This year will mark the return of the Octopus Foundation to Albania, at the archaeological site of ancient Orikum. Julien Pfyffer and his team will follow and support the archaeologists whose task will be to date the submerged remains first discovered during our September 2016 mission. Last year, the aerial drone and photogrammetric map were used to reveal the site’s exciting potential.
The configuration of the submerged archaeological remains in Orikum offers similarities with the underwater studies conducted in the Swiss lakes. For Julien Pfyffer, at the head of the Octopus Foundation, “it will be thrilling to compare the remains we found on land with those that remain to be revealed under the surface.”
As a reminder, the Octopus Foundation already assiste
d the archaeologists of the UNIGE and the Albanian Institute last September in order to excavate land remains. The Foundation’s task was to document two marine sites directly related to the port city. The team produced several aerial and underwater documentations of one of the stone quarries in the Bay of Vlorë. A 3D model was created from these documentations, which highlighted the staggering amount of stone that was once extracted from the Karaburun’s rocky point.