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Geoarchaeological work and excavations of the Helike Project over the last 30 years in the Helike coastal plain, Gulf of Corinth, have yielded abundant evidence on ancient settlements, as well as the surrounding landscape and environmental changes that resulted from geological phenomena and catastrophic events. The research methods applied by the Helike Project followed a multidisciplinary approach, including combined archaeological excavations and palaeoseismological trenching, geophysical prospection, archaeometric, environmental, and soil micromorphology analyses, and computer-based landscape modelling. A wealth of settlement remains that were unearthed across the plain, ranging in date from the Early Helladic period (3rd millennium BC) to the Late Antiquity (5th century AD), indicates that the ancient inhabitants of the area chose to always resettle in the area by adjusting their ways of living to the geomorphology and natural hazards, prevailing each time. Our results show that disasters in the area increased between the Geometric and Roman times due to severe earthquakes that occurred approximately every 300 years. In particular, archaeological and geological finds recovered from the Late Classical–Hellenistic Helike settlement, which was revived in the western part of the plain shortly after the disastrous 373 BC earthquake, have enriched our knowledge regarding the historical seismicity of the region and past human–environment relationships. Full article

Human habitat is much controlled by the landscape and its ongoing processes overtime. Some of these processes occur instantaneously and are often triggered by seismic events with a major destructive impact on the human-built environment. Helike, on the southwest shore of the Gulf of Corinth, is a characteristic case of an ancient habitation site bearing witness to repetitious natural disasters from the Early Bronze Age to the Late Antiquity. The Late Classical-Hellenistic site, revived in the Helike plain after the 373 BC earthquake, has been systematically investigated thanks to the multidisciplinary research and excavations of the Helike Project in the last 35 years. This work has significantly enriched the historical seismicity of the region and shed light on past human-environment relationships. The study of the architectural remains excavated by the Helike Project, coupled with geological and soil micromorphological analysis on archaeological soils and sediments of the settlement, demonstrates a constant effort of the Helike people to reconcile with the elements of nature. Our results underline the destruction of a flourishing textile dyeworks operated at the settlement, due to a strong earthquake which triggered extensive morphological changes in a broader area. These changes include co-seismic liquefaction and lateral spreading, and post-seismic changes in the gradient of river channels. The former changes attest to an uplift in the headwater area and subsidence in the lowland plain of the ravine flowing near the ancient site. Full article