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Near the east coast of the Peloponnesus, south of Argos, Lerna was a 10,000 year old neolithic community
Geographically located on a narrow point between mountains and the sea. In an important location, along an ancient route from the Argolid to the southern Peloponnese. From the 6th to the 1st millennium B.C. It a simple neolithic village also became a more complex settlement.

The site is more notable for several archaeological pieces, including an early Bronze Age structure known as House of the Tiles, dating to (2500–2300 BC) or the Early Helladic period II

Nearby at the Argolic Gulf, is a village Mili . It is most famous as the lair of the Lernaean Hydra
The lake at Lerna was believed to be an entrance to the underworld, and bottomless. It was also the site where as Heracles killed the Hydra.

Archaeology
Excavations at the site were initiated under John L. Caskey in 1952

It was an early farming community. Earliest inhabitants practiced agriculture and animal husbandry
They grew wheat, barley, and legumes, and raised sheep, goats, pigs, and cattle.

Architecture and houses were rectangular, made of mudbrick or wattle-and-daub on stone foundations

There are signs of on-site techniques of flint-knapping; with imported obsidian, and chert

The site of Lerna is one of the largest prehistoric tumuli in Greece (180 m by 160 m across)

Especially well known from the early bronze ages. Ceramics included unique and hallmarked vessels
-rims that sweep upwards into a curved spout;
-bowls with incurving rims, both flat- bottomed and with ring bases;
-there were wide saucers;
-with glazed rims (more pleasent for lips);
-swelling curves;
-painting aparse;
-stamped sealing decorative patterns on some pieces; and
-banded patterns made with the self-same seal have been found at Lerna, Tiryns and Zygouries. (1)

Modern geological and archaeological techniques have identified where the freshwater lagoon lake was
Nowadays, there’s less trees, and more silt. The marsh was gone in 1800s.

Lerna or (Λέρνα or Λέρνη) shows a long continuity of settlement from the neolithic, to bronze, and modern ages. It offers a unique, well-documented example of neolithic village life in the Peloponnese. From potential underwater lairs, to the emergence of complexity before the rise of Mycenaean palaces.

Cite: (1) Caskey 1960:293

Bibliography: “Lerna (Site)” (https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/artifact?object=Site&name=Lerna). http://www.perseus.tufts.edu

Britt Hartenberger and Curtis Runnels, “The Organization of Flaked Stone Production at Bronze Age Lerna” Hesperia 70.3 (July 2001:255-283)

John L. Caskey, “The Early Helladic Period in the Argolid” Hesperia 29.3 (July 1960:285-303); Caskey, the excavator, offers an overview of Lerna

The impressive prehistoric settlements of Lerna. (n.d.). https://www.aspel.gr/lerna.html

S. Triantaphyllou, M.P. Richards, C. Zerner, S. Voutsaki,
Isotopic dietary reconstruction of humans from Middle Bronze Age Lerna, Argolid, Greece,
Journal of Archaeological Science, Volume 35, Issue 11, 2008, Pages 3028-3034,
ISSN 0305-4403, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jas.2008.06.018.
(https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0305440308001490)