Shaki rock paintings
In Shaki village, Garakilsa district, Zangazur mahal.
Garakilsa district - from 01.03.1940 - Sisian.
Fine art
An Armenian scientist named Pavel Safoyan made a 3-volume photo-album of 15-20 petroglyphs during the Soviet period, translated them into several languages, and made such an absurd claim that the Shaki petroglyphs belong to the Armenian people, as well as petroglyphs in the entire Caucasus and it was created under the influence of Shaki monuments. The goal was to appropriate the ancient monuments of Azerbaijan. After the deportation of Azerbaijanis in 1988, along with the territory, the government carried out a policy of occupation, vandalism and appropriation of material and cultural heritage.
The rock paintings found in the village of Shaki in the 40s and 50s of the last century once again shed light on the ancient history of Zangazur. These rock paintings, which are considered to be grasslands of Shaki and Samagunk (until 1946) villages of Sisian region (Davaboynu (Ukhtasar in Armenian) and Tagazur mountains, with various images of birds, animals, arrows, and bows, are the same as those of Gobustan and Gamiga. It is assumed that these monuments belong to the 4th-5th c. BC. However, the issue that interests us is not only the fact that people lived in the village of Shaki 7 thousand years ago. We are interested in the fact that the petroglyphs in the village of Shaki are similar to the images of Gamigaya in Nakhchivan, the petroglyphs in the mound of Kul village near Kerch, and the monuments related to Turkish descent, Turkish origin, and Turkish totems found in Kazakhstan, Siberia-Altai, Urmia, Volga region, etc. One of the oldest beliefs of the Turkic tribes (ongon) is the Tibetan bull, and this image is reflected in the Shaki petroglyphs.
The places where the Sheki monuments were created and the surroundings of the Gobustan monuments (Pirsa-at and Sangachal) are connected with the name of the ancient Turkic tribes Sagats (Saks) and Zangis. In the IV-III millennia BC, the transition from the Bronze Age to the Iron Age began with Turkic-speaking peoples, and the first iron tools they used were arrowheads, so rock images of those iron-tipped arrows have survived to this day in Shaki monuments.