Archaeologists Continue to Investigate Europe's Oldest Lakefront Settlement

News July 21, 2025

Aerial view of Lake Ohrid, Albania
Nikolas Linke
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LIN, ALBANIA—Studies have shown that Lake Ohrid, on the Albanian and North Macedonian border, is over one million years old, making it the oldest lake in Europe. It seems only fitting, then, that it would also be the site of the oldest lakefront village on the continent. Reuters reports that Swiss and Albanian archaeologists have continued to investigate a prehistoric village submerged around 10 feet below the surface of the water near Lin, Albania. Radiocarbon dating of wooden pylons that supported houses and other structures indicates the settlement was home to several hundred people between 6,000 and 8,000 years ago. The team is also collecting artifacts, preserved organic plant material, and bones of wild and domesticated animals, all of which are providing new information about the inhabitants’ lifestyle and diet. The evidence shows that while the villagers still relied on hunting and gathering, they were supplementing their diet with new forms of farming and may have been instrumental in helping to spread agriculture and livestock to other parts of Europe. “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,” said Albanian archaeologist Adrian Anastasi. To read about another lakefront site in the area that was settled by at least 7,200 years ago, go to "Off the Grid: Great Prespa Lake Islands, North Macedonia and Albania."


 

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