The Nichoria ridge is located at a distance of about 2km from the northwest coast of the Messenian Gulf and north of the modern village “Karpophora”. The systematic research conducted in Nichoria and the surrounding area during the 1960s and 1970s by the Minnesota University expedition and the Greek Archaeological Service brought to light the remains of a prehistoric settlement and numerous burial monuments. Habitation on the hill begins at the end of the 4th millennium BC (Final Neolithic). During the Mycenaean period (1600-1200 BC) it evolved into the largest and most important settlement of the region, as it occupied a strategic position supervising the Pamisos valley and the roads from eastern Messenia to the west coast and the Palace of Pylos. It is probably mentioned in the Linear B tablets from the Palace of Nestor and functioned as a centre for metallurgy and flax production. It was destroyed in 1200 BC, at the same time as the Palace of Nestor. From the 11th century BC to about 700 BC, groups of farmers resettled on the hill. Habitation resumed in late Roman and Byzantine times until the beginning of the 13th century AD.
On the north-western slope of the Nichoria hill, a tholos tomb was discovered which had been looted in antiquity. However, it yielded rich grave goods such as seal stones, small objects made of gold, ivory, and faience, bronze utensils, and weapons. It was used during the heyday of the settlement of Nichoria (1400-1200 BC). Traces of its use during the Classical period have also been found which are linked to the practice of ancestral worship. Next to the Tholos tomb, a small burial circle of the 16th/15th century BC was uncovered with group burials, mainly of children and women, with poor offerings.

Around the settlement of Nichoria, graves of various types were found, such as tholos and chamber tombs, stone-built cist graves with one arched side, and burial pithoi, with a period of use from about the 16th to the 8th century BC. In some of them, there are traces of ancestral worship during the Classical and Hellenistic periods. Finds from the settlement and the burial monuments of Nichoria are exhibited at the Archaeological Museum of Messenia in Kalamata.