Cave may become a target
The discovery of the world's oldest shoe has not only made Armenia famous, but has turned "Areni-1" cave of Vayots Dzor vulnerable. Strangers have already come here with the hope of finding treasures. The archaeological findings have not been damaged, but there are already letters written with carbon on the walls. Archaeologists excavating Areni sound the alarm that the cave walls may soon be covered with love confessions, if defensive measures are not taken.
"If a drunken man sets foot in this open area, he will destroy everything that required years to investigate and discover in a matter of seconds. We need to preserve the monument and build a defensive gate around it," head of the expedition in Areni Boris Gasparyan told "A1+".
The next stage of activities will start in a couple of days in Areni. However, with the fear of the mentioned circumstances, the archaeologists have decided to open the sealed jug at the cave's coal-basin earlier and, according to archaeologists' preliminary version, it belongs to the Neolithic Age.
They carefully opened the jug, removed relics of a body which looked like that of a woman, a mat knitted from cane and parts of a reed-pipe. Boris Gasparyan noted that it was the third reed-pipe that they had found at the cave and it is not excluded that people had sharpened it and written on clay tiles in ancient times.
Participating in the excavations were Professor of UCLA Gregory Areshyan and PhD student at the University of Connecticut, DNA analysis expert Nathan Vales who had taken samples for genetic analysis.
To this day, Armenian archaeologists have excavated three caves, including Areni in Vayk and Hovk and Yenokavan caves in Tavush. In Yenokavan, according to Boris Gasparyan, the excavators discovered a rare culture in our region.
"The newly opened layer contains samples of material culture dating back to 10-8 millennia B.C. of the New Stone Age," said Gasparyan and informed that a group of international experts will be created to excavate the cave.
