Guided tour: Palace of Nestor – Cruise of Proti

The so-called Palace of Nestor (is the primary structure within a larger Late Helladic era settlement, likely once surrounded by a fortified wall. The palace, widely identified with that of Mycenaean-era Pylos, was a two-storey building with store rooms, workshops, baths, light wells, reception rooms and a sewage system. The site is the best preserved Mycenaean Greek palace discovered. During excavation in 1939 around 1,000 Linear B tablets were identified. The settlement had been long occupied with most artefacts discovered dating from 1300 BCE. The palace complex was destroyed by fire around 1200 BCE. In May 2013 the site was closed for renovation. The 1960s roof over the site was replaced by a modern structure with raised walkways for visitors. The site re-opened in June 2016. In the Palace of Nestor, archaeologists discovered the earliest written forms of ‘olive’ and ‘olive-oil’ on clay tablets inscribed in Linear B script which date to 1300 BC, providing concrete evidence that Messenia was among the first regions to cultivate the sacred olive.