Ancient site · Other
Areni-1 cave
A cave beside the Arpa River in southern Armenia used by Copper Age people for storage, rituals and burials. Its dry air preserved remarkable things: a one-piece leather shoe about 5,500 years old, the oldest leather footwear known, and a winemaking installation of about 4100–4000 BCE, described as the oldest known winery.
Burials and storage jars show the cave also had ritual uses.
- Dates
- c. 4300–3500 BCE
- Still standing
- Yes
- Location
- 39.73° N, 45.20° E
How we know
No writing existed; finds are dated by radiocarbon and kept well by the cave's dry, cool air.
Nearby sites
- Nineveh c. 3000–612 BCE (Assyrian capital from c. 700 BCE)
- Jarmo c. 7090–4950 BCE
- Çayönü c. 8630–6800 BCE
- Tell Halaf c. 6100–5400 BCE (Halaf village); later the Aramaean city of Guzana
- Karahan Tepe c. 9750–9400 BCE (dates still being refined)
- Arslantepe c. 4000–700 BCE; palace c. 3400–3200 BCE