This paper aims to analyse the collaboration of the Greek-Albanian Archaeological Expedition with the local community of the tri-national district (FYROM-Greece-Albania) of the Great Prespa Lake, in South-eastern Albania, conducted by the Institute for the Transbalkanic Cultural Cooperation (Greece) and the Institute of Archaeology of Tirana (Albania). It is argued that local cultural heritage, including the heritage of the archaeological past, can play a signifi cant reconciliatory role in an extremely delicate national and environmental landscape throughout the work of all the bipolar participants: locals and 'foreign experts'. keywords tri-national zone, Great Prespa Lake, multivocality, space-topos, local community engagement, inter Balkan heritage Introduction This paper argues for the social and reconciliatory role of archaeology through the analysis of an excavation project undertaken by the Institute for the Transbalkanic Cultural Cooperation (ITCC) and of the Institute of Archaeology of Tirana (IAT) at 122 PETRIKA LERA et al.the islet of Maligrad -situated in the tri-national district (Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Greece, Albania) of the Great Prespa lake, in South-eastern Albani a. It is our contention that in a Europe characterized by identity crisis, fi nancial instability, and national misunderstandings, a collaborative archaeological project on a politically sensitive area can play a signifi cant reconciliatory role as it can reveal and foster common historical and cultural links that gave life to complicated systems of cultural interaction, models of social structures and common identities (Glenny, 1999: 135-248). Furthermore, we also suggest that a contested place -such as the trinational border in Western Great Prespa -can be transformed into a 'social topos', a space of social activities and daily human interaction as well as a cultural area, the multicultural nature of which is revealed through this archaeological project. This point will be illustrated through a demonstration of how the initial mistrust of a local community towards the archaeological team was gradually converted into a relationship of trust and mutual understanding.This transformation of relationships between the 'locals' and the 'foreignersintruders', via the fi eld archaeology, points to the creation of a interdisciplinary research which focuses not only on the archaeological results but on the management of the social embodiment into the historical reality as well, when history is viewed diachronically, from the most remote antiquity down to the present and the future. It is the sociological and anthropological part of the research which will structurally provide not only archaeological fi nds but a new ethnological database, as a starting point or even as a 'datum-factum' for the identity of both 'locals' and 'foreignersintruders'. This paper draws from the experience of the authors as members of the Greek-Albanian Archaeological Expedition, and will initially introduce the case study and its surrounding landsca...
