TIRANA, July 31/ATA/ Chairman of the Academy of Sciences Skënder Gjinushi met the members of the Albanian-Swiss archaeological expedition that has been conducting research for several years in the Neolithic settlement of Lin, in Pogradec.

The leaders of the expedition acquainted Gjinushi on the work done for the processing of the archaeological material, the data obtained and the efforts to secure and preserve all the scientific information through a standardized documentation.

The "Lin 3" underwater research project is a collaboration between the Archaeological Institute of the Academy of Sciences of Albania and the University of Bern (Switzerland).

Professors Albert Hafner and Ilir Gjipali reconfirmed that Lini's settlement is a palafit settlement and lies mostly under water and partly on land, as a result of fillings that have occurred over thousands of years from deposits of soil eroded from the surrounding hills.

The results of the research of the previous years (2021, 2022 and 2023) and the laboratory analyzes carried out at the University of Bern in Switzerland, as well as those in collaboration with the University of Oxford in England, showed that the palafit settlement "Lin 3 ” is the oldest settlement of this type in Europe.

The 2024 excavations mark the completion of the first phase of the project in "Lin 3". The four-week excavations on the ground (June 24 - July 21, 2024) are considered very successful for the amount and variety of archaeological material (pottery, stone tools, bone, plant remains, bones of domestic and wild animals, etc.), which are the object of ongoing study by project specialists. The second phase of this season's excavations involves underwater excavations inside the lake, which will continue for another four weeks, until August 18.

The excavations of this year's Albanian-Swiss expedition are focusing on the further recognition of the extent of the settlement, the duration, the material and spiritual culture of the Neolithic inhabitants, the complexity of the constructions of these lake settlements; as well as in aspects of the agricultural and livestock economy and the cultural and chronological relations with the settlements of this type in the surrounding territories (in the Korça basin, Northern Greece and North Macedonia).

Meanwhile, there is being prepared the archaeological documentation necessary for its protection and declaration as an archaeological area by the Ministry of Economy, Culture and Innovation. /p.s./