Along the volcanic caldera known as Stavrolongos, there’s a plain that was used for centuries for agriculture, up until the turn of the century. The Varkeza Plain, as it is called, is home to a variety of prehistoric remains.
On the plain’s northern edge there’s a stone wall that is an amalgam of older building materials, including a rock with an inscription on it. Two water cisterns, parts of columns, a wine press and other finds can be found in the area.
In 1912 the German archeologist Michael Deffner surmises that this plain and others featured human dwellings. He notes that locals had found obsidian tools, numerous fragments of old vessels. He speaks of a boat-shaped rock that may have been used to produce olive oil from the olive trees that have been thriving for millennia in the volcanic soil.