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The excavated plateau of Pyla. High above sea level and with no natural water supply, Pyla was, not surprisingly, unsettled until about 1240 B.C. Then, for only a quarter of a century, a wealthy community established itself here, a cross-cultural community of Cretans, Anatolians and perhaps other immigrants who banded together on this easily defensible plateau to protect themselves. We cannot be sure, but these settlers of Pyla may have been some of the Sea Peoples. At the end of the 13th century, they suddenly abandoned their homes, fleeing a new wave of invaders who may have been Achaeans from the Peloponnese or the Dodecanese.