Areni-1 cave

In 2008, Armenian PhD student and archeologist Diana Zardaryan of the country's Institute of Archaeology discovered the earliest known shoe at the site.

Society is characterized by a diversity of cultural complexes, growing complexity, relations to the Syro-Mesopotamian (Late Ubaid, Uruk) and North Caucasian (Early Maikop) worlds, as well as extractive copper metallurgy.

The Late Chalcolithic traditions in Armenia (Areni-1, Teghut, Nerkin Godedzor), Azerbaijan (Ovçular Tepesi, Mentesh Tepe, Leylatepe) and Georgia (Berikldeebi) share common characteristics and regional contacts to Maikop and Ubaid-Uruk.

These societies are on the way towards growing complexity, a process reflected in the appearance of developed copper based metallurgy (molds, slags, ingots, kilns, pure and arsenic copper), new metal weapons/tools (knife/daggers, spearheads, flat axes), ceramics (potter's wheel, pottery signs), exotic and prestigious objects of gold, silver, and lapis-lazuli, stamp seals and status symbols (scepters), kurgans and jar burials, and rudiments of monumental architecture (cf.

This is all accompanied by the blossoming of long distance trade, essential transfer of knowledge, and the development of centralized hierarchies[1]Three individuals who lived in the Chalcolithic era (c. 5700–6250 years BP), found in the Areni-1 ("Bird's Eye") cave, were identified as belonging to haplogroup L1a.