CHAPTER I
CULTURAL AND IDEOLOGICAL DAWN OF ALBANIAN SCULPTURAL ARTS
CHAPTER I CULTURAL AND IDEOLOGICAL DAWN OF ALBANIAN SCULPTURAL ARTS
T
he pagan imaginations of the Azerbaijanis ancient ancestors had a decisive influence on the engendering and development of the ancient plastic arts. Those imaginations were described most fully by the Albanian historian Movsēs Dasxurançi (“The History of Caucasian Albanians” B. 1993), Yusif Vazir Chemenzeminli (“Maiden’s Spring” B. 1964), M.Seyidov (“Thoughts about ethnogenesis of Azerbaijani people” B. 1989), B.Abdullah (“Azerbaijani ritual folklore and its poetics” B. 1990) and many other authors. The works of famous turkologists L.N. Gumilev, S.T.Yeremeyev and, certainly, the works of the classics of world religious studies and ethnography – E.B.Taylor, J.Fraezer, M.Eliade, P.Florensky, etc., are dedicated to the reconstruction of pagan ritual practice and are used as a methodological basis for any researches dedicated to ancient ulture and art. It is clear that all the cultural manifestations of pagans were based on ideology, displayed in different cults and rituals. The art, including sculptural arts, was an integral part of these rituals. But on the other hand, all these beliefs (and not only the Cro-Magnons, but also many other tribes and peoples known both to ethnologists, and to archaeologists) had not yet formed religion as phenomenon, correlated with art, mythology,
science and differed from them in the same time. This ancient syncretical foreculture did not set apart the art, science, literature, philosophy, etc., through its own system. Besides, that foreculture did not separate religion from them. To be more exact, the religious elements were merged with other elements of the spiritual and ceremonial culture and formed a single and indivisible whole. According to pagan imaginations the world was divided into 3 main zones: the upper zone (the sky with the Polar Star in the center), the middle zone (the land surrounded by ocean waters), the lower zone (the afterworld of cold and darkness). The world axis is either tree or a mountain. The supreme God and the highest deities are the inhabitants of the upper zone, the minor deities and most of the spirits are placed in the middle zone, the forces of evil are placed in the lower zone. This is most general and fundamental panorama of the world (cosmos), it’s actualized according to the cyclical principle, it is realized and concretized in pagan ritualism, ceremonies and mythopoetic thinking. All these peculiarities were manifested in concrete cults, accompanied by the creation of architectural structures, sculptures and various kinds of religious and everyday life objects. These objects materialized separate fragments of this general picture of the world. In
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