Article translated in English<\/em><\/p>\n In Lake Ohrid, Albania, members of the University of Bern have uncovered a nearly 8000-year-old lakeside settlement.<\/p>\n Lake Ohrid is Europe\u2019s oldest lake. It is the birthplace of agriculture and animal husbandry in this region, serving as the foundation for \u201cthe great cultural transformation in Europe\u201d, as described by Albert Hafner, Professor of Prehistoric Archaeology at the University of Bern.<\/p>\n Over the past two years, his team excavated logs from a prehistoric lakeside settlement in Lake Ohrid, Albania, and determined their age. The result: The logs date back to 5800 to 5900 BC, making them almost 8000 years old, approximately 2000 years older than the oldest lakeside settlements in Switzerland. This discovery is a remarkable archaeological sensation. \u201cThis find is not only significant for this region but for the entire southeastern Europe,\u201d says Albert Hafner.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The site is vast, comprising multiple prehistoric lakeside villages with a millennium of settlement history in one location, a stroke of luck for researchers.<\/p>\n The lakeside settlements were found by locals. \u201cIn the early 1970s, the water level of Lake Ohrid significantly dropped, making this submerged site visible,\u201d recounts Adrian Anastasi from the Albanian Institute of Archaeology in Tirana. Aware of the approximately 500 well-researched lakeside settlement sites in Switzerland, he advocated for collaboration with the University of Bern.<\/p>\n\r\n ![\"\"](\"https:\/\/euronews.al\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/harta.jpg\")
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