Donate
The ancient city of Oricum © Octopus Foundation

This autumn, the Octopus Foundation went once again to Albania, to collaborate with archaeologists from Tirana and the University of Geneva.During the 2016 mission to the ancient city of Oricum, Julien Pfyffer and his team used their marine and technological skills to discover submerged remains in the waters of the neighbouring lagoon. The vestiges that had never before been documented stretch on a zone more than 200 meters long.

The aim of the 2017 mission was to answer several questions relative to the origin, the era and the use of the fifteen or so sunken structures. Upon arrival, the team was faced with the lagoon’s extremely poor underwater visibility. Not only did it complicate the research, it also compromised one of the mission’s goals: to obtain a global view of the site.

During two weeks, the team meticulously scrubbed the submerged stone blocks clean. The work was done under the supervision of Krisztian Gal, an archaeologist assigned by the University of Geneva, who confirmed that the vestiges were man made and carefully planed. Several walls were discovered, sometimes more than four meters long and oriented North/South/East/West.

However, it’s impossible to say with certainty to which era these blocks belong, what they were used for and if they were part of the ancient port of Oricum. “I knew that it would be hard to date the archaeological remains, but I was confident we would be able to better understand the global architecture of the submerged site,” says Julien Pfyffer, the Octopus Foundation’s president and founder. “This year’s work offers tremendous groundwork for future research, but it didn’t deliver the answers we were hoping for.” In conclusion: instead of slowly lifting, the veil of mystery surrounding Oricum got even heavier.

To better understand the vestiges, several solutions can be considered for future scientific expeditions. Firstly, core sampling may help to date the stone blocks to a precise era. Secondly, by drying up the entire research zone, a thorough study of the sediments may reveal pieces of ceramic that are often used to determine when a building has been built and abandoned. These options will have to be carried out by archaeologists, and have not been scheduled at the moment.

Thanks to their commitment over the past three years, Julien Pfyffer and his team will have helped to gather valuable knowledge on the historical site once described by Julius Caesar in his books about the Civil War (c. 49-48 BC).