Very little is known about pre-Christian and pre-Islamic mythology in Eastern Transcaucasia; sources are mostly Hellenic historians like Strabo and based on archaeological evidence.
Strabo names the gods of the sun, the sky, and above of all, the moon, and equates them to the Greek gods Helios, Zeus, and Selene respectively:[2] According to Strabo, human sacrifice was widely used in pre-Christian Albania: And any one of those who, becoming violently possessed, wanders alone in the forests, is by the priest arrested, bound with sacred fetters, and sumptuously maintained during that year, and then led forth to the sacrifice that is performed in honour of the goddess, and, being anointed, is sacrificed along with other victims.
Pomponius Mela wrote: Talge [Cheleken], on the Caspian Sea, is fertile without being cultivated and is abundant in every root crop and fruit, but the local peoples consider it an abomination and a sacrilege to touch what grows there.
Bishop Israel wrote about the customs of the Huns and their deities: According to a legend, Bartholomeus came to a place on the shore of the Caspian Sea which is likely to be Baku, cured the daughter of the local king, Polymius, of her madness, and was subsequently granted the right to preach freely in his territory by the king.
In a competition with the local priesthood, Bartholomeus assembled a large crowd in front of an image of the goddess and challenged the deity to show itself.
The goddess, totally black, "sharp faced", and breathing fire and brimstone, was bound in chains by the angel and sent away.
According to Movses Kaghanvatsi, Vachagan III the Pious of Albania persecuted pagan priests, tortured and forcibly converted them to Christianism.
He established a Church School in a city called Rustak and raised children of pagan couples as Christian.
[9] Andalusian traveler Abu Hamid al-Qarnati states that pagans were living in mountainous villages near city of Derbent in the 12th century.
Enormous idols found in archeological sites of Khinisly (near village of Böyük Xınıslı), Chiraghly, Daghkolany.