Under one of the oldest lakes in the world, scientists may have discovered one of Europe’s earliest sedentary village hidden behind a protective spike fortification.
According to Albert Hafner, an archaeology professor from the University of Bern in Switzerland, the discovery beneath Lake Ohrid in the Albanian village of Lin confirms that lakeshore settlements in the area, which spans the mountainous border of North Macedonia, are much older than archaeologists had anticipated.
Lin is the oldest lakeside village that has been found so far, and is even older than comparable ones found in southern Italy and throughout Europe, according to the findings made by Swiss and Albanian archaeologists with the aid of professional divers. Lin served as a hub for the development of agriculture, craftsmanship, and fishing around 8,500 years ago.
The earliest known communities in the Mediterranean and Alpine areas were several hundred years younger before the discovery made. The new radiocarbon date suggests that one of the oldest settlements of stilt dwellings in Europe occurred between 6000 and 5800 BC.
“Archaeological sites in lakes of the southern Balkans (Greece, Albania and North Macedonia) provide an excellent opportunity to investigate rich archives of societal and environmental change in the cradle of European farming. Natural lake sediments and submerged prehistoric settlements offer exceptional preservation conditions and uniquely holistic insights into past anthroposphere, biosphere and geosphere dynamics.” EXPLO project‘s website notifies.
Albanian archaeologist Adrian Anastasi told that “building their village on stilts was a complex task, very complicated, very difficult, and it’s important to understand why these people made this choice.”
While excavating numerous seeds, plants, and the bones of wild and domesticated animals at the site for the last four years, archaeologists suddenly found into a fresh puzzle to attempt and solve. Archaeologists don’t know why the people needed to build defensive barricades out of thousands of spiked boards, despite the fact that the presence of palisades implies that the hamlet was fortified.
According to AFP, Hafner described the find as “a real treasure trove for research,” with researchers estimating that over 100,000 spikes were driven into the lake’s bottom off Lin.
It will take another twenty years for the village to be properly examined and studied and for definitive conclusions to be made, according to archaeologists.
Photo by: USA Today