Discovering the World’s Oldest Winery

Sidedoor

Smithsonian Institution

African American History And Culture, Tony Cohn, Natural History, Air And Space, Society & Culture, Art19, Smithsonian, Science, Sidedoor, History Of The World, The Smithsonian, Pop Culture, Zoo, Dc, National Museum, Exhibit, History, National Zoo, American History, Exhibits, Postal Museum, Washington, Museum

4.6 • 2.3K Ratings

🗓️ 27 June 2018

⏱️ 28 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Sidedoor host Tony Cohn gets the opportunity of a lifetime: fly to Armenia and crawl into a deep, dark cave in search of long-lost wine. But we’re not talking just any ol’ cabernet or sauvignon blanc: these 6,000-year-old wine remnants are evidence of the world's oldest winery. In this episode we ask, what can this ancient winery tell us about the earliest days of civilization, and could a thirst for wine be the reason why some ancient humans left behind their nomadic ways and settled down? (Original broadcast date: March 2018)

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey everyone, it's Tony. So we've been busy chasing down some stories all over the world for
0:04.9	Side Door Season 3. But there's also some cool stuff happening just down the street from us.
0:09.8	The Smithsonian Folklife Festival kicks off today, June 27th, on the National Mall here in Washington, D.C.
0:16.6	It's a tradition that's happened since 1967, and this year, part of what they're celebrating is Armenian culture.
0:23.1	So we thought we'd bring the festival to you, Siderstile, with one of our favorite episodes.
0:29.2	It involved me flying to Armenia, crawling into a dark, bat-infested cave, and...
0:34.6	Okay, well, you're about to find out everything else.
0:36.9	Enjoy.
0:47.2	Music and, okay, well, you're about to find out everything else. Enjoy. This is Side Door, a podcast from a Smithsonian with support from PRX.
0:51.3	I'm Tony Cohn.
0:54.7	Thank you. with support from PRX. I'm Tony Cohn. Wow.
1:03.4	So we're walking into the cave now, and it's kind of like the walls are getting narrower and narrower.
1:06.6	Back in the fall, I had the opportunity of a lifetime.
1:10.4	But the ceiling is really, really, really high, and it's dark.
1:14.9	I flew to Armenia with a crew of my colleagues from the Smithsonian Center for Folklife
1:20.0	and Cultural Heritage and Office of International Relations and got to crawl into this cold,
1:25.3	dark cave.
1:26.3	The top ceiling section is kind of green and moldy looking.
1:33.0	I'm with archaeologist Boris Gasparian,
1:35.5	who works at the Armenian National Academy of Sciences.
1:38.5	Would you say it's musty in here?
1:39.7	How would you describe this to the smell?
	...

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