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The National History Museum of Azerbaijan started functioning as a museum back
in June 1920, then renamed to The Local Research Museum. As of October 25,
1920,
it got the status of the State Museum of the Soviet Socialist Republic of
Azerbaijan to be later transformed into the specialized Azerbaijan History Museum
at the local branch of the Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union since 1936. As
an education, science and research institution, the Museum was actively involved in
exhibiting, promoting, collecting, safeguarding, studying and publishing assets and
materials related to the history of the Azerbaijani nation since its very inception.
More than 300 thousand valuable exhibits are currently stored in the Museum’s 11
funds and unique library. The Museum’s rich collections offer sufficient data
regarding Azerbaijan’s historic background, day-to-day life and cultural heritage since
the very early periods to this day. The research activities currently held at the
Museum, along with developing historic studies in Azerbaijan, conduct another
important mission, i.e. create an ever-evolving exhibition featuring the Museum’s
present-day image. Valuable archaeological finds, ethnographic and numismatic
artifacts, important documents and other forms of tangible heritage discovered as a
result of scientific expeditions and scrupulous research are proudly exhibited as an
evidence of Azerbaijan’s unique historic and cultural legacy.
Along with the Funds, 8 scientific divisions such as the Archaeology, Ethnography,
Numismatics Units, Restoration Laboratory etc. are currently functioning at the
Museum.
The Handbook hereby presented sheds light on some of the unique artifacts
cherished in the Museum’s stocks.