The prehistoric settlement of Sesklo is situated near the modern village of the same name, 15 kilometres to the southwest of Volos. The excavations of the 20th century (1901-1902, 1956-1977) on Kastraki hill and the surrounding area have dated the habitation of the area from the Pre-Pottery Neolithic up to the Late Bronze Age (middle of the 2nd millenium BC). The long habitation of the area is due to the fertile arable soil, the abundance of water and the direct access it provided to both the mountains (Pelion) and the sea of the Gulf of Pagassai. During the Middle Neolithic the settlement covered Kastraki hill ("citadel" or Sesklo A), and further as well (Sesklo B and C) accommodating 200-300 inhabitants. The Middle Neolithic is also called Sesklo culture, since it was here that for the first time all the different cultural achievements that characterized Thesssaly during this period were recorded.


The small settlement of the Pre-Pottery Neolithic was limited to the "citadel" and consisted of subterranean huts with post walls. During the Early Neolithic it also stretched to the west of the hill (Sesklo B and C). It consisted of four-sided, one-roomed buildings with stone foundations and mud-brick walls, built, as in Achilleio, at a distance from each other. In the free spaces all kinds of economic and social activities were organised with the neighbouring households, such as cooking, pottery making etc.
During the Middle Neolithic a denser habitation has been observed both at the "citadel" and on the gradual slope to the west of it (Sesklo B or "city"). Rectangular buildings with stone foundations, walls of mud-bricks and gable or hipped roofs predominated from this period in the practice of architecture of the Neolithic. They had usually one room, on the ground floor, while there are some indications of the existence of a second storey. Their interior included hearths and constructions for storing goods and sleeping. The arrangement of the houses at the "citadel" differed from that of the so-called "city". In the "citadel" they followed a free-standing arrangement and they were at a short distance from each other, while in the "city" they were built one next to the other, forming clusters at some distance one from the other. In both cases though the effort to ensure as much building space as possible is manifest. In the "citadel" curvilinear retaining walls were built, that created terraces to receive the buildings of the west slope.


The characteristic painted pottery (red on light ground) of the Middle Neolithic was unearthed at the "citadel" of Sesklo but it was not found in the "city" of Sesklo. This could be attributed to some economic and social inequality not typical of the society of the Middle Neolithic, which though became more evident towards the end of the Neolithic. Around 4400 BC this thriving settlement was destroyed by an earthquake followed by fire, as was the case with other Thessalian settlements, leaving behind abandoned ruins for 500 years approximately, among them the ruins of a pottery workshop. Fire sealed for centuries the finest specimens of pottery, figurines, stone industry, seals and jewellery of the period.
During the Late Neolithic only the "citadel" of Sesklo was re-inhabited. At its highest spot a large megaroid house was built with an open porch and two closed rooms (152 square metres). This building was the most important of the settlement and was surrounded by stone enclosures -similar to those of neighbouring Dimini- around which other houses were built.