Ten thousand years ago, on the shores of what is now the Caspian Sea, our Paleolithic ancestors were thriving and recording their lives on the walls of rocks and caves. These days, you can travel from the ultra-modern boulevards of Baku, Azerbaijan, 45 minutes south to the remarkable historic site at Gobustan Rock Art Cultural Landscape, where 6,000 outdoor engravings record more than 40,000 years of human history.

A curvy, white, modern museum at the approach to the UNESCO World Heritage site lies just off the highway in the desert at the base of a rocky outcropping. Excellent displays in its multi-domed exhibit halls illuminate the early people and animals who inhabited the region following the last Ice Age. Taxidermy gazelles, deer, goats, wild boars and a ferocious warrior attired in skins and a horn helmet lurk among timeline exhibits. Bones, primitive tools, weapons, pottery jars and other artifacts from the Stone and Bronze ages are arrayed in glass cases and projected on touch screens allowing visitors to pivot or enlarge them for a closer look.

A topographical map of the area allows visitors to get their bearings before going outside to examine the actual ancient pictures cut into rocky hills. Signs mark the way up the paved path, but it’s worth it to hire a guide to point out ancient settlements and burial grounds in addition to details of the extraordinary petroglyphs: renderings of the sun and stars, men in loin cloths, curvy women, bullfights, bow and arrow hunting expeditions, camel caravans, warriors circling in ritual dances, couples holding hands — images bearing humble but monumental testimony to ageless human concerns.