The discovery in Lin - "Albania, key node of prehistoric Europe"

The Albanian underground is very close to providing full answers to the questions that have plagued prehistoric archeology in Europe for more than a century. The Swiss-Albanian joint venture, the EXPLO project of the University of Bern has recently come out with preliminary conclusions on the findings in the village of Lin, on the edge of Lake Pogradec. The first analyzes indicate agriculture and lake civilization with an antiquity of more than 8 thousand years, making this area the oldest of its kind in Europe. Although traces of palafite settlements in the Albanian territory have also been found in Dunavec and Maliq, recent discoveries in Lin indicate that this type of palafite civilization is older than that in Switzerland and the Alpine area. "I am very happy that Albania has become a key node of this story and I was lucky enough to work there", said Lekë Shala, an archaeologist from Kosovo, who together with her colleague Kaltrina Igrishta were part of the joint project

The southeastern edge of Albania can easily overturn current knowledge about Neolithic settlements in Europe. In the panoramic lakeside background, the village of Lini is the bed of a stilt center that goes back a full 8500 years. At least this is how it has been trumpeted in the media for days.

Through a short posting on his official Facebook page, the Albanian Prime Minister, Edi Rama, has announced that a rare discovery has come to light in Buqeza in Pogradec, near Lin.

"Archaeologists from the University of Bern, in collaboration with Albanian archaeologists, confirm that agriculture, crafts and fishing were developed in this settlement 8 years ago," wrote the head of the Albanian government on Tuesday night. "This new discovery, besides having indisputable historical and archaeological value, will be a new point of reference for tourism."

Hafner: "The oldest settlement of this type in Europe"

The fruit of a four-year systematic research - an enterprise led by experts from the University of Bern in Switzerland together with Albanian colleagues - the new findings on Albanian soil could revolutionize the archaeological knowledge of prehistoric Europe and the beginnings of agriculture.

The leader of these excavations, archaeologist Albert Hafner, in an address to the local media in Albania on Monday, confirmed that the findings surface a settlement that developed agriculture at least two thousand years earlier than analogous settlements in Switzerland.

"We will transfer the knowledge we have acquired in Switzerland here to continue with excavations so that we have more information about the oldest settlement of this type in Europe", he said. According to him, the purpose of the research is to better specify the dates when agriculture began in these parts. "Agriculture was developed here, which spread to Italy and all of Europe", added Hafner, who is a professor of prehistoric archeology at the University of Bern and a member of the "Oeschger Center for Climate Change Research".

"Questions about the future"

Archaeologist Adrian Anastasi, who has been part of these researches, has said that the settlement in Lin turns out to be the oldest in Europe. According to him, the discoveries made from year to year continue to be surprising.

"This type of settlement, which turns out to be the oldest in Europe, also raises new questions that belong to the future as to why these people decided to move from inland settlements to the brook or the lake," said Anastasi.

As early as March of this year, the joint team of researchers had discovered a vessel and fragments of Neolithic material culture. However, the University of Bern has yet to make an official announcement on the latest findings in Lin.

On the official website of this university, the last news from these excavations was made in 2021 with the title "The first farmers of Europe".

From this description it is known that a team of researchers from the University of Bern had concentrated its efforts around Lake Ohrid, the oldest in Europe, which played a key role in the spread of agriculture. As part of the EXPLO project, Swiss archaeologists had first excavated on the other side of the lake, namely at the bay of Ploča Mičov Gradi in the territory of North Macedonia.

"Treasure worthy of UNESCO"

It was precisely these findings that had increased the interest of the Swiss team to continue the research on the Albanian side of the lake. "The settlements on the peaks around the Alps have been declared heritage protected by UNESCO since 2011, while the lake settlements in the southwestern Balkans are no less important", says the announcement of the University of Bern made two years ago. "The region offers a situation comparable to the places around the Alps: remains of prehistoric settlements have been preserved in a number of lakes in today's Albania, northern Greece and North Macedonia. However, with few exceptions, locations in the Balkans have been little studied at all". Thus, from 2019, the EXPLO team's research continued in the layer known by archaeologists as "Lin 3".

Shala: "Every archaeologist's dream"

Lekë Shala and Kaltrina Igrishta, two young archaeologists from Kosovo who are currently studying prehistoric archeology in Geneva, Switzerland, were part of the excavations in Lin. In a statement for TIME, archaeologist Lekë Shala shared his experience from the research in Lin. According to him, archaeological excavations always offer a new experience in terms of the questions that emerge from the findings.

"To excavate a stilt settlement in collaboration with universities from Switzerland, in this case with the University of Bern, is the dream of every prehistoric archaeologist", said Shala as he specified that the Swiss researchers were the initiators of this field and their methods of updated provide scientific credibility.

"The excitement was even greater when we consider the importance of a settlement like this one in Lin i Pogradec, which is the oldest of its kind in Europe," he said.

For the archaeologist from Kosovo, the field experience with colleagues from the University of Bern and Oxford was very fruitful in terms of cooperation. He also mentioned the collegial spirit created by archaeologists Adrian Anastasi and Ilir Gjipali, who, according to him, did not hesitate to share their valuable experience.

Speaking about the importance of the discovery in Lin, Shala said that in the 19th century Swiss researchers Keller, Schwab and others initiated what is known as "wetland archaeology".

"The world would never have thought that it would be completely rewritten, not only human history but also the very understanding of a prehistoric settlement", said Shala. "It is no coincidence that these types of settlements in Europe, especially those in Switzerland, are fanatically preserved and are part of UNESCO's world heritage."

"Finds in Lin, information about life in the Neolithic"

Furthermore, Shala has mentioned that in these sites, where oxygen is scarce, the largest amount of organic matter is preserved, providing "unparalleled information" about life at that time. "Therefore, the site found in Lin, its absolute dating, will inevitably change the way we have understood these types of settlements and their genesis until now, and will in any case enrich the story about them," the archaeologist added. Saddle

Meanwhile, there have been no shortage of comments from the community of Albanian researchers.

The archaeologist who lives in Italy, Etnor Canaj, has estimated that it is not impossible for the existence of a 8500-year-old Palafit settlement. According to him, the main problem now is the preservation of the finds in this archaeological site. "It is not a problem to dig and bring the settlement to light, the problem is to preserve it, since we are dealing with very delicate materials", wrote Canaj on his "Facebook" profile.

However, he has expressed doubts about the dates given regarding the beginning of agriculture in Lin, since, according to him, the ice age had not yet ended, "and in these parts the land was not planted before".

"These are discoveries that every researcher waits for with proper coolness and rationality", Canaj wrote further.

But in fact, the seniority is not mentioned by the Swiss institution that sponsors the project, which is not limited to Albania. Old age is mentioned by Prime Minister Rama, Minister of Culture Elva Margariti and the media in Albania.

"Phahlbauproblem" or the issue of lake settlements

On the other hand, the prehistoric archeology that deals with the lake settlements, conventionally called "palafites", began in 1854 when the water in Lake Zürich was drained, bringing to light the old remains of former settlements. In these humble beginnings, archaeological research was far from scientific. The search for lake settlements, or as it became customary to call the "pfahlbauproblem" (the problem of lake settlements), would continue to deepen in quantity and quality. Although sporadic episodes of lacustrine settlement are encountered as early as the Mesolithic period, such as the case of Star Carr in England and some sites at Lake Feder in southern Germany, the trend for such settlements would only become more frequent in the Neolithic period.

"We have always marveled at water"

According to Francesco Menotti, it is difficult to pinpoint exactly when humanity decided to settle by lake environments.

"We have always been fond of water, no matter what it was like; sea, river, lake or simply marshy pond, and it seems that we have been connected with them in one way or another since the beginning of humanity", writes Menotti in the book "Living on the Lake in Prehistoric Europe", published in 2004, with contributions and input from Palafitte archeology experts.

Remembering that there are all kinds of theories regarding the origin and spread of the phenomenon of lake settlements in the Alpine region, he calls the theory that teaches a provenance from the south more likely.

"This hypothesis is based on paleobotanical analyzes of a special type of wheat also called 'lake wheat' (Triticium durum/turgidum), which is commonly found in most lakeside settlements in the Alps. "Unexpectedly, the origin of this wheat must be sought in the Mediterranean region", writes Menotti, among others.

Thus, traces of this wheat were found in Spain and central Italy, starting from the sixth millennium BC, while the spread to the north took place a millennium later.

"Between the lake"

However, Albanian archeology already in the last century managed to bring to light settlements by rivers and lakes built on wooden platforms and these embedded on wooden pegs. At the time, the Middle Neolithic (5500-5000 BC) palaphyte in Dunavec was considered the oldest in the Balkans and among the oldest in Europe. Another palafit of the late Neolithic was also spotted in Maliq and Sovjan in the Korçare area. This way of life apparently continued in classical times. At the turn of the sixth century of our era, Herodotus noted that the tribes of the Paiones, the Doberians, the Agrians and the Odomants by Lake Prasiada (today's Lake Kerkini in Greece, on the border with Bulgaria vj) had a special way of living. "There in the middle of the lake is raised a platform of pine beams tied together, where a bridge serves as an exit to land" (5, 16, 1: ἴκρια ἐπὶ σταυρῶν ὑψηλῶν ἐζευγμένα ἐν μέσῃ ἕστηκε τῇ λίμνῃ, ἔσοδον ἐκ τῆς ἠπείρου στεινὴν ἔχοντα μιῇ γεφύρῃ). Pending further research, Albanian tourism and archeology will apparently have a unique accessory: the Palafit civilization and the first traces of agriculture on the European continent.