The settlement of the Late Neolithic period is located on a low hill to the NW outskirts of Dimini village, five kilometres to the SW of Volos. Excavations were mainly carried out in the beginning of our century under the archaeologists V. Stais and Chr. Tsoundas (1901-1903) and were continued later under Professor G. Chourmouziadis (1974-1977). Dimini is a large and well organized Neolithic settlement which has been researched quite extensively. The architectural remnants discovered so far show a thoroughly organized Neolithic community characterized by a unique feature, the enclosures.
The settlement is enclosed by six stone built folds, the enclosures, constructed in pairs. The two first enclosures circumscribe the central courtyard; four radial, narrow corridors starting from this court divide the settlement into four sectors. The houses are arranged around the central court and between the pairs of enclosures.
According to the excavational data, the first inhabitants settled on the hill in the early years of the fifth millennium. Two millenniums later the hill settlement was abandoned with the exception of the “megaron A” of the central court and a few houses to the south of the hill that continued to be inhabited. The graves on the hill and some houses on the NE hill slope date from the Middle Helladic period. Later, in the Late Helladic period, the most important Mycenaean settlement of the region develops down on the plain, eastward of the hill.
