In ancient times, Papadoplaka reef islet would have partly sheltered the town from waves and wind, though it has been substantially submerged by rising sea levels and German bombing during the Nazi occupation of Crete.

The hilly northern sector was primarily a residential neighborhood, while civic buildings were constructed in the lower and flatter southern area.

In the words of excavator Joseph Shaw:[2](pp30–35) Could a relatively small and architecturally unpretentious town such as Kommos have promoted and maintained such an enormous structure, or have we misunderstood the palaces?

This interpretation is bolstered by the discovery of residue from hematite anti-fouling paint in the building as well as a comparable structure at Knossos's port of Katsamba.

The temple included a Phoenician tripillar shrine around which were found imported faience figurines of the Egyptian gods Sekhmet and Nefertum.

A more ambitious construction, this building consisted of a single rectangular room and was typical of Cretan temples in its lack of exterior columns.

Archaeologists have noted that during the early LMIII period, residents' living standards fell even as commercial activity reached its all time peak.

[1] The Minoan name of the town is unknown, but it has been argued that the site corresponds to Classical Era Amyklaion (Greek: Αμύκλαιον), which would reflect a link with Amyclae.

Robin Lane Fox speculates that it is referred to in Odyssey 3.296: "a small rock holds back the great waves.

Remains found revealed a variety of butchery methods performed, including partial opening of the skull assumedly for consumption of the brain.

[6] Kommos has yielded more evidence for intercultural trade in the form of imported ceramics than any other Bronze Age site in the Aegean.

Transport stirrup jars have not only been found on Crete but also in vast quantities on the Greek mainland, throughout the Aegean Islands, and along the western Anatolian coast.

The Cretan vessels have been found in the Egyptian city of Tell el-Amarna, Cyprus, and the Levant, and the results of petrographic and trace element analysis determine that the majority of these transport stirrup jars originated in the northern part of Central Crete.

For instance, the building he identified as a customs house turned out to be an ordinary residence, and a feature he interpreted as a Minoan road was in fact a later fortification wall.

[2](pp103–104) Excavations at the site began in 1976 under the direction of Joseph Shaw from the University of Toronto, who specialized in ancient Mediterranean harbours.

Over the previous decade, Shaw had surveyed a number of coastal sites in Mesara, concluding from surface pottery that Kommos alone showed evidence of Minoan presence.

Excavations used then-novel methodologies, attending to topography, geology, land use, and evidence of daily life at the site rather than simply elite material culture.

[2](pp96, 108–110, 115–116) Joseph W. Shaw, Kommos: A Minoan Harbor Town and Greek Sanctuary in Southern Crete (ASCSA, 2006: ISBN 0-87661-659-7).

A WORLD OF GOODS: Transport Jars and Commodity Exchange at the Late Bronze Age Harbor of Kommos, Crete.