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I'm very excited to be here,
proud to be speaking at TEDxYerevan today.

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My topic today is archaeological tourism,

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which I think has tremendous potential,
tremendous potential for Armenia.

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Now don't guess what this picture is, 
don't think about this picture.

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(Laughter)

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It is not hamburger meat,

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it is nothing worse than hamburger meat, 
I assure you that.

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More about this picture in a minute.

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What I want to start with is a question,

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to set the concepts 
for my presentation today.

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The question is this,
how long do you think,

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how many years do you think, 
soft tissue, tissue from a body,

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can last in an archaeological setting 
in a cave.

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How many years?

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My friend Boris Gasparyan,

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who runs the archaeological institute 
here, he's here today,

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tells me that soft tissue normally
can last about 500-600 years

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in an archaeological setting.

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So you can imagine his surprise

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when Boris and his team open up a skull,

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that they found at an archaeological site 
here in Armenia,

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and out drops brain tissue. 
Brain tissue from a skull

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that Boris and his team found 
in the Areni Cave in Vayots Dzor Marz

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here in Armenia.

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And they found this skull 
on the six thousand year level.

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So what does that mean? 
That means that this brain tissue

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that normally would only last about 
500, 600 years in such a setting,

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somehow lasted six thousand years 
in the Areni cave.

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There’s something really unique 
happening here in Armenia,

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and the Armenian people 
need to know about it;

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the world needs to know about it.

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So how do we, how does our media 
take better advantage

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of these archaeological sites, 
and archaeological treasures,

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both in the area 
of education and research,

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but also in economics and tourism?

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So we have some tourists here,

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standing in the entrance of Areni cave.

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Well, actually a handsome man 
in the middle is Boris, and not a tourist.

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So we have these tourists standing

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at the entrance to the Areni cave 
on this dirt path.

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But what do you see 
in front of that dirt pathway?

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You see various vessels and artifacts,

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that I understand are about 
5000 years old, maybe 5500.

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So the danger is that everybody 
that walks on that pathway

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is going to damage 
some of these artifacts below.

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One possible solution is 
to install an elevated walkway

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along the wall behind those tourists,

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and more about that elevated walkway 
in a minute.

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5500 year old shoe from the Areni Cave

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is currently on exhibit
at the History Museum here in Yerevan.

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Now, Nike Shoe Company 
does not know about this shoe yet,

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(Laughter)

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and I think when Nike finds out 
about this shoe,

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it’s going to make a great commercial.

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But most Armenians 
know about this shoe.

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But the shoe is really something 
much more than a single artifact

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that brings a few hundred more people 
to the History Museum every year.

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If you go to the source of this shoe,
to the Areni Cave,

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you will really see, experience, 
and feel something really amazing.

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Here’s Dina, I think she’s here today.

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Here’s Dina. 
Dina’s on the research team here.

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She’s the one, I think it was in 2008,

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who uncovered that shoe in that small pit 
in the first level of the Areni Cave.

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She uncovered the shoe in 2008, 
but the cave, the Areni Cave

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has so much more to offer than the shoe,

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and there’s so much in the Areni Cave,

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so much in the cave that 
hasn’t even been explored yet.

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The potential is really immense.

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In other highlights of the cave, 
this one’s also pretty well-known.

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This is the 6000 year old 
wine-making equipment from the cave,

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6000 year old wine vessels.

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And where the white arrow is where 
the people would stomp on the grapes

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and the juice would run down
into that vessel,

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that round vessel in the middle.

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And then the juice would be fermented

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and stored in the vessels 
along the outside.

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6000 year old equipment.

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That means that these vessels 
have been there since about 4000 BC.

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4000 BC is 3000 years 
before ancient Hellenic Greece.

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So that means that in this part 
of the region, this part of Armenia,

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there was a civilization and culture

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that was sophisticated enough
to make wine and to enjoy wine,

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3000 before ancient Hellenic Greece.

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Another wine story from Areni.
This is the Zorah wine.

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You probably know 
Bloomberg recently named

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this Armenian red wine, Zorah wine,

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one of the top ten wines in the world.

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(Applause)

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The vineyard here is 
in the shadows of the Areni Cave,

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those hills beyond the vineyard
is where the Areni Cave is.

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Zorik, the Italian Armenian 
who runs the vineyard and the winery,

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is committed to making this wine 
using traditional Armenian methods,

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the grapes and the vessels, 
the ceramic vessels

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that we saw in the earlier slide.

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Now Zorik is becoming 
pretty famous now, right?

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He’s got one of the top ten wines 
in the world.

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So he is often invited now 
to wine-tasting events all over Europe.

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He goes to these events now, and 
as soon as these European vintners,

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who've been making wine 
for generations hear

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that Zorik’s first vintage was in 2010,
three years ago, 2010,

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they turn up their nose at this newcomer 
to the wine-making business.

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Zorik has a response now
when he’s teased this way.

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He now says I may be the newest 
wine-maker in this room today,

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but my next door neighbor in the Areni Cave 
is the oldest wine-maker in the world.

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(Applause)

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So why don’t more people come here?

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Why aren’t there students, PhD students,

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researchers, and tourists
all over this country?

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There’s a lot of reasons, 
there’s limited access –

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some of these sites are hard to reach, 
there’s not much promotion going on,

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there’s inadequate resources, 
there are lots of reasons.

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But one specific reason I want 
to show with this slide,

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again from the Areni Cave.

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This is also the 6000 year old level.

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I think on the right side of your screen

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you can probably see a couple of vessels

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that are a part of that 
wine-making equipment.

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But what do you see on the left side 
of that screen, in that red circle?

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I see a passageway that is 
totally filled with dirt and rocks.

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There’s no way to know what’s 
on the other side of that passageway

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because the excavators, 
the archaeological teams here,

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can’t continue their digging in Areni Cave 
because they can’t get the dirt out.

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When you dig, 
you’ve got to do something with the dirt.

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They can't get the dirt out
without walking on that pathway

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and damaging those artifacts below.

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I see on the other side of that passageway

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a big cavern with goodness knows
what kind of treasures,

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what kind of artifacts there might be 
on the other end of that pathway.

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But right now we have no way to know

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what’s on the other end 
of that passageway.

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Armenia needs to fix this,

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and Armenia’s international partners
would like to help.

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Here’s Boris again, 
this is at the institute,

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the Archaeological Institute
here in downtown Yerevan.

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And he’s showing off some 
of the treasures from the Areni Cave.

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In fact, there are hundreds
of artifacts and treasures

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that have been excavated
from sites all over Armenia,

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that are currently sitting
in cardboard boxes and shoe boxes,

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wrapped in tissue paper
in warehouses and basements,

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because there’s no place
to display these treasures.

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There’s no place to do research on them,

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there’s no place to display
them in institutes

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and small buildings in downtown Yerevan.

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So here’s Boris,
he’s showing off this textile.

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This is a 6000 year old textile
from the Areni Cave.

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It has no business being around 
so long, six thousand years.

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So he’s describing to his visitors --

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he’s had some visitors
from the Smithsonian Institution

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in Washington, D.C. and 
Carnegie Corporation in New York,

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some really important
potential international partners,

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they are very interested
in what the institute is doing.

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So he describes
the preserving capabilities of the cave.

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He says the secret is a unique combination
of temperature, humidity, and dung.

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Dung, yes, cow and goat dung,

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which apparently has remarkable 
preservative properties.

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My wife Libby is trying to get Boris 
to bottle up some of that dung

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(Laughter)

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into a commercial face cream.

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(Laughter)

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We’ll see how that sells, 
Boris, we’ll see how that sells.

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(Laughter)

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Areni Cave is not alone,
there are many sites all over Armenia.

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This is a place called Kakavadzor,

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it’s a newly discovered site, 
it’s on the road to Gyumri.

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A magnificent open site,
it’s a promontory,

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I hope you can see on the picture

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there are magnificent gorges
on both sides.

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And the promontory points directly
at Mountain Ararat

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a magnificent, a magnificent sight.

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And the promontory 
is full of dozens of altars

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and different kinds of carved-out beds
you can see here.

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Sacrifices, rituals, goodness knows 
what these were used for

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because this site
has not been excavated at all.

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And look at the picture on the right.

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The picture on the right 
are two magnificent snake petroglyphs

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on flat stone in somebody’s driveway.

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There’s a house at the entrance
to this promontory

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and these petroglyphs 
are sitting right on the ground,

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I guess this guy drives 
through these things

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on his way to work every day.

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Where else but Armenia would you have 
two snake petroglyphs,

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from, I don’t know,
5500 years old,

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that’s what this site is,
in somebody’s driveway.

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It’s really quite, quite amazing.

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So, Kakavadzor, newly discovered site,

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5500 years old, 
no excavations yet.

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University students, PhD students, 
universities, all over the world

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would salivate to have a chance
to work with the team

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from the institute to excavate this site.

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What can we do to make this happen, 
how can we make this happen?

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Wait, hold on, there’s more.

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I hope you can see this picture. 
This site is in Armavir Marz.

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Some of us recently visited this site, 
it’s from Google Earth,

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the picture is from thousands of feet up,

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I don’t know how far away the camera is.

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So you can tell this is a huge structure,

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a tremendous structure, stone structure. 
4500 years old or so.

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It’s used for hunting,
or was used for hunting.

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You can maybe see on the right side 
of your screen an opening

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which is where the people would entice
or drive the animals into that opening.

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The animals would instinctively 
run along the inside of that stone wall

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and at this point on the left side 
of your screen there’s a big pit.

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Animals fall into the pit, whalla, dinner.

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This is a hunting structure
from 4500 years old

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on a hillside in Armavir Marz.

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There are also petroglyphs all over.

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As exciting as this site is to see,

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there’s something
even more exciting about it.

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This site and the analysis of this site
is changing the way,

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changing the conversation among
anthropologists and archaeologists

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about the origin of human communities. 
It’s a pretty big deal.

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Why did people come together
into communities or villages,

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why did they start working together?

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The traditional thought is maybe 
it was the introduction of agriculture.

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It caused hunters and gatherers
to come together into a village.

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But this demonstration,

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this was before the introduction 
of agriculture in this region,

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this demonstrates that people worked 
together on communal projects

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in communities of one sort or another,

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before the introduction of agriculture 
is changing, potentially changing,

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a revolutionary idea, 
changing the way

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anthropologists are looking 
at this really important point.

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And this site is right in our backyard.
in Armavir Marz.

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There are many other sites, 
there’s Ukhtasar mountain,

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there’s Sisian,
magnificent petroglyphs all over,

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just to demonstrate again 
that the potential is enormous.

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There are sites all over Armenia,

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a dozen or so 
that are being worked on now,

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many more than that 
not being worked on.

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The potential is really enormous.

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So here’s my challenge,
the challenge is the Embassy,

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we’ve just now received 
from Washington about $50,000

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to begin work on Areni Cave,
working with the Institute.

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We’re going to put a perimeter fence,

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protective fence,
around the outside of the cave,

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we’re going to begin to install
that elevated walkway

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that we talked about on that earlier slide.

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Hopefully it will improve access
to the cave,

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and that’s a start.

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(Applause)

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Get more tourists in to appreciate
the sites and the cave,

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maybe bring more resources
to the institute,

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and allow the resumption 
of the excavation,

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so we can get the dirt out and see what’s 
on the other end of that passageway.

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So it’s a start.

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There’s another important partner 
that’s been working with the Institute,

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Michael Gfoeller, 
who’s here today with us,

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a retired US Ambassador,

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he was the Deputy Ambassador.

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(Applause)

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He was number two here at the US Embassy
back in the late 1990s,

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and since he left Armenia,
he and his brother Joe

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have been raising funds
for archaeological digs

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in the Republic of Armenia.

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(Applause)

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But they really have been 
virtually alone in this effort.

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There really is nobody else, 
who has been working insistently

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to support and work with the Institute 
and Boris and his team on his digs.

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Other countries about the size of Armenia,

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Israel and Cyprus, even little Malta,

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have done some pretty good work

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to excavate their sites 
and conserve their sites

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00:16:24,921 --> 00:16:27,524
and promote their sites
for education and tourism.

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Why not Armenia? Why not Armenia?

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So how can we help?

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The Institute is working
with traditional partners,

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00:16:39,556 --> 00:16:41,844
with Embassies and
international organizations

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00:16:41,844 --> 00:16:44,132
and foundations and universities.

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And again, making a bit of a start,

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doing some important good work.

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But there are lots of platforms out there,
new creative platforms,

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where individuals can contribute 
to efforts like this.

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In fact, Armenia doesn’t make 
very good use

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of any of these platforms right now.

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There’s huge potential for Armenia.

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Crowdfunding, crowdsourcing, 
microloans, social entrepreneurship,

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huge potential including 
in this area of archaeology.

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And there’s one site that I gather 
is about to do a campaign,

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hopefully pretty soon, in archaeology, 
a crowdfunding platform.

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So my plea to you today,

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I hope that everybody today
will be leaving Tumo Center,

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they will all be committed 
to doing what we can

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through our organizations,

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00:17:26,800 --> 00:17:30,461
or individually, through one 
of these crowdfunding sites,

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to bring these archaeological 
treasures to light

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00:17:33,983 --> 00:17:38,587
and to show off Armenia 
as an archaeological treasure.

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00:17:38,587 --> 00:17:42,544
Armenia is starting to do some good work 
in promoting its religious sites,

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its historic sites, its cultural sites.

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Why not the archaeological sites?

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So again, I hope when we leave here

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we do more than just imagine 
all the great stuff

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that you can see at the Areni Cave.

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I hope we can go out and 
we see it ourselves.

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And I hope even more importantly

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that we bring that story to the world.

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Thank you very much.

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(Applause)