KOILADA - 2012

Koilada (Argolid). Underwater exploration by the Ephoreia of Maritime Antiquities (directed by A. Simosi) and the Swiss School in Athens was undertaken in preparation for future excavation.

The aim was to reveal the underwater Neolithic settlement which probably lies close to Franchthi Cave. The Cave was settled from ca. 35,000 BC, from Palaeolithic to Neolithic times, at the end of which it is assumed that there was a support settlement closer to the then shoreline (further out from the cave). In the 1960s and 1970s, in parallel with excavations in the Franchthi cave, sea level measurements were for a short while made in the Koilada bay in search of this Neolithic settlement. In 2012 they were resumed using a mono beam echo sounder in order to map in detail depths in the bay.