A mysterious, sophisticated village has been discovered at the bottom of an 8,000&year&old lake

Archaeologists judge that a agelong of the lake's Albanian enactment hosted a colony of stilt houses astir 8,000 years ago, making it the oldest lakeside colony successful Europe yet discovered, and radiocarbon dating of the tract betwixt 6,000 and 5,800 BC. “It is hundreds of years older than antecedently known water sites successful the Mediterranean and Alpine regions,” said Albert Hafner, a prof of archeology from the University of Bern successful Switzerland. “As acold arsenic we know, it is the oldest successful Europe,” helium told AFP. The different oldest villages were discovered successful the Italian Alps and day backmost to astir 5,000 BC, said the adept connected European water dwellings from the Neolithic period. Haffner and his squad of Swiss and Albanian archaeologists person spent the past 4 years conducting excavations astatine Lin connected the Albanian broadside of Lake Ohrid, which straddles the mountainous borderline of North Macedonia and Albania. The colony is thought to person been location to betwixt 200 and 500, with homes built connected stilts supra the aboveground of the water oregon successful areas that were regularly flooded. - Castle of Nails: It is dilatory revealing immoderate astonishing secrets. During a caller dive, archaeologists uncovered grounds indicating that the colony was fortified with thousands of jagged woody planks utilized arsenic antiaircraft barriers. “To support themselves successful this way, they had to chopped down a forest,” Hafner said. But wherefore did the villagers request to physique specified extended fortifications to support themselves? Archaeologists are inactive searching for an reply to the elusive question. Researchers estimation that astir 100,000 nails were driven into the bottommost of the water disconnected Llyn, with Hafner describing the find arsenic “a veritable treasure trove for research.” Lake Ohrid is 1 of the oldest lakes successful the satellite and has been successful beingness for implicit a cardinal years, with the assistance of nonrecreational divers. Archaeologists person often scraped the bottommost of the water and uncovered fossilized fragments of wood and invaluable pieces of oak. - 'Like Swiss watches': Albanian archaeologist Adrian Anastasi said analyzing histrion rings helps the squad reconstruct the regular lives of the region's inhabitants - providing "valuable insights into climatic and biology conditions" from the period. “Like a Swiss watch, precise precise, similar a calendar,” Hafner said. Anastasi, who heads the squad of Albanian researchers, added,