A new Mycenaean palace is excavated since 2010 at Ayios Vasileios, near Sparta. The site offers a unique opportunity to trace the emergence and evolution of a Mycenaean palace and reconstruct the political, administrative, economic, and social organization of Laconia. Moreover, it is appreciably adding to our knowledge about Mycenaean Greek language, script and religion.
The earliest occupation of the settlement dates to the 17th-16th century BC; the main architectural phase dates to the early 14th century BC, when new palatial buildings were erected around a large Central Court with colonnades. Wall paintings of good quality decorated the palatial buildings. A fire destroyed the settlement during the 14th c. BC. A palatial archives was kept in a second floor room, in the west complex. The fire baked the clay tablets of the archive and preserved the inscriptions in Linear B script. In the east complex, a building with many rooms was connected with religious practices.