Abstract

The Neolithic and Bronze Age lakeshore settlements of the Alpine region, known since 1850, are key to understanding European prehistory due to their exceptional preservation of organic materials. These sites laid the foundation for settlement archaeology, and, in 2011, a selction of 111 sites were recognized as a transnational serial UNESCO World Heritage Site. While Alpine lakeshore settlements have been studied for decades, those in the southern Balkans—at the borders of Albania, Greece, and North Macedonia—have only recently been explored through the ERC Synergy Project EXPLO . In both regions, water-saturated sediments preserve archaeological finds and waterlogged wood, enabling precise dating through dendrochronology. This presentation provides an overview of lakeshore settlements in the Alpine region and the Balkans (6000–500 BCE ), focusing on case studies that highlight the unique contributions of these waterlogged archaeological sites to our understanding of prehistory.

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