THOR HEYERDAHL AND AZERBAIJAN

This article invesigates the hypotheses of the famous Norwegian scientist and traveler Thor Heyerdahl about the historical and cultural ties between the peoples of Azerbaijan and Norway. Having visited Azerbaijan and observing petroglyphes in Gobustan, Heyerdahl comes to the conclusion that there are historical and ethnic ties between the two countries and that Norwegians and Azerbaijanis had the same roots in ancient times. The author of the article, in addition to highlighting the research of the famous traveler, attempts to provide some explanations for the Turkic roots of Odin, the chief god of Scandinavian mythology, based on the comments made by Azerbaijani and Turkish researchers. At the same time, he draws attention to the fact that the World Tree, which is characteristic of the mythology of the Turkic peoples, also exists in Scandinavian mythology and provides a description of some words of Turkic origin in the Norwegian language. In the end, the author concludes that the arguments put forward by Thor Heyerdahl are completely reasonable and well-founded. Keywords: Thor Heyerdahl, Azerbaijan, Norway, petroglyphs, Odin, World Tree, mythology, words of Turkic origin