  Coherent photoproduction of $\eta$-mesons off $^3$He, i.e. the reaction
$\gamma ^3{He}\rightarrow \eta ^3{He}$, has been investigated in the
near-threshold region. The experiment was performed at the Glasgow tagged
photon facility of the Mainz MAMI accelerator with the combined Crystal Ball -
TAPS detector. Angular distributions and the total cross section were measured
using the $\eta\rightarrow \gamma\gamma$ and $\eta\rightarrow 3\pi^0\rightarrow
6\gamma$ decay channels. The observed extremely sharp rise of the cross section
at threshold and the behavior of the angular distributions are evidence for a
strong $\eta {^3{He}}$ final state interaction, pointing to the existence of a
resonant state. The search for further evidence of this state in the excitation
function of $\pi^0$-proton back-to-back emission in the $\gamma
^3{He}\rightarrow \pi^0 pX$ reaction revealed a very complicated structure of
the background and could not support previous conclusions.
