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Excavations in the Helike Delta on the Gulf of Corinth have brought to light architectural remains from the Early Bronze Age (EBA), Geometric, Classical, Hellenistic, Roman, and Byzantine periods. Borehole results suggest that a lagoon intermittently occupied much of the delta during the Holocene. We discovered a well-preserved EBA settlement about 1 km inland from the present shore, buried under 3 to 5 m of fine sediments containing marine, brackish, and freshwater microfossils. A Classical site 130 m away, buried under 3 m of similar sediments, may have been destroyed by the earthquake and tsunami of 373 B.C., which submerged the city of Helike. Possible tsunami evidence is noted. Although the EBA and Classical sites were both long submerged and buried by lagoonal sediments, tectonic uplift has raised both horizons above sea level. A shallow black clay layer suggests that a marsh covered the Classical and EBA sites in Byzantine times.

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In his journey through Achaea in the second century AD, Pausaniasmentioned the destroyed Classical site of Helike on the sea and noted that its ruins were stillvisible underwater near the southwest shore of the Corinthian Gulf. In 2001, the Helike Project excavators discovered on the coastal plain of Helike southeast of Aigionthefirst ruinsof Classicalbuildings, buriedunderlagoonsediments 3 mdeep.They also foundsegmentsofamajor Romanroad oriented NW^SE andburied1^1.50 m deepunder the contemporary surface. Pausanias referred to the main road through the Helike plain, which he followed during his visit. According to his description, he saw the submerged ruins of Helike toward the sea north of the Roman road.Tracing the exact location of the road would, therefore, help to locate the lost city.We employed resistivity tomography to explore the areas between trenches where the road had been unearthed and also to investigate its possible extension beyond those locations. Since 2004, resistivity studies performed by grids or single profiles have been carried out at 11 locations. As a result, theancient roadwasdetected foralength ofabout 2 km.It wasalsoimagedeitherintwo-dimensionalor three-dimensionalcontexts at allthelocationswhereit wasdetected

Palaeoseismological and archaeological analysis of a trench enabled us to estimate the Holocene slip rates on the East Helike Fault, flanking the south-western Gulf of Corinth. We recognized two major fault strands within the trench: the 'north fault' controls a succession of three colluvial wedges and the deposition of a 2.7 m thick sedimentary sequence. The 'south fault' controls the deposition of a 2.9-m thick brownishred colluvium. Based on colluvial stratigraphy, radiocarbon dating of the sediments suggests that the slip rate was c. 0.3 mm yr )1 from 10 250 to c. 1400 BP, when it increased dramatically to c. 2.0 mm yr )1 after a strong earthquake event near 1400 BP. The faster slip rate evidently increased the sedimentation rate.