Lost World: Prehistoric Houses Found in Lake Ohrid Thrill Archeologists

The archaeologists, who have been working in this field for a few years, say the discoveries confirm the earliest known practise of agriculture near the lake.

The discoveries have attracted the attention of the wider community, and the Albanian community living in Switzerland has organised a meeting with one of the best-known archaeologists on the team to discuss them.

Swiss Professor Albert Hafner, from Bern University, co-lead of the Albanian-Swiss team in Pogradec, Albania, told BIRN that the three underwater sites offer an opportunity to learn more about human life thousands of years ago.

"These underwater sites are very important," Hafner said, recounting the expedition based near Buqeza, Albania.

"Under the water, there is a much better preservation of the remains than on land," he explains.

The mission has collected samples of wood, vegetation, trees and even food, which can then be dated by laboratory analysis.

"Since 1980, in Switzerland we have been working with a modern system to date objects and are using this system with the discoveries in Lake Ohrid," Hafner said.

Using this Carbon 14 dating system, they have reconstructed an accurate chronology of the objects found there.

Dr Adrian Anastasi, who recently presented the results of the expedition at the Albanian Institute of Archeology, told BIRN that the joint mission started in the summer of 2019 and is expected to last up till 2025.

"We discovered three stilt house sites along the shore of the lake, two either side of Lin village, named Lin 1 and Lin 3, and another situated near Hudenisht village," Anastasi said.

"We believe that Lin 1 and Lin 3 were built around the same time, about 5,200 BC, which was established by radiocarbon...