Excavations at Palaikastro have been carried out by members of the British School at Athens in three separate series of campaigns. The first, under the direction of R.C. Bosanquet and R.M. Dawkins in 1902-6, revealed the main street and large houses at the southwest of the Minoan town at Roussolakkos, the sanctuary of Diktaian Zeus, outlying cemeteries and dwellings and the peak sanctuary on Petsophas. The second, under the direction of L.H. Sackett and M.R. Popham in 1962-3, concentrated on Block N at Roussolakkos and Minoan occupation on Kastri. The third, international, campaign under the direction of L.H. Sackett and J.A. MacGillivray from 1986 to the present was preceded by a topographical and magnetic survey in 1983, and has discovered seven buildings in the north sector of the town. In addition, rescue excavations by the Greek Archaeological Service revealed a kiln, two houses to the east of the town and more material from Petsophas.
The ancient harbour city at Palaikastro comprises all the elements of a relatively undisturbed Cretan Bronze Age township: cemeteries, peak sanctuary, refuge site and quarries, and a road system providing it with direct links to the surrounding countryside and beyond. The city at Roussolakkos covered as many as thirty hectares, making it the second largest Minoan urban centre after Knossos. The Bronze Age cemeteries are on the routes out of the ancient town, to the northwest and east, and on the slopes of Petsophas (254 m) and Kastri (89 m). The remains of the most important Minoan peak sanctuary in East Crete, the source of many terracotta figurines and stone vases inscribed with Linear A (some mentioning Dikta), are situated on the top of Mt. Petsophas.  The promontory and hill of Kastri was a refuge acropolis at the end of the Bronze Age (c. 1200-1100 BC.). The sandstone quarries, used in the finest architecture in the town, are at Ta Skaria east of the ancient town, near the Plaka cape. A network of roads beginning in the Old Palace period, about 1900 BC., connected Roussolakkos with Minoan sites to the south (Zakros) and west (Petras).
A sequence of continuous occupation throughout the Bronze Age began in the Early Minoan period. Two small, possibly familial, holdings were built in EM IIA (ca. 3000 BC.). These were succeeded by a large structure in EM IIB under the later Block X. By the MM IB-IIA periods, around 1900 BC., a well-planned town with foreign contacts (included Egypt and Asia Minor) emerged at roughly the same time as fine polychrome Kamares pottery and the first palaces appeared at Knossos and Phaistos. This may imply that such a building also existed at Palaikastro, though still undiscovered. There was widespread destruction at the end of the Old Palace period, about 1760 BC., followed by the reconstruction of the town with an improved street system with paving and drainage channels. There is evidence for earthquake damage and unusual rainfall at the end of the MM IIIB period, perhaps in 1628 BC., but again the town was rebuilt and it is largely these remains that can still be seen today. This Neopalatial town provides the clearest example of Minoan urban planning, with wide streets defining large town blocks, impressive ashlar facades and spacious main rooms with sunken central basins surrounded by four columns. These were the dwellings of rich traders who filled their storage rooms with finely decorated pottery and stone vases, and kept track of their transactions on tablets written in Linear A. This prosperous city was likely controlled by a palace, also undiscovered. Earthquake damage and fallout of volcanic ash, observed at a number of points throughout the site and presumably the effects of the Thera eruption of 1530 BC., mark the end of the LM IA period. Afterwards, some parts of the town seem to have been abandoned and the area used for the digging of wells, in one of which was found a fine stone rhyton decorated with dolphins. There is new evidence for a sequence of fire destructions, most likely due to human aggression during the LM IB period, ending with widespread damage around 1475 BC. From the destruction levels comes a wealth of fine objects including the Palaikastro Kouros, the gold and ivory sculpture of a vibrant youth stepping forward, a masterpiece of Minoan craftsmanship, found scattered in a square and adjacent shrine.
In contrast to other East Cretan Minoan towns, much of the city was rebuilt in the LM II and LM IIIA1 periods, often on the same lines and after the repair of the Main Street, but it suffered a further destruction by fire early in the LM IIIA2 period, around 1370 BC., contemporary with the final destruction of the palace at Knossos. A period of extensive rebuilding in LM IIIA2-B ended with an earthquake early in the LM IIIB period, around 1300 BC. The city seems to have been abandoned at this point with occupation limited to a small refuge settlement on the top of the Kastri hill during LM IIIC.
A sanctuary in honour of Diktaian Zeus occupied the area of Block X from the Geometric period onward (8th century BC.). From a pit near Block X, Bosanquet recovered the fragments of an inscription recording the ‘Hymn to Diktaian Zeus’. In this hymn, probably composed in the 4th or 3rd century BC., the young god is summoned to return to Dikte, where his sacred altar stood. This leaves no doubt that the temple site at Roussolakkos was Dikte, famed in antiquity as the birthplace of Zeus. Here, the young god was hidden from his jealous father Kronos. Grown up, he overthrew his father, eventually returning to his birthplace to found the city which the historian Diodorus of Sicily saw abandoned in the first century BC. 
During the early centuries of cult at Roussolakkos, Diktaian Zeus was honoured with bronze votive offerings of tripods, elaborately decorated shields and other precious armour. Later, in the 6th century BC, a temple was erected, which was rebuilt several times. Inscriptions indicate that the sanctuary continued to function as an important place of worship for the inhabitants of the cities in Eastern Crete into the Hellenistic and Roman periods. A terracotta sima with scenes of charioteers and warriors in relief, a series of antefixes with gorgon heads and a frieze of lotus flowers and palmettes are all that has yet been found of the temples that stood on this site.
 

Illustrations
View of Bay with Kastri & Petsofa
Town plan in colour, indicating back-filled areas
Kouros and Petsofa-kouros
Three rhyta: marine style from Delta, Dolphin from Well and Bull’s Head from B7.
Sealing from B5.
Ivory plaque with water-bird from Block X.
Chariot sima