Case file · Folklore / legend
Heyerdahl's Odin-from-Azerbaijan theory
Thor Heyerdahl visited the Gobustan rock carvings near Baku in 1981 and saw in their reed boats a link to Scandinavian rock art; he later argued that the god Odin and his Aesir came from the land of 'Aserbaijan'.
1981 CE · 40.11, 49.38 · status: disputed
The account
Gobustan has more than 6,000 petroglyphs dating back up to 40,000 years, now a UNESCO site. Heyerdahl based the theory on Snorri Sturluson's euhemerist account of the Aesir coming from 'Asaland', and in 2001 began excavations at Azov in Russia to find proof. Scandinavian scholars rejected the idea as pseudo-history.
The sceptical view
The 'Aesir–Azeri' link rests on similarity of sounds; there is no archaeological support.