Researchers discovered an ancient settlement of stilt houses beneath Lake Ohrid in Albania in late July.
Archaeologists on the project believe the 8,000-year-old sedentary community “is the oldest in Europe,” University of Bern archaeology professor Albert Hafner told CBS News. “It is several hundred years older than previously known lake-dwelling sites in the Mediterranean and Alpine regions,” he added.
Archaeologists unearthed the settlement of Lin, believed to have housed 200 to 500 people, after Hafner and a team of experts meticulously excavated the “Pearl of the Balkans.”