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Among metal goods discovered in Ghirdman monuments iron weapons,
labour tools and household items make up particular majority. Thus, blacksmithery
also ranked with leading fields of metalworking art in that period. And this, surely,
resulted from demand of the population's wide masses on iron goods. Because
weapons, labour tools and household items from iron always were of demand all
around the country. Namely therefore workshops of blacksmiths were widespread
both in big towns, and distant villages. Today presence of special blacksmith
quarters in Shamakhy, Shaki, Lahych also betokens high need and really wide
spreading of the profession, enables to think about deep specialization of masters
dealing with the art. Among the blacksmiths there were particularly many those
who made cart and phaeton parts, metalworkers producing agricultural
instruments, farriers, gunsmiths. Another notable feature is that the professions
were more inheritted from generation to generation.
Diverse goods produced by the blacksmiths were mainly prepared by two
methods - casting or striking. The casting items were prepared from stone, wood or
ceramics in special moulds, and striking ones were brought to necessary form by
heating iron and striking by anvil-hammer. Among numerous metal goods
discovered in the early-medieval monuments there are many metal casts, iron items
produced by casting and striking methods.
Presence of different precious adornments among the discoveries betokens
wide spreading of jewellery art there. Pendants, rings, bracelets, ear-rings and
necklaces among the discoveries make up special majority. In this view bronze
ring, bracelet and three golden ear-rings discovered in Qalagah by Y.A.Pakhomov
and F.L.Osmanov are more notable.
Both orderer, and buyer of the multicoloured diverse handicraft goods made
from metal were different. I.e. if labour tools used daily in life and economy were
bought both in village, and town by everyone, both orderer, and buyer of voguish
phaetons and battle carts, as well as different weapons and precious adornments
chiefly were large feudals and high-ranked military men.
Pottery Art. In result of archaeological researches it was identified that use
of faiance plates on Azerbaijan territory has begun as far back as from the Neolith
Age. The art, which first confined itself to producing primitive plates for purely
economic needs of the population that settled down in different caves or auls,
turned to one of leading production fields in the society's life at the expense of its
technological improvement and extension of its scale.
In different historical periods pottery goods were made by various methods.
By discovery of pottery lathe the art entered a new development stage. One part of
the researchers suppose that the pottery lathe emerged in Mesopotamia in II half of
IV millenium B.C., and another part - on the territory of Iran. Taking into account
that Iran and Azerbaijan are neighbour countries, as well as that Azerbaijan
territory had been settled long before the surrounding countries, there are rather
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weighty grounds to think about appearing of the pottery lathe, being showing of
production culture, namely here. Ceramical items, discovered in Leylatapa and
Boyuk Kaski and related by the specialists to the middle IV millenium B.C., enable
to dwell on the version largely. Those who think so are guided by the fact that the
ceramical items dating back to respective period were produced without use of the
pottery lathe, considerably lagged behind ancient and medieval materials by
quality, to be exact, in artistic-technical and technological terms. Some of such
thinkers connect this by wars, to which Albania was involved, some - by invasions
and attacks from outside, and some - by social-economic processes in the society.
Surely, none of the factors can be ignored. But neither we can ignore the fact that
regress tendencies observed in ceramics production were peculiar not only for
Albania. I.e. some other countries and nations of Europe and Asia experienced the
same history. Thus, fall of the pottery lathe into disuse on vast territories resulted
from very serious factors. In the Early Middle Ages such global-scale factor could
be Great Migration of People, which staggered Europe and Asia. Surely, the
Migration resulted in very serious demographic changes on surrounding territories.
Because of military collisions, campaigns, invasions and plunders towns and
villages were evacuated. Nomads who settled down on the territories very much
lagged behind the local population by their cultural and economic level. As it's
seen, pottery lathe which has been used by humanity beginning from the middle IV
millenium B.C. hasn't yet been familiar to them.
Appearing of improved pottery ovens betokens commencement of new
stage in production of ceramical items. Two-layer ovens used by Ghirdman potters
through IV-IX centuries are evident patterns of the improved pottery ovens. As
compared with ovens of other shape, the two-layer ovens have apparent advantages
in view of the product's qualitative baking. The researches show that in terms of
quantity red or light-red-coloured ceramics inside the product baken in such ovens
have very big superiority, and the white, black, grey, pink, light-pink patterns are
seldom met. Hence we can make such inference that diversity of the colours of
ceramical items belonging to different periods and different production centres, as
some researchers believe, can't be explained by mixtures added to the product's
content or smoke factor at all. Thus, colour variety of the ceramical items merely
depended on their baking degree.
The early-medieval ceramics discovered in Ghirdman monuments can be
grouped as below: 1. Farming ceramics. 2. Kitchen ceramics. 3. Building ceramics.
The 1st group mainly includes farming earthenware pots, milk-poil, frying-pan,
trough, pots, the 2nd group - Sahanq (long jar with narrow long neck), clay jug,
copper bowl, saucer, churn, small pitcher, lamp, candlestick, milk-can, and lids of
different shapes; and 3rd group - tile, brick goods and water-pipes.
According to the researchers, from diversity and production technology
viewpoint ceramical goods always had quantity and quality distinctions on