Azerbaijan Museum

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search

Coordinates: 38°04′24″N 46°18′00″E / 38.07333°N 46.3°E / 38.07333; 46.3

View of Museum

Azerbaijan Museum is the major archaeological and historical museum in Tabriz, in the northwest part of Iran (East Azerbaijan province). It was established on April 1958.^[1] The museum consists of three major halls, a side yard, office rooms and a library. It mostly contains objects discovered from excavations in Iranian Azerbaijan also some artworks and sculptures of artists. Its library contains more than 2500 books both hand written and printed book about history, archaeology, art and Iranian culture.^[2] Apart from National Museum of Iran in Tehran, Azerbaijan Museum has the largest collection belonging to different periods of Iran's history.

[edit] Galleries

The museum has three galleries. The first gallery bears the oldest remains from 5th millennium B.C until Sassanian dynasty (212-656 A.D). The museum's monuments include goddesses, Rhytons, two skeletons (male and female) and a carved slab of marble known as Bism Allah-Stone.

Three ton Bism Allah-Stone , ground floor of museum.

The second gallery consists of two parts: one for Islamic archeology and another part for coins and seals. Part one involves some potteries date back to 10th century until 19th. The coins of this gallery (part two), began with Achamenid dynasty coins and end in Qajar dynasty. The displayed seals and stamps date back to Third millennium B.C to Islamic eras.

In second gallery, it shows a Sassanian Agate stamp seal with sun and moon image and Pahlavic inscriptions.

Impression of the seal.

The third gallery includes some sculptures made by Ahad Hosseini. They are made of plaster and represent the sculptor's own image about the fate of mankind in 20th century.

In the yard of museum some stone figurines, statues, rams and inscriptions are kept.