Tue 19 October 2010 12:58 GMT | 7:58 Local Time
A group of archeologists discovered five ancient settlements.
A group of archeologists of the Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences discovered five ancient settlements in the territory of Shaki and Gakh regions of Azerbaijan, head of the archeological expedition Nasib Mukhtarov said.
He said the winter settlements discovered in Shaki and Gakh were allegedly founded in the period from 2nd millennium AC until 3rd century AD. Traces of the Gakh settlements were discovered in the territory of a former collective farm. Ceramics and potteries were found there. The archeologists also found ruins of a stone building in one of settlements.
Mukhtarov said a three-hectare settlement was discovered in Hajinohur area of Alazan-Haftaran valley in Shaki. They found ruins of burial mounds which prove that there were mines in that area in the end of the second millennium BC.
The archeologist said earlier the plain of Hajinohur was a white page for the Azerbaijani archeology, but materials found there will be very useful for the researchers of the Azerbaijani and regional history.
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I don't pretend to be an expert on what the fight is about between the Armenians and the Azerbaijani but, ultimately, it's just lines someone drew on a map, just lines - and it wasn't the Armenians or the Azerbaijani who drew those lines. Those lines have nothing to do with the reality of where the ancestors of both Armenians and Azerbaijani came from originally, or how inter-related genetically they may be today. It makes me sad. I'd like to know more about these settlements, and how they relate to ancient tribes that were known to have settled in the region 5,000 plus years ago, and forget about all the baloney hostility, that extends even to chessplayers refusing to shake hands or even refusing to play each other. That is just so silly.
