Благоверие

[Farroukh]

Dakhmas in Azerbaijan

There used to be interesting methods of burying people in ancient Azerbaijan; for instance, in the graveyards of the village of Goultepeh, where bones have been painted in red. This custom was common among many tribes. Besides Azerbaijan, bones painted in red were also discovered in the cemeteries of Tepeh-Sialha in Medea ([1], p. 43).

This fact signifies the preliminary clearing of the bones, which is a Zoroastrian rite; the corpses would be spared with the help of prey birds in obsequial towers called 'dakhmas' (sing. - 'dakhma'). Dakhmas are round or oval structures, usually not very large. They would be built out of rough stones. We noticed that it was a custom to build obsequial structures, which repeated the common cult architecture, and this was widespread in Azerbaijan as well. Certain obsequial constructions related to the Zoroastrian rite of clearing bones of a dead person are interesting in this way. Some of these constructions were also discovered in various parts of Azerbaijan. The dakhmas remained to nowadays in Azerbaijan are often dated 1st–4th centuries AD, or maybe a little earlier.

Let us consider one of the dakhmas ('the tower of silence'), which is situated not far from the village of Budoogh in the Qonaghkend rayon of Azerbaijan and which represents a main tower and a counterfort (also in this rayon another dakhma was discovered by an architect, V. Hajivev; that dakhma resembles the one in Budoogh). The height of the dakhma is 8.0 meters, and it has been built out of rough stones. The flat upper area of both cylinders has a frame in a shape of a parapet 1 meter high ([2], с. 36, 37).

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Dakhma in Budoogh, Qonaghkend rayon, Azerbaijan.

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Dakhma (reconstruction).

Many peoples who practiced different religions always used the theme of temple in their obsequial structures, although in a simpler way. This can be traced in both Christian temples and crypts, and in Muslim mosques and mausoleums. Apparently the Zoroastrian religion with its obsequial towers was not an exception.

Bibliography

1) Habiboullayev O. A. 'The Obsequial Monuments from the Villages of Kyul-Tepeh'. Collected articles. Baku, Elm, 1965. (russ.)
2) Husseinov M., Bretanitzky L., Salamzadeh A., 'History of Architecture in Azerbaijan'. Moscow, GIZ lit. of constructing, architecture, and building materials, 1963. (russ.)