The Early Minoan settlement at Myrtos is situated at Fournou Koriphi, close to the south coast of Ierapetra. The settlement was built during the Early Minoan II period and was destroyed at the end of the same period by fire.
The outside of this complex surrounded by a wall with two entrances. One circular fortification which protected the south entrance indicates the need for basic defense; an element which does not recur in the Cretan settlements until the end of the Bronze Age. The walls which were built of unworked stones suggest simple Neolithic stone masonry. The inside walls were covered with red or brown plaster, such as the Early Minoan houses of Vasiliki. The roof was made of reeds stuck together with mud, and the floors were formed by flattened earth.

The settlement was not composed of independent buildings but of areas which were connected by causeways that seem to have been constructed in two phases. Recent research has shown that the building complex is composed of five or six building units of the same size, where about 50 families would have lived. Myrtos thus indicates relative social equality in the Early Minoan period.
Specific areas of the settlement are identified as workshops. One of them is a potter's workshop since early potter's discs were found there whereas another workshop was a weaving workshop. A great number of pithoi were found in the storage rooms. The settlement of Myrtos has a large number of Early Minoan sealings and seals, some of which are half finished. One of the earliest shrines of Minoan Crete was recovered in this settlement. On the altar of this shrine a peculiar statuette of a goddess holding a spouted vessel was found; it is the goddess of Myrtos.