The excavation project of the prehistoric settlement of Vashtëmi was completed in 2013, and the results thereof confirmed that it was one of the earliest farming sites in Europe, dating back to 6,600 BC, long before the Neolithic Agricultural Revolution would have reached the region. Vashtëmi was situated near the Devoll river feeding the Maliq Lake, a region that became the cradle of the most prominent Neolithic culture of present-day Albania: the Maliq culture. It initially included the settlements of Vashtëmi, Dunavec, Maliq and Podgorie. Their artifacts, pottery and spiritual culture spread through the valleys, and by the end of the Lower Neolithic it covered a sizeable area including the territory of the modern Eastern Albania. The human settlements of the western parts of the present-day country were rather connected to the archaeological cultures of the Adriatic Sea and the Danube valley.