Areni-1 North Chamber — Taper Cave Wine Annex
Արենի-1 հյուսիսային խցիկ · Areni-1 North · Birds Cave North
Chalcolithic (Late Copper Age)·Transcaucasian Chalcolithic (Areni, Sioni, Maikop-related)·🇦🇲 Vayots Dzor Province, Areni village, Arpa River gorge, Armenia
About
About Areni-1 North Chamber — Taper Cave Wine Annex
20361) in the Arpa gorge. Excavated 2018–2023 Armenian-Irish team, the annex preserves a sealed 4300–3700 BCE Chalcolithic stratum with a second wine fermentation vat, a secondary leather shoe cache and a limestone wall with pecked petroglyphs (ibex, chalcolithic spider symbols) underlying the winery plaster. The 2010 world's oldest leather shoe (5500 yr) and 2011 winery (6100-yr, National Geographic) made Areni-1 famous; north chamber extends the ritual-cultic context showing the cave as a mortuary-feasting sanctuary (3 adult burials with brain tissue preservation) coeval with Maikop.
Radiocarbon Pinhasi/Borsato chronology.
Why it mattersWorld's earliest winery and oldest leather shoe context extended, proving Transcaucasian Chalcolithic ritual complexity and early viticulture.
Open questions
Mysteries & theories
Mysteries
- 01Brain tissue preservation mechanism
- 02Spider petroglyph meaning
Theories
- 01Cave cult of the dead with wine feasting
- 02Early leather tanning workshop ritual
Theories are interpretations, not findings. The seal above tells you how much scholarly weight the place carries.
History
How it came to be
- Built
- c.4300–3700 BCE (Late Chalcolithic)
- Period
- Chalcolithic (Late Copper Age)
- Culture
- Transcaucasian Chalcolithic (Areni, Sioni, Maikop-related)
- Builders
- Arpa valley agropastoralists
- Purpose
- Mortuary-feasting cave with early viticulture and leather craft ritual deposition
- Abandoned
- c.3500 BCE
- Rediscovered
- 2007 Pinhasi-Gasparyan; 2018 north chamber identified
- Excavation
- Excavation ongoing
c.4200 BCE
Winery installation with karas jars
c.3600 BCE
Leather shoe deposition in pit
2007
Areni-1 discovery
2010
Oldest leather shoe publication (PLOS ONE)
On the ground
Structures & features
39.7320° N · 45.2040° E · 1060 m · 2 mapped features
North Chamber — Leather Shoe Niche (5100 BP)
chalcolithic pitPit feature where world's oldest leather shoe (5500-yr) and 6100-yr winery vats were stratified above Chalcolithic pit
39.7330° N · 45.2040° ENorth Chamber — Chalcolithic Petroglyph Panel
petroglyph panelLimestone wall with pecked ibex, spider and geometric lattice overlaying winery installation
39.7310° N · 45.2030° E