A Rich Culture, Fed By Oil

A RICH CULTURE, FED BY OIL

Wall Street Journal
9.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
October 24, 2008

A century ago, half of the world’s oil came from one place: Baku,
the capital of Azerbaijan, located on a stretch of Caspian coastline
so rich with petroleum and natural gas deposits that the ground
could actually catch on fire. Baku, a traditional meeting point
of the Ottoman, Persian and Russian Empires, was transformed by
the oil boom. European and local oil barons reinvented the city,
importing European-style luxuries while pioneering the use of the oil
tanker. Baku is currently undergoing a second oil boom, with offshore
deposits providing profits.

Both oil booms are evident in a lavish exhibition at Berlin’s
Ethnological Museum, called "Azerbaijan: Land of Fire," which
chronicles 5,000 years of history and culture in the Caucasus, with
highlights from Baku’s major museums. It’s all here: Bronze Age relics;
medieval Islamic ceramics; 19-century handicrafts; early 20th-century
political caricatures; late 20th-century political propaganda; and
contemporary Azerbaijani art.

The variety of objects is dazzling, but the carpets are a standout. The
most impressive are the Karabakh carpets, marked by dramatic colors
and geometric forms, produced in the 19th century, when Azerbaijan’s
carpet industry reached a highpoint. Around the corner from the
carpets, a slideshow documents life in Baku during the first boom
with a parade of images featuring medieval-looking barbershops,
Dickensian oil derricks and elegant boulevards.