Azerbaijan, European Universities Study Ancient Human Settlement at Azikh Cave

Jerusalem, 27 August, 2026 (TPS-IL) -- Baku (AZERTAC) – The Archaeology Teaching and Research Center of Baku State University (BSU) is participating in an international project at the Azikh Cave, the most important Paleolithic monument in the South Caucasus.

BSU told AZERTAC that scientists from Portuguese, Danish, Polish and Norwegian universities have also been involved in the research, which was launched by ANAS and the Leibniz Center for Archaeology (LEIZA) in Germany since 2024.

Excavations have uncovered about 14.5 meters of sediment divided into 10 archaeological layers, representing different periods of prehistoric human occupation going back roughly 1.2 million years.

Aslan Gasimov, director of the BSU center, has been working as a supervisor at the excavation sites since the first season of the project. New ceramic samples, stone tools and bone remains were discovered during the excavations. The restoration and analysis of the finds will be carried out using archaeometric methods with the capabilities of the BSU Center for Advanced Materials Science.

The project will create conditions for the integration of young researchers and students into the international scientific environment.

Officials said the cooperation is an important contribution to the study of Azerbaijan’s archaeological heritage using modern multidisciplinary methods ,and to the promotion of the country’s archaeology in the world.