6,000 B.C.

Interviews

Oct 6

In August 2025, on my run across Europe on the Korçë plain in southeastern Albania, near Vreshtas in the municipality of Maliq, I came across a team from Albania's Institute of Archaeology at work. They were recovering artifacts and taking samples for radiocarbon dating at a site they place around 6000 BC.

This plain holds some of the earliest farming settlements in Europe. At Vashtëmi, on the same plain, a joint Albanian and American team dated occupation to around 6500 BC. The people there grew emmer, einkorn and barley and kept pigs, cattle, sheep and goats. They also hunted deer and caught fish and eels. Podgorie, one of the villages that make up Vreshtas, is a key site of the region's earliest Neolithic culture. Lake Maliq once covered part of this ground, and later communities built houses on posts in the water.

Eight thousand years on, it is farmland, and a crew with trowels and sample bags is working out who lived here first.

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On The RoadRun Across EuropeThe First StepAlbaniaKorçëMaliqVreshtasNeolithicRadiocarbon datingBalkansTravelCultureArchaeology

David Green

David Green is a retired entrepreneur, long-distance runner, and writer who has completed numerous ultra events including solo runs across the United States, Brazil, and Spain—and is now preparing to cross Europe on foot. His love of movement, adventure, and open roads is matched only by his bond with dogs. In 2022, he and his wife, Mônica, founded Friends of Lucky Caminho, a nonprofit that helps rescue stray dogs along Brazil’s Caminho da Fé trail, where he first met Lucky. David lives in Florida and Portugal with Mônica and their three rescue dogs. A portion of this book’s proceeds supports the charity.

https://www.davidgreen.run

6,000 B.C.

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