History

The rock engravings of Qobustan document human presence in this landscape from the Upper Palaeolithic – when the Caspian Sea stood higher and the Boyukdas hills formed a promontory overlooking a different coastline – through to the medieval period. The earliest petroglyphs include elongated dancing human silhouettes, which researchers interpret as ritual figures associated with ceremonies whose nature can only be guessed at; hunting scenes depicting aurochs, deer, and boar; and figures of boats with raised prows that constitute some of the earliest representations of watercraft in the Caucasus. By the Bronze Age the imagery shifts: cattle herding scenes, schematic human figures, and the characteristic “ladder” pattern of lines found across the site.

The single most extraordinary object at Qobustan is also the easiest to overlook. A flat-faced rock at the base of the Boyukdas hill bears a Latin inscription in three lines reading: IMP DOMITIANO CAESARE AVG GERMANICO / LVCIVS IVLIVS MAXIMVS / G XII FVL. Translated, this records “Under Emperor Domitian Caesar Augustus Germanicus, Lucius Julius Maximus, centurion of the XII Fulminata Legion.” The XII Fulminata – the “Thunderbolt Legion” – was based at Melitene (modern Malatya in Turkey) during the 1st century AD. This inscription, approximately 3,000 km from Rome as the crow flies, is the easternmost known Roman military inscription in the world, proving that Roman legionary forces operated in what is now Azerbaijan during the late 1st century AD.

Why the XII Fulminata sent a centurion and his detachment to the Caspian shore under Domitian remains one of the unexplained puzzles of Roman imperial history. Possible explanations include a diplomatic mission to the Caucasian kingdoms that Rome was courting, a reconnaissance for the projected conquest of the Caucasus that was never completed, or the aftermath of the Parthian wars. The inscription records their presence but not their purpose.