Archaeological surveys and excavation were conducted on land and underwater, together with coastal mapping and 3D modelling, and a comprehensive study of excavated materials in preparation for publication.

The small ‘pocket harbor’ of Maniki is a unique site, an ancient landscape that served as the main port for accessing the ancient settlement at Agios Georgios tis Pegeias and Yeronisos Island itself from the Hellenistic through to the Byzantine period. The harbor, island, and rugged mainland coast of Cape Drepanum form a rare, naturally beautiful, and culturally significant ‘maritime small world.’

Maritime archaeologists Dr. Theotokis Theodoulou, from the Ephorate of Underwater Antiquities, Head of the Department of Crete, Dr. Alexandros Tourtas, Post-doctoral Researcher at the University of the Aegean, Ioannis Ktistakis, diver-illustrator for the Ephorate of Underwater Antiquities, Dept. of Crete, and Christos Pasalides, Chief Diver of the mission, executed coastal and underwater surveys of Maniki Harbor, including aerial mapping, 3-D modelling, video-recording, snorkeling and reconnaissance diving.

Using DPVs (Diver Propulsion Vehicles), the team completed the underwater survey from north of the Agios Georgios Harbor to as far south as the Sea Caves area, covering more than 12,200 meters. At the very western tip of Yeronisos, the team surveyed down to a depth of 30m. Orthophotomaps have now been created for the entire area of Cape Drepanum, stretching from south of Maniki Harbor to the Aspros River bed at the north. The small port at Maniki clearly provided the most convenient and safe location for anchoring, loading, and unloading cargoes as witnessed by the rock cut channels and bollards, pottery and anchors at the area. While intense use is attested for the harbor during Late Roman/Early Byzantine times, Hellenistic pottery recovered in the terrestrial survey and stone anchors possibly dating as early as the 2nd millennium B.C. suggest that it was used as a significant anchorage from much earlier on.