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town's sewerage system revealed by archaeological e xcava tions indicated the
density of population as well as the high leve l of mun icipa l service in Baku.
Decline in town develop ment began at the end of XVI century. Sevefid -
Osman wars and internecine clashes severely damaged town and badly impacted the
productive force of the country, social-economic and cultural development. Many
towns and villages of Azerbaijan had suffered great devastations. The Great
geographic discoveries had no less negative consequences, because as the result,
many cit ies in the East as well as in Azerbaijan turned to be outsiders of the new
ma in world trade routes and lost their previous significance. It cau sed value
reduction in the production of a range of goods. Archaeological researches reveal that
depression covered almost all spheres of city economy. So me b ig cities degraded to
the level of s mall towns. Derbend was a mong such cities, the slow down of
development and degradation in all spheres of city occur in XVI-XVII cc.
Co mplicated military-politica l situation of the late middle ages required
reliable system of defense providing security of the towns. Hence fortificat ion
systems of some cit ies were renewed and defense walls repaired. Thus, the defense
walls of Shemakha fortress were repaired and functioned without much change till
the end of the late middle ages. Construction of castles on Absheron peninsula was
continued. There was created a reliable defense system wh ich granted security of
the coastal line. Construction of fortresses and towers in the highlands also went on.
Despite that cities had leading role in the development of medieval society
most part of population settled in rural area. The main part of material wealth was
produced in village. Unfortunately, archaeological study of late medieval village in
Azerbaijan is not satisfactory. Only dug pits were made by archaeologists at such
sites except the Salmanbulagy settlement where archaeological e xcavations were
conducted at the space of some 196 square meters.
Revival of cit ies and town life at the end of XIII and beginning of XIV
centuries was related to the recovery of handicraft production and trade. At that time,
ruling dynasty made arrangements for the revival of agriculture, too. Archaeological
proof of it was that new rural settlements appeared mainly in highlands and on
foothill areas. Re markab le was the slave labor widely applied in city construction
works. Big manufactures (karkhana) submitted to central power, and main ly serving
the state orders, were observed in handicraft production. Big manufactures -
"workshops" were mainly concentrated in the towns of South Azerbaijan. Handicraft
developed followed traditional path in th e towns of Shirvan, Arran and Garabag,
there were different small workshops belonging to private commodity producers. The
growth in the main branches of handicrafts was already observed at the end of XIII
and beginning of XIV centuries. Local natural reso urces, raw materials were rich
enough to supply the development of handicraft production. Archaeological records
confirm that in most of the cities traditional branches of craft succession of
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production and deepening specialization were preserved. Due to a rchaeological
excavations it was possible to investigate the remains of blacksmith' (She ma kha,
Derbend, Gabala, Kha raba-sheher, Djanahir) and potters (Gaba la) workshops,
glassmaking (Gabala), and bone carving (Shemakha) industry. Archaeological
records allow stating the fact that handicraft production had commodity character and
produced goods were intended for market. Metal work cra ft had great importance;
the main centre of it at the South of Azerbaijan was Tebriz and at the north -
Shema kha. Spec ialization deepened, so armor and weapon ma kers separated from
ordinary blacksmiths. Archaeologists obtained such weapons of that period as arrow
and spear heads, daggers, frag ments of swords and fire-a rms. Arrowheads were
prevailing a mong these objects. All of the m had sticks from the butt side; arrowheads
were flat, three edged and four-edged. The forms of the arrowhead were leaf - like
flat, rho mb-shaped, oblong rhomb-shaped, asymmetric rho mb-shaped and standing
out four edged battle arrowheads. Arrows were sto red and carried in quivers (sadak)
that were attached to the belt and some attaching hooks were found during
archaeological e xcavations. Bows were still the ma in weapon for a long range
battles. As to close combat weapons, the dagger disclosed during the archaeological
e xcavations in Baku Icherishahar was relatively well preserved one. Fire -arms had
appeared by the period. Glazed and unglazed pottery is still prevailing mass materia l
of archaeological e xcavations. Archaeological records confirm the gradua l recovery
and growth in pottery and expanding range of vessels. Unglazed pottery is
characterized by standard appearance with refined shape and simple decoration of
wavy-line and spot ornaments.
Among new types of unglazed pottery one should mention money -box, colored
and polished tobacco-pipes. Production of figured as well as anthropomorphic
vessels continued though in limited quality. The late medieva l gla zed pottery of
Azerbaijan was ornamented by engraving on engobe, "in reserve" techniques,
colored engobe paintings, manganese and polychrome painting under the glaze and
distinguished for rich palette. Va rious hues of green, brown, yellow and turquoise
prevailed in the painting on glazed pottery. Innovation in glaze pottery production
was silicate ceramics. Silicate clay gave porous crocks. Cobalt and glaze deeply
soaked into the potsherd because of porosity of clay and created thick glassy surface.
Production of faience vessels continued. It was especially widely spread in
Nakhichevan. Geometric and plant ornaments were main design in decoration of
glazed pottery. Gradually geometric orna ment lost its actuality and the pampre
pattern prevailed. Visual motif was strongly stylized. Some fragments of glazed
pottery of XIV-XVI cc did not yield XII century vessels for their quality even exceed
them having thin walls and being burned well. Though they could not reach styling
and bright colors of the XII century. Some glazed vessels of XIV-XVI centuries have
stamped brands on the outside of the bottom but gradual disappearance of