In search of ancient Helike, Gulf of Corinth, Greece

In 373 BC an earthquake destroyed and submerged Helike, a Greek city on the southern shore of the Gulf of Corinth. A large archaeological/archaeometri cal enterprise has been initiated since 1991. Dozens of Boreholes scanned t he coastal area of Aegialia, geophysical prospection has been carried out, sonar surveys have been made offshore, trial excavation has been executed, while C-14 dating on sediment (wood, plants) and luminescence dating on tin y ceramic sherds extracted from the bore holes has been performed. In particular, quartz and feldspar inclusions were removed from fine pieces of ceramic sherds, extracted from boreholes, and the ''single aliquot meth od" of green (GLSL) and infrared (IRSL) light stimulation luminescence was applied for the determination of equivalent radiation dose (ED) aiming at t he accurate dating of these ceramics, and at locating the ancient lost city of Helike. The dates obtained spanned between the Byzantine period, c.9th century A.D. back through the Roman and Hellenistic/Classical times to the Mycenean per iod and the 2nd to 3rd millennia B.C., all following a stratigraphic sequen ce with depth varying from 0.40 m to 12 m. All dating results are criticall y assessed and focus on the question regarding the location of ancient Clas sical stratum (3-5 m below ground) which belongs to the lost (submerged) He like.