A New Golden Age of Archeology: Recent Discoveries in Armenia

By Michael Gfoeller

This book uses both succinct, informative essays and beautiful, detailed photography to reveal how recent archeological discoveries in the ancient country of Armenia have transformed our understanding of the origins of human civilization and humanity itself. It also tells the story of a heroic team of Armenian archeologists who have singlehandedly created a new golden age of archeology in their country. Their work demonstrates that Armenia has hosted a continuous human presence for at least 2 million years. They have succeeded in documenting the evolution of humanity and human culture across this vast span of time in minute detail. Their discoveries include the oldest known winemaking complex, the recreation of the first wines, the oldest known work of art, the oldest shoe yet discovered, and one of the oldest known religious documents. This book chronicles their achievements in a manner that lets the reader become part of the process of exploration and feel the excitement of discovery.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Academica Press
• Release date: May 1, 2022
• ISBN: 9781680531916

Michael Gfoeller

Michael Gfoeller is an inveterate traveler and self-taught scholar of foreign languages, history, and religious and philosophical traditions. He has been traveling the world continuously since 1979. His ambition is to continue to do so.

Book preview

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The Garden of Eden

Armenia is one of the first and earliest homes of humanity. Archeological and paleontological excavations conducted over the last 25 years have demonstrated that it has hosted a continuous human presence for over 2 million years. Armenia is one of the few places in the world, along with East Africa, where all of the phases of human evolution over this vast period of time can be detected in the geological and archeological record.

Armenia seems to have provided an environment for our earliest ancestors comparable to the Garden of Eden. It possessed all of the qualities and characteristics needed for them to thrive. Among them were ample water resources in the form of pure springs and mountain streams, rivers, ponds, and lakes, including Lake Sevan, one of the largest alpine lakes in the world. Historic Armenia included two other major lakes: Lake Van, now in eastern Turkey, and Lake Urmia, now in northwestern Iran.

Thanks to its temperate climate and water resources, ancient Armenia provided early humans with abundant food supplies, in the form of animals, fresh water fish, fruit-bearing trees, and edible plants. Its pastures, forests, mountains, and valleys abounded in game of all kinds, including wild sheep, cattle, and antelope. Its pristine lakes and streams teemed with life, including trout and crayfish. It produced the earliest forms of such basic staples as wheat and wine grapes. Peach, pear, pomegranate, and apple trees grew wild.

Armenia provided early human populations with rich resources for making the tools needed to exploit and shape their environment. The country still possesses numerous outcroppings of obsidian, natural volcanic glass that is easily shaped into knives, scrapers, and spear and arrow heads of great sharpness. Early humans used obsidian and other forms of stone to create an astonishing variety of tools, from massive choppers used to smash open the bones of prey to extract the marrow from within to tiny obsidian arrow heads of incredible delicacy used to hunt game birds. Over 100,000 years ago, early humans in Armenia adopted strategies that enabled them to hunt successfully the apex predator of their age: the cave bear. This fearsome creature stood 12 feet high when upright. Paradoxically, it was both hunted and worshiped by our distant ancestors.

Thanks to its abundant lakes and streams, ancient Armenia produced numerous forms of grasses and reeds that can easily be formed into textile wares, such as mats, baskets, and cloth. Armenian archeologists have in fact uncovered some of the earliest known textiles, including reed mats used to cover the floors of caves. They have also discovered the oldest known footwear, well preserved Stone Age shoes of remarkably sophisticated design.

Shelter is one of the most fundamental of human needs. In this respect, too, Armenia was generous to early humanity. Its uniquely beautiful landscape abounds in mountains composed of sedimentary and volcanic rock. Such a landscape is highly conducive to the formation of karstic caves, which are created by the action of underground streams and rivers. In addition, grottos appeared as the result of weathering. These ecological niches provided easily available shelter for early humans.

Armenia’s landscape and seasons deeply influenced the spiritual perceptions of our ancestors. They were keen observers of nature, and were naturally fascinated by the cycle of life. They observed closely the procession of the seasons, noting how it corresponded to the movement of the stars and constellations. They saw how the snow accumulated on the mountains as Winter began, and then was transformed into streams of life-giving water in the Spring. They discovered vast caverns containing springs that never ran dry, which they came to believe were sacred. These observations and experiences gave birth to the first religious ideas, deeply attached to the cycle of birth and death and the cycles of the