Headlines
Europe's oldest lake settlement uncovered in Albania
Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on July 17, 2025
2 min readLast updated: January 22, 2026
Global Banking & Finance Review®
Company
Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on July 17, 2025
2 min readLast updated: January 22, 2026
Archaeologists have uncovered Europe's oldest lake settlement in Albania, dating back 8,000 years, revealing insights into early agriculture and community life.
By Fatos Bytyci
LIN, Albania (Reuters) -Archaeologists working on the shores of Ohrid Lake in Albania are convinced they have uncovered the oldest human settlement built on a European lake, finding evidence of an organised hunting and farming community living up to 8,000 years ago.
The team, from Switzerland and Albania, spends hours each day about three metres (9.8 feet) underwater, painstakingly retrieving wooden stilts that supported houses.
The are also collecting bones of domesticated and wild animals, copper objects and ceramics, featuring detailed carvings.
Albert Hafner, from the University of Bern, said similar settlements have been found in Alpine and Mediterranean regions, but the settlements in the village of Lin are half a millennium older, dating back between 6,000 and 8,000 years.
"Because it is under water, the organic material is well-preserved and this allows us to find out what these people have been eating, what they have been planting," Hafner said.
Multiple studies show that Lake Ohrid, shared by North Macedonia and Albania, is the oldest lake in Europe, at over one million years.
The age of the findings is determined through radiocarbon dating and dendrochronology, which measures annual growth rings in trees. More than one thousand wood samples have been collected from the site, which may have hosted several hundred people.
It is believed to cover around six hectares, but so far, only about 1% has been excavated after six years of work.
Hafner said findings show that people who lived on the lake helped to spread agriculture and livestock to other parts of Europe.
"They were still doing hunting and collecting things but the stable income for the nutrition was coming from the agriculture," he said.
Albanian archaeologist Adrian Anastasi said it could take decades to fully explore the area.
"(By) the way they had lived, eaten, hunted, fished and by the way the architecture was used to build their settlement we can say they were very smart for that time," Anastasi said.
(Reporting by Fatos Bytyci; Editing by Daria Sito-Sucic and Sharon Singleton)
Archaeologists have uncovered what they believe to be the oldest human settlement built on a European lake, located on the shores of Ohrid Lake.
The age of the findings is determined through radiocarbon dating and dendrochronology, which measures annual growth rings in trees.
The team has collected wooden stilts, bones of domesticated and wild animals, copper objects, and ceramics with detailed carvings.
The findings indicate that the inhabitants of the lake settlement contributed to the spread of agriculture and livestock to other parts of Europe.
Albanian archaeologist Adrian Anastasi mentioned that it could take decades to fully explore the area, as only about 1% has been excavated so far.
Explore more articles in the Headlines category
