For several years, Swiss and Albanian archaeologists have excavated a site called Lin (Albania), which appears to be the oldest lake settlement in Europe. Eight millennia ago, several hundred people built houses on stilts at Lake Ohrid in the Balkans, and the settlement may have been fortified.

Analysis carried out after the discovery of the bottom of Lake Ohrid in Albania shows that people 7800-7900 years ago had houses on stilts in this area. According to rough estimates, the settlement numbered approximately 200-500 people and could be the oldest lake settlement in Europe.

Over the past two years, many wooden fragments almost eight thousand years old, fragments of pillars and fences of the settlement on the shore of the lake have been discovered.

It is not known why the people of that time decided to build lake dwellings, but of course it was very difficult with ancient means. It seems that the settlement was also fortified, and perhaps for this purpose people cut down the nearby forest eight thousand years ago.

Settlements in Albania are several hundreds of years older than the earliest investigated lake settlements in the Mediterranean and Alpine regions (especially in Italy).

The site in Albania is being explored by Albanian and Swiss archaeologists, and trips to the bottom of the lake are very difficult and risky. For example, since underwater excavations raise sand to the bottom of the lake and nothing can be seen, it is necessary to create an artificial underwater current with the help of pipes through which compressed air circulates.

Fragments of oak, grain, plants, as well as fragments of bones of domestic and wild animals were found.

After a two-hour dive, the Albanian archaeologist discovered fragments of ceramics, as well as flint tools. The findings are being studied in the laboratories of Bern (Switzerland).

Sources: AFP, Euronews