Cult of the Sun and the bird in Azerbaijan

Abstract

The Umay cult as the image of the Grand-Mother Goddess
includes a number of iconographic meanings. Analyzing the features of
images in the culture of Azerbaijan, one can single out the archetype -
Umay-Goddess, bird-sun and suggest that ideas about the connection of a
female deity with a bird existed in the early Paleolithic era. The symbolism
of the Gobustan petroglyphs (Boyukdash’s upper terrace, stone 78, etc.)
and anthropomorphic tattooed figurines with a triangular bottom end (in the
form of a tail) reflects the idea of assimilating a sacred bird in the form of a
shinabub (hoopoe). Shinabub is the most ancient reflection of the Goddess,
where such pictorial symbols as a comb, striped black-and-white plumage,
«sunny» color have merged in. The hoopoe occupies a significant place in
the symbolism of the material culture of Caucasian Albania and Muslim
Azerbaijan.