6000-year-old winery found in Armenia

An international team of archaeologists, led by Grogory Areshian of the Costen Institute of Archeology has just discovered a winemaking installation, which turns out to be the oldest yet discovered. It was uncovered in a mountain cave in Armenia, and according to the experts it is around 6000 years old. 6,000-year-old facility in an Armenian cave that contained everything necessary to produce wine from grapes, including a grape press, fermentation vats, storage jars, wine-soaked pottery shards and even a cup and drinking bowl.
The ancient winery is at least 1,000 years older than any similar installation previously known, and it was found in the same cave where researchers in June announced the discovery of the world’s oldest leather shoe.
The cave was abandoned when the roof caved in. All the organic material was preserved by a concrete-like layer of sheep dung that sealed everything in and prevented fungi from destroying the remains.
The wine press measured about 3 by 3 1/2 feet and was positioned to drain into a deep vat more than 2 feet deep. Similar to presses utilized as recently as the 19th century throughout Europe and in California, it was clearly meant to be used to smash the grape by foot. All around the top of the press, researchers found handfuls of grape seeds, remains of pressed grapes, grape must and desiccated vines. Botanists determined the species to be Vitis vinifera, the domesticated variety still used to make wine.
The cave is in a canyon where the Lesser Caucasus Mountains approach the northern end of the Zagros mountain range, near Armenia’s southern border with Iran. Researchers do not yet know the identity of the people who lived in the region, but they clearly carried out extensive trade. Pottery shards from the cave came from as far away as central Iran and southern Asia, and most of the stone implements were made of obsidian from a source that was at least three days away on foot, even though a flint source was much nearer.
The oldest previously known evidence of wine dates to about 5400 BC and was discovered at a site called Hajji Firuz in the northern Zagros mountains, where McGovern has found jars with traces of tartaric acid crystals, a chemical marker for wine. The oldest previous evidence of grape seeds and other organic materials dates to around 3150 BC and was found in the tomb of the Egyptian king Scorpion I. The oldest wine press is much younger, found in the West Bank and dating to about 1650 BC.

Found in Armenia, this 5,500 year old leather footwear is the oldest such shoe in the entire world. Made from a single piece of cow-hide, the shoe was custom made to fit its wearer's foot. Archaeologists aren't sure whether the shoe belonged to a man or a woman; it's the equivalent of a modern size 7 women's, but the smaller average stature of ancient people means such a shoe could easily have fit a man.
The shoe actually closely resembles that of a type of footwear - the wonderfully named "pampooties" - worn on the remote Aran Islands off the western coast of Ireland until the 1950s, a distance of over 2,500 miles and 5,500 years. That suggests the massive success of this shoe design, covering a huge, environmentally diverse region across Europe.
The archaeologists still aren't sure what culture the shoe comes from or what the cave was used for, as very little is known about this particular region during that period of prehistory. The archaeologists hope further excavation of the rest of the cave - which has already turned up some graves - will help them better understand the people who left this shoe behind.

The world’s longest, newly built  cable car line that has 5,7 kilometer length  is  located in Armenia. The cable car takes the passengers to the ancient Tatev Monastery, which was built in ninth century.
The speed of the cable car is 37 kilometres per hour . It takes 11 minutes to get to the Tatev Monastery by the cable car line. The highest point of the cable car line  above the gorge is  360 meters. It has two cabins , each of them can carry  25 passengers.
Тhe stewardess will meet you in the cabin and  accompany you  till the end of the journey. You will listen to pleasant music, enjoy the beautiful sight and  get an unforgettable impression during the journey.