WEBVTT 00:00:21.154 --> 00:00:27.288 I'm very excited to be here, proud to be speaking at TEDxYerevan today. 00:00:28.828 --> 00:00:32.296 My topic today is archaeological tourism, 00:00:32.296 --> 00:00:36.676 which I think has tremendous potential, tremendous potential for Armenia. 00:00:38.535 --> 00:00:41.656 Now don't guess what this picture is, don't think about this picture. 00:00:41.656 --> 00:00:42.990 (Laughter) 00:00:42.990 --> 00:00:45.303 It is not hamburger meat, 00:00:45.303 --> 00:00:48.697 it is nothing worse than hamburger meat, I assure you that. 00:00:48.697 --> 00:00:51.307 More about this picture in a minute. 00:00:51.307 --> 00:00:53.507 What I want to start with is a question, 00:00:53.507 --> 00:00:57.045 to set the concepts for my presentation today. 00:00:57.045 --> 00:01:00.769 The question is this, how long do you think, 00:01:00.769 --> 00:01:05.752 how many years do you think, soft tissue, tissue from a body, 00:01:05.752 --> 00:01:10.401 can last in an archaeological setting in a cave. 00:01:10.401 --> 00:01:12.540 How many years? 00:01:12.850 --> 00:01:15.556 My friend Boris Gasparyan, 00:01:15.556 --> 00:01:18.876 who runs the archaeological institute here, he's here today, 00:01:18.876 --> 00:01:24.019 tells me that soft tissue normally can last about 500-600 years 00:01:24.019 --> 00:01:28.058 in an archaeological setting. 00:01:28.058 --> 00:01:30.920 So you can imagine his surprise 00:01:30.920 --> 00:01:35.486 when Boris and his team open up a skull, 00:01:35.486 --> 00:01:40.343 that they found at an archaeological site here in Armenia, 00:01:40.343 --> 00:01:47.136 and out drops brain tissue. Brain tissue from a skull 00:01:47.136 --> 00:01:51.959 that Boris and his team found in the Areni Cave in Vayots Dzor Marz 00:01:51.959 --> 00:01:54.402 here in Armenia. 00:01:54.402 --> 00:02:01.605 And they found this skull on the six thousand year level. 00:02:01.605 --> 00:02:05.809 So what does that mean? That means that this brain tissue 00:02:05.809 --> 00:02:11.615 that normally would only last about 500, 600 years in such a setting, 00:02:11.615 --> 00:02:18.440 somehow lasted six thousand years in the Areni cave. 00:02:18.440 --> 00:02:21.650 There’s something really unique happening here in Armenia, 00:02:21.650 --> 00:02:24.147 and the Armenian people need to know about it; 00:02:24.147 --> 00:02:28.266 the world needs to know about it. 00:02:28.956 --> 00:02:32.959 So how do we, how does our media take better advantage 00:02:32.959 --> 00:02:36.340 of these archaeological sites, and archaeological treasures, 00:02:36.340 --> 00:02:40.189 both in the area of education and research, 00:02:40.189 --> 00:02:44.398 but also in economics and tourism? 00:02:44.608 --> 00:02:47.282 So we have some tourists here, 00:02:47.282 --> 00:02:49.430 standing in the entrance of Areni cave. 00:02:49.430 --> 00:02:54.355 Well, actually a handsome man in the middle is Boris, and not a tourist. 00:02:54.555 --> 00:02:56.555 So we have these tourists standing 00:02:56.555 --> 00:03:00.425 at the entrance to the Areni cave on this dirt path. 00:03:01.255 --> 00:03:04.605 But what do you see in front of that dirt pathway? 00:03:04.605 --> 00:03:07.932 You see various vessels and artifacts, 00:03:07.932 --> 00:03:12.161 that I understand are about 5000 years old, maybe 5500. 00:03:13.742 --> 00:03:17.680 So the danger is that everybody that walks on that pathway 00:03:17.680 --> 00:03:23.645 is going to damage some of these artifacts below. 00:03:23.645 --> 00:03:29.167 One possible solution is to install an elevated walkway 00:03:29.167 --> 00:03:32.993 along the wall behind those tourists, 00:03:32.993 --> 00:03:38.409 and more about that elevated walkway in a minute. 00:03:42.659 --> 00:03:46.688 5500 year old shoe from the Areni Cave 00:03:46.688 --> 00:03:52.334 is currently on exhibit at the History Museum here in Yerevan. 00:03:52.334 --> 00:03:54.811 Now, Nike Shoe Company does not know about this shoe yet, 00:03:54.811 --> 00:03:56.047 (Laughter) 00:03:56.047 --> 00:03:58.087 and I think when Nike finds out about this shoe, 00:03:58.087 --> 00:04:00.411 it’s going to make a great commercial. 00:04:00.411 --> 00:04:01.871 But most Armenians know about this shoe. 00:04:01.871 --> 00:04:07.970 But the shoe is really something much more than a single artifact 00:04:07.970 --> 00:04:14.053 that brings a few hundred more people to the History Museum every year. 00:04:14.053 --> 00:04:16.772 If you go to the source of this shoe, to the Areni Cave, 00:04:16.772 --> 00:04:22.000 you will really see, experience, and feel something really amazing. 00:04:22.821 --> 00:04:24.484 Here’s Dina, I think she’s here today. 00:04:24.484 --> 00:04:28.542 Here’s Dina. Dina’s on the research team here. 00:04:28.542 --> 00:04:31.486 She’s the one, I think it was in 2008, 00:04:31.486 --> 00:04:37.217 who uncovered that shoe in that small pit in the first level of the Areni Cave. 00:04:37.217 --> 00:04:40.845 She uncovered the shoe in 2008, but the cave, the Areni Cave 00:04:40.845 --> 00:04:44.394 has so much more to offer than the shoe, 00:04:44.394 --> 00:04:46.936 and there’s so much in the Areni Cave, 00:04:46.936 --> 00:04:50.442 so much in the cave that hasn’t even been explored yet. 00:04:50.442 --> 00:04:53.881 The potential is really immense. 00:04:54.181 --> 00:04:56.783 In other highlights of the cave, this one’s also pretty well-known. 00:04:56.783 --> 00:05:01.686 This is the 6000 year old wine-making equipment from the cave, 00:05:01.686 --> 00:05:05.275 6000 year old wine vessels. 00:05:05.275 --> 00:05:10.410 And where the white arrow is where the people would stomp on the grapes 00:05:10.410 --> 00:05:13.503 and the juice would run down into that vessel, 00:05:13.503 --> 00:05:15.879 that round vessel in the middle. 00:05:15.879 --> 00:05:17.440 And then the juice would be fermented 00:05:17.440 --> 00:05:21.812 and stored in the vessels along the outside. 00:05:21.812 --> 00:05:23.508 6000 year old equipment. 00:05:23.508 --> 00:05:29.053 That means that these vessels have been there since about 4000 BC. 00:05:29.053 --> 00:05:37.332 4000 BC is 3000 years before ancient Hellenic Greece. 00:05:37.332 --> 00:05:40.731 So that means that in this part of the region, this part of Armenia, 00:05:40.731 --> 00:05:42.917 there was a civilization and culture 00:05:42.917 --> 00:05:48.288 that was sophisticated enough to make wine and to enjoy wine, 00:05:48.288 --> 00:05:54.278 3000 before ancient Hellenic Greece. 00:05:54.278 --> 00:05:57.864 Another wine story from Areni. This is the Zorah wine. 00:05:57.864 --> 00:05:59.988 You probably know Bloomberg recently named 00:05:59.988 --> 00:06:02.956 this Armenian red wine, Zorah wine, 00:06:02.956 --> 00:06:05.488 one of the top ten wines in the world. 00:06:05.488 --> 00:06:12.127 (Applause) 00:06:12.127 --> 00:06:14.640 The vineyard here is in the shadows of the Areni Cave, 00:06:14.640 --> 00:06:18.801 those hills beyond the vineyard is where the Areni Cave is. 00:06:18.801 --> 00:06:25.185 Zorik, the Italian Armenian who runs the vineyard and the winery, 00:06:25.185 --> 00:06:28.856 is committed to making this wine using traditional Armenian methods, 00:06:28.856 --> 00:06:31.367 the grapes and the vessels, the ceramic vessels 00:06:31.367 --> 00:06:34.094 that we saw in the earlier slide. 00:06:34.094 --> 00:06:36.433 Now Zorik is becoming pretty famous now, right? 00:06:36.433 --> 00:06:38.888 He’s got one of the top ten wines in the world. 00:06:38.888 --> 00:06:43.768 So he is often invited now to wine-tasting events all over Europe. 00:06:43.768 --> 00:06:48.064 He goes to these events now, and as soon as these European vintners, 00:06:48.064 --> 00:06:51.633 who've been making wine for generations hear 00:06:51.633 --> 00:06:59.232 that Zorik’s first vintage was in 2010, three years ago, 2010, 00:06:59.232 --> 00:07:05.478 they turn up their nose at this newcomer to the wine-making business. 00:07:05.478 --> 00:07:08.442 Zorik has a response now when he’s teased this way. 00:07:08.442 --> 00:07:13.701 He now says I may be the newest wine-maker in this room today, 00:07:13.701 --> 00:07:21.918 but my next door neighbor in the Areni Cave is the oldest wine-maker in the world. 00:07:21.918 --> 00:07:28.624 (Applause) 00:07:28.624 --> 00:07:30.812 So why don’t more people come here? 00:07:30.812 --> 00:07:33.518 Why aren’t there students, PhD students, 00:07:33.518 --> 00:07:36.582 researchers, and tourists all over this country? 00:07:36.582 --> 00:07:38.920 There’s a lot of reasons, there’s limited access – 00:07:38.920 --> 00:07:42.698 some of these sites are hard to reach, there’s not much promotion going on, 00:07:42.698 --> 00:07:45.122 there’s inadequate resources, there are lots of reasons. 00:07:45.122 --> 00:07:48.794 But one specific reason I want to show with this slide, 00:07:48.794 --> 00:07:51.820 again from the Areni Cave. 00:07:51.082 --> 00:07:53.632 This is also the 6000 year old level. 00:07:53.632 --> 00:07:55.606 I think on the right side of your screen 00:07:55.606 --> 00:07:58.076 you can probably see a couple of vessels 00:07:58.076 --> 00:08:01.339 that are a part of that wine-making equipment. 00:08:01.339 --> 00:08:06.527 But what do you see on the left side of that screen, in that red circle? 00:08:06.527 --> 00:08:13.141 I see a passageway that is totally filled with dirt and rocks. 00:08:13.141 --> 00:08:15.623 There’s no way to know what’s on the other side of that passageway 00:08:15.623 --> 00:08:19.109 because the excavators, the archaeological teams here, 00:08:19.109 --> 00:08:23.744 can’t continue their digging in Areni Cave because they can’t get the dirt out. 00:08:23.744 --> 00:08:25.630 When you dig, you’ve got to do something with the dirt. 00:08:25.630 --> 00:08:29.480 They can't get the dirt out without walking on that pathway 00:08:29.480 --> 00:08:33.475 and damaging those artifacts below. 00:08:33.475 --> 00:08:35.256 I see on the other side of that passageway 00:08:35.256 --> 00:08:37.951 a big cavern with goodness knows what kind of treasures, 00:08:37.951 --> 00:08:41.515 what kind of artifacts there might be on the other end of that pathway. 00:08:41.515 --> 00:08:44.251 But right now we have no way to know 00:08:44.251 --> 00:08:46.977 what’s on the other end of that passageway. 00:08:46.977 --> 00:08:49.561 Armenia needs to fix this, 00:08:49.561 --> 00:08:54.352 and Armenia’s international partners would like to help. 00:08:54.352 --> 00:08:56.831 Here’s Boris again, this is at the institute, 00:08:56.831 --> 00:09:00.008 the Archaeological Institute here in downtown Yerevan. 00:09:00.008 --> 00:09:03.332 And he’s showing off some of the treasures from the Areni Cave. 00:09:03.332 --> 00:09:07.324 In fact, there are hundreds of artifacts and treasures 00:09:07.324 --> 00:09:11.190 that have been excavated from sites all over Armenia, 00:09:11.190 --> 00:09:14.104 that are currently sitting in cardboard boxes and shoe boxes, 00:09:14.104 --> 00:09:17.326 wrapped in tissue paper in warehouses and basements, 00:09:17.326 --> 00:09:20.217 because there’s no place to display these treasures. 00:09:20.217 --> 00:09:21.889 There’s no place to do research on them, 00:09:21.889 --> 00:09:24.224 there’s no place to display them in institutes 00:09:24.224 --> 00:09:27.299 and small buildings in downtown Yerevan. 00:09:27.299 --> 00:09:30.006 So here’s Boris, he’s showing off this textile. 00:09:30.006 --> 00:09:36.704 This is a 6000 year old textile from the Areni Cave. 00:09:36.704 --> 00:09:41.884 It has no business being around so long, six thousand years. 00:09:41.884 --> 00:09:43.610 So he’s describing to his visitors -- 00:09:43.610 --> 00:09:46.664 he’s had some visitors from the Smithsonian Institution 00:09:46.664 --> 00:09:49.420 in Washington, D.C. and Carnegie Corporation in New York, 00:09:49.420 --> 00:09:51.719 some really important potential international partners, 00:09:51.719 --> 00:09:55.739 they are very interested in what the institute is doing. 00:09:55.739 --> 00:09:58.490 So he describes the preserving capabilities of the cave. 00:09:58.490 --> 00:10:10.517 He says the secret is a unique combination of temperature, humidity, and dung. 00:10:10.517 --> 00:10:14.098 Dung, yes, cow and goat dung, 00:10:14.098 --> 00:10:18.893 which apparently has remarkable preservative properties. 00:10:18.893 --> 00:10:22.084 My wife Libby is trying to get Boris to bottle up some of that dung 00:10:22.084 --> 00:10:23.424 (Laughter) 00:10:23.424 --> 00:10:24.674 into a commercial face cream. 00:10:24.674 --> 00:10:26.450 (Laughter) 00:10:26.450 --> 00:10:28.097 We’ll see how that sells, Boris, we’ll see how that sells. 00:10:28.097 --> 00:10:31.544 (Laughter) 00:10:33.694 --> 00:10:37.308 Areni Cave is not alone, there are many sites all over Armenia. 00:10:37.308 --> 00:10:39.446 This is a place called Kakavadzor, 00:10:39.446 --> 00:10:43.244 it’s a newly discovered site, it’s on the road to Gyumri. 00:10:43.244 --> 00:10:45.682 A magnificent open site, it’s a promontory, 00:10:45.682 --> 00:10:47.531 I hope you can see on the picture 00:10:47.531 --> 00:10:50.901 there are magnificent gorges on both sides. 00:10:50.901 --> 00:10:53.692 And the promontory points directly at Mountain Ararat 00:10:53.692 --> 00:10:56.003 a magnificent, a magnificent sight. 00:10:56.003 --> 00:11:01.084 And the promontory is full of dozens of altars 00:11:01.084 --> 00:11:06.896 and different kinds of carved-out beds you can see here. 00:11:06.896 --> 00:11:09.861 Sacrifices, rituals, goodness knows what these were used for 00:11:09.861 --> 00:11:13.001 because this site has not been excavated at all. 00:11:13.001 --> 00:11:14.908 And look at the picture on the right. 00:11:14.908 --> 00:11:20.247 The picture on the right are two magnificent snake petroglyphs 00:11:20.247 --> 00:11:23.671 on flat stone in somebody’s driveway. 00:11:23.671 --> 00:11:27.125 There’s a house at the entrance to this promontory 00:11:27.125 --> 00:11:29.621 and these petroglyphs are sitting right on the ground, 00:11:29.621 --> 00:11:31.323 I guess this guy drives through these things 00:11:31.323 --> 00:11:32.926 on his way to work every day. 00:11:32.926 --> 00:11:37.447 Where else but Armenia would you have two snake petroglyphs, 00:11:37.447 --> 00:11:39.967 from, I don’t know, 5500 years old, 00:11:39.967 --> 00:11:43.248 that’s what this site is, in somebody’s driveway. 00:11:43.248 --> 00:11:44.933 It’s really quite, quite amazing. 00:11:44.933 --> 00:11:47.820 So, Kakavadzor, newly discovered site, 00:11:47.820 --> 00:11:51.342 5500 years old, no excavations yet. 00:11:51.342 --> 00:11:55.938 University students, PhD students, universities, all over the world 00:11:55.938 --> 00:11:58.470 would salivate to have a chance to work with the team 00:11:58.470 --> 00:12:02.703 from the institute to excavate this site. 00:12:02.703 --> 00:12:06.152 What can we do to make this happen, how can we make this happen? 00:12:06.152 --> 00:12:09.084 Wait, hold on, there’s more. 00:12:09.084 --> 00:12:13.260 I hope you can see this picture. This site is in Armavir Marz. 00:12:13.260 --> 00:12:17.815 Some of us recently visited this site, it’s from Google Earth, 00:12:17.815 --> 00:12:19.779 the picture is from thousands of feet up, 00:12:19.779 --> 00:12:22.537 I don’t know how far away the camera is. 00:12:22.537 --> 00:12:25.235 So you can tell this is a huge structure, 00:12:25.235 --> 00:12:31.051 a tremendous structure, stone structure. 4500 years old or so. 00:12:31.051 --> 00:12:34.321 It’s used for hunting, or was used for hunting. 00:12:34.321 --> 00:12:40.897 You can maybe see on the right side of your screen an opening 00:12:40.897 --> 00:12:46.473 which is where the people would entice or drive the animals into that opening. 00:12:46.473 --> 00:12:52.132 The animals would instinctively run along the inside of that stone wall 00:12:52.132 --> 00:12:57.928 and at this point on the left side of your screen there’s a big pit. 00:12:57.928 --> 00:13:01.017 Animals fall into the pit, whalla, dinner. 00:13:01.017 --> 00:13:04.199 This is a hunting structure from 4500 years old 00:13:04.199 --> 00:13:07.291 on a hillside in Armavir Marz. 00:13:07.291 --> 00:13:10.563 There are also petroglyphs all over. 00:13:10.563 --> 00:13:13.761 As exciting as this site is to see, 00:13:13.761 --> 00:13:15.640 there’s something even more exciting about it. 00:13:15.640 --> 00:13:22.205 This site and the analysis of this site is changing the way, 00:13:22.205 --> 00:13:26.972 changing the conversation among anthropologists and archaeologists 00:13:26.972 --> 00:13:31.272 about the origin of human communities. It’s a pretty big deal. 00:13:31.272 --> 00:13:34.184 Why did people come together into communities or villages, 00:13:34.184 --> 00:13:37.105 why did they start working together? 00:13:37.105 --> 00:13:40.460 The traditional thought is maybe it was the introduction of agriculture. 00:13:40.460 --> 00:13:46.584 It caused hunters and gatherers to come together into a village. 00:13:46.584 --> 00:13:47.933 But this demonstration, 00:13:47.933 --> 00:13:51.536 this was before the introduction of agriculture in this region, 00:13:51.536 --> 00:13:55.178 this demonstrates that people worked together on communal projects 00:13:55.178 --> 00:13:57.613 in communities of one sort or another, 00:13:57.613 --> 00:14:02.291 before the introduction of agriculture is changing, potentially changing, 00:14:02.291 --> 00:14:03.876 a revolutionary idea, changing the way 00:14:03.876 --> 00:14:07.622 anthropologists are looking at this really important point. 00:14:07.622 --> 00:14:15.001 And this site is right in our backyard. in Armavir Marz. 00:14:15.001 --> 00:14:19.267 There are many other sites, there’s Ukhtasar mountain, 00:14:19.267 --> 00:14:22.113 there’s Sisian, magnificent petroglyphs all over, 00:14:22.113 --> 00:14:25.024 just to demonstrate again that the potential is enormous. 00:14:25.024 --> 00:14:26.455 There are sites all over Armenia, 00:14:26.455 --> 00:14:28.866 a dozen or so that are being worked on now, 00:14:28.866 --> 00:14:31.436 many more than that not being worked on. 00:14:31.436 --> 00:14:35.485 The potential is really enormous. 00:14:36.055 --> 00:14:39.287 So here’s my challenge, the challenge is the Embassy, 00:14:39.287 --> 00:14:44.068 we’ve just now received from Washington about $50,000 00:14:44.068 --> 00:14:47.740 to begin work on Areni Cave, working with the Institute. 00:14:47.740 --> 00:14:50.183 We’re going to put a perimeter fence, 00:14:50.183 --> 00:14:52.836 protective fence, around the outside of the cave, 00:14:52.836 --> 00:14:56.855 we’re going to begin to install that elevated walkway 00:14:56.855 --> 00:14:59.331 that we talked about on that earlier slide. 00:14:59.436 --> 00:15:03.617 Hopefully it will improve access to the cave, 00:15:03.617 --> 00:15:06.788 and that’s a start. 00:15:06.798 --> 00:15:12.751 (Applause) 00:15:12.751 --> 00:15:15.619 Get more tourists in to appreciate the sites and the cave, 00:15:15.619 --> 00:15:18.946 maybe bring more resources to the institute, 00:15:18.946 --> 00:15:21.905 and allow the resumption of the excavation, 00:15:21.905 --> 00:15:26.647 so we can get the dirt out and see what’s on the other end of that passageway. 00:15:26.647 --> 00:15:29.150 So it’s a start. 00:15:29.150 --> 00:15:32.118 There’s another important partner that’s been working with the Institute, 00:15:32.118 --> 00:15:34.406 Michael Gfoeller, who’s here today with us, 00:15:34.406 --> 00:15:36.279 a retired US Ambassador, 00:15:36.279 --> 00:15:37.583 he was the Deputy Ambassador. 00:15:37.583 --> 00:15:42.205 (Applause) 00:15:42.205 --> 00:15:45.685 He was number two here at the US Embassy back in the late 1990s, 00:15:45.685 --> 00:15:49.375 and since he left Armenia, he and his brother Joe 00:15:49.375 --> 00:15:53.373 have been raising funds for archaeological digs 00:15:53.373 --> 00:15:56.101 in the Republic of Armenia. 00:15:56.101 --> 00:16:01.579 (Applause) 00:16:01.579 --> 00:16:04.026 But they really have been virtually alone in this effort. 00:16:04.026 --> 00:16:07.303 There really is nobody else, who has been working insistently 00:16:07.303 --> 00:16:13.805 to support and work with the Institute and Boris and his team on his digs. 00:16:13.805 --> 00:16:15.822 Other countries about the size of Armenia, 00:16:15.822 --> 00:16:19.810 Israel and Cyprus, even little Malta, 00:16:19.810 --> 00:16:22.089 have done some pretty good work 00:16:22.089 --> 00:16:24.921 to excavate their sites and conserve their sites 00:16:24.921 --> 00:16:27.524 and promote their sites for education and tourism. 00:16:27.524 --> 00:16:33.830 Why not Armenia? Why not Armenia? 00:16:34.400 --> 00:16:37.722 So how can we help? 00:16:37.722 --> 00:16:39.556 The Institute is working with traditional partners, 00:16:39.556 --> 00:16:41.844 with Embassies and international organizations 00:16:41.844 --> 00:16:44.132 and foundations and universities. 00:16:44.132 --> 00:16:46.420 And again, making a bit of a start, 00:16:46.420 --> 00:16:48.785 doing some important good work. 00:16:48.785 --> 00:16:53.700 But there are lots of platforms out there, new creative platforms, 00:16:53.700 --> 00:16:56.137 where individuals can contribute to efforts like this. 00:16:56.137 --> 00:16:57.970 In fact, Armenia doesn’t make very good use 00:16:57.970 --> 00:16:59.803 of any of these platforms right now. 00:16:59.803 --> 00:17:01.638 There’s huge potential for Armenia. 00:17:01.638 --> 00:17:06.118 Crowdfunding, crowdsourcing, microloans, social entrepreneurship, 00:17:06.118 --> 00:17:09.640 huge potential including in this area of archaeology. 00:17:09.640 --> 00:17:12.685 And there’s one site that I gather is about to do a campaign, 00:17:12.685 --> 00:17:17.298 hopefully pretty soon, in archaeology, a crowdfunding platform. 00:17:17.298 --> 00:17:19.146 So my plea to you today, 00:17:19.146 --> 00:17:21.957 I hope that everybody today will be leaving Tumo Center, 00:17:21.957 --> 00:17:25.185 they will all be committed to doing what we can 00:17:25.185 --> 00:17:26.800 through our organizations, 00:17:26.800 --> 00:17:30.461 or individually, through one of these crowdfunding sites, 00:17:30.461 --> 00:17:33.983 to bring these archaeological treasures to light 00:17:33.983 --> 00:17:38.587 and to show off Armenia as an archaeological treasure. 00:17:38.587 --> 00:17:42.544 Armenia is starting to do some good work in promoting its religious sites, 00:17:42.544 --> 00:17:45.154 its historic sites, its cultural sites. 00:17:45.154 --> 00:17:48.973 Why not the archaeological sites? 00:17:48.973 --> 00:17:52.101 So again, I hope when we leave here 00:17:52.101 --> 00:17:54.739 we do more than just imagine all the great stuff 00:17:54.739 --> 00:17:56.206 that you can see at the Areni Cave. 00:17:56.206 --> 00:18:00.388 I hope we can go out and we see it ourselves. 00:18:00.388 --> 00:18:02.124 And I hope even more importantly 00:18:02.124 --> 00:18:04.019 that we bring that story to the world. 00:18:04.019 --> 00:18:05.237 Thank you very much. 00:18:05.237 --> 00:18:09.237 (Applause)