Archaeologists found ancient cemetery in Albania
In a rich agricultural basin near the town of Korca in southeastern Albania, gas pipeline construction work is offering archaeologists a unique insight into 5,000 years of history in a country that was off most experts' radar during decades of isolationist Communist rule.
The excavations near the village of Turan, which ended Friday after 18 months, have unearthed one of the biggest ancient cemeteries in Albania, with about 1,000 layered burials, several of them richly furnished, reports AP. Under the bottom layer are traces of a rare Neolithic settlement demarcated by holes in the ground that supported the now-rotted wooden skeletons of small huts.
Grave goods included rings, bracelets, earrings, amber and glass beads, gold coins, lots of pottery including local copies of 11th or 10th century B.C. wine jugs popular in neighboring Greece mediaeval wooden caskets and clothes worked with silver thread, as well as spears, daggers, knives and swords.
