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This is the crossroads between ancient Sumeria and ancient Assyria ~ it has been occupied by everybody at one time or the other ~ although there are ancient documents about various matters, it is noted in virtually all the detailed histories of the area (even when it was called Armenia ~ this being the ancient Armenian core area) that if you want to know anything about Azerbaijan you have to look up Greek, Roman, Persian, Turkish and other histories.

Zorastrianism was brought in early.

BTW, there's a type of ear called an Armenoid Ear ~ and a nose called an Armenoid Nose. Today both are widespread in the Middle East ~ back in the day even the Hebrews didn't have either!

These folks are also held to be responsible for founding the Median Empire although they are NOT the Medes.

Think of them as a pretty doggone important bunch of people but subject to repeated cultural disaster which has led to them being identified as OTHER PEOPLE!

Thor Hyerdahl worked up an alternative reading of the rather strange stories about Odin found in ancient Norwegian literature. It was his thesis that a group of Azerbaijanis, under the leadership of a guy named Odin, tried to avoid further military service as auxiliaries in the Roman armies so they WENT NORTH TO SCANDINAVIA in the first century BC or thereabouts.

Hyerdahl pointed to a sort of hat and some other features that would be peculiar to these Azerbaijanis and the Norwegians at the time.

Then, one day somebody found a cave in Azerbaijan that showed drawings of the cap and other items of peculiar design that showed up in Norway in the First Century AD.

More recently DNA analysis has shown the presence of Indians in Scotland in ancient times, so it's hardly a surprise to find Azeris wandering off to Norway. They had the horse, iron work, etc.

Way back in the good old days my main Middle Eastern history professor (dr.jwadeh at indiana university) used to use the Azeris as an example of a LOST CIVILIZATION about which we know everything, but we have no idea why since all their stuff is somewhere else. He was the world's foremost expert in the Kurds ~ that is, the Medes.