The English admiral Th. Spratt in his book "Travels in Crete", published in the middle of the 19th century, mentions to have seen ancient ruins in the area. At the end of the 19th century, the Italian archaeologists F. Halbherr and L. Mariani, and the English A. Evans conducted trial excavations in the area. The first systematic excavation was carried out in 1901 by D.G. Hogarth of the British School of Archaeology, who excavated two deposits and houses that suffered severe destruction during the Second World War. Hogarth came very close to the palace but did not uncover it. Sixty years later, a few gold ornaments given by a peasant as a "gift" to doctor Giamalakis, and remodelling works in the area that brought to light ashlar blocks and a sword, in 1961, led N. Platon to start systematic excavation, with the financial support of the Americans L. and H. Pomerance, bringing to light the palace and the settlement around it. The finds from the excavation are exhibited in the Museum of Herakleion, while a few are kept in the Museums of Seteia and Aghios Nikolaos.