In 2007, an Armenian-Irish team decided to do test excavations in the cave site of Areni 1. Two test trenches in the front and rear galleries revealed
Chalcolithic Age and
Early Bronze Age layers dating back to 5000–4000 BCE. Excavations during 2007–2008 uncovered 3 pot burials in the rear chamber of the cave. Each pot contained a
Copper Age human skull with no associated grave goods. All skulls belong to subadults of 9–16 years of age. These are currently being analyzed by the team's biological anthropologist. Remarkably, one skull contained a piece of a well-preserved brain tissue. This is the oldest known human brain from the
Old World. The cave has also offered surprising new insights into the origins of modern civilizations, such as evidence of a wine-making enterprise and an array of culturally diverse pottery. Excavations also yielded an extensive array of Copper Age artifacts dating to between 4,200 and 3,900 BCE. The new discoveries within the cave move early bronze-age cultural activity in Armenia back by about 800 years. Additional discoveries at the site include metal knives, seeds from more than 30 types of fruit, remains of dozens of cereal species, rope, cloth, straw, grass, reeds and dried grapes and prunes. In January 2011 archaeologists announced the discovery of the earliest known winery, the
Areni-1 winery, seven months after the world's oldest leather shoe, the
Areni-1 shoe, was discovered in the same cave. The winery, which is over six-thousand years old, contains a wine press, fermentation vats, jars, and cups. Archaeologists also found grape seeds and vines of the species
Vitis vinifera. Patrick McGovern, a biomolecular anthropologist at the
University of Pennsylvania, commenting on the importance of the find, said, "The fact that winemaking was already so well-developed in 4000 BC suggests that the technology probably goes back much earlier." == Demographics ==