Stone quarries ruin Neolithic habitat

A site that has resisted and survived for no less than five thousand years is ruined by dynamite explosions at a nearby stone quarry. This is what has happened to a Neolithic habitat in the village of Tren in the district of Devoll, says the daily “Albania.” According to the newspaper, the stone quarry, opened only a few meters away from the prehistoric cave entrance, a habitat dating back to the Neolithic Ages, has practically destroyed the entrance to the cave altogether, seriously damaging drawings of incontestable archaeological value, all recorded in catalogues. However a license has been issued for the company to open this quarry and use dynamite, says the newspaper. Only a few meters after you turn off the Korca-Kapshtica motorway, near the village of Tren (SE Albania), you come across a rock face , in the southern part of which there are drawings of a deer hunt, where deer are being chased by two hunters and their dogs. Specialists relate that apart from the rock drawings there are also several museum articles in the cave. The most well known amongst these caves is the Gryka e Ujkut Cave (Wolf’s Throat), the Three Petrified Brides Cave and the Cave of the Village of Tren. There is also a castle very close to these caves. The ruins of this castle have still not been studied, but all these values are being ruined today by the explosions of the dynamite sticks and the lime kilns, says the local archaeologist Skender Aliu. The specialist says that the disintegration of these objects ahs already begun.