million for this purpose. 

Scientists established that there were 56 archaeological sections within the 44-metre construction corridor of the oil pipeline in the South Caucasus republic. Notably, the pipeline crosses two ancient settlements in the Tetritskaroy region and Bronze Age burials in the Tsalk region.