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This web page was created by the braintumorguy, in Athens, GREECE.

Akrotiri was a settlement with stone-paved streets and squares, a prudently designed zoning plan and an advanced sewage system. The houses were two- and three-story, built with stone and mud. The ground floors housed craftsmen’s workshops and storerooms, mainly for food. The rooms of the upper stories were bathed in natural light streaming in through large windows. Most walls were decorated with elaborate paintings depicting people, animals and plants. The furniture was wooden and the loom was an essential household item, used by the lady of the house to weave the family’s clothes. The inhabitants were traders, artisans, mariners, farmers, stock breeders and craftsmen. They kept flocks of sheep and goats. They planted wheat and barley, which they harvested with stone or bronze sickles. They stored produce in large earthenware jars and cultivated olives, from which they made oil. Indeed, output was so high that they also exported. Wine production was another key economic activity. Locals further supplemented their income by supplying Crete with large quantities of obsidian (black volcanic rock) and metals. Their diet consisted of pulses, vegetables and all sorts of fish, caught in the surrounding waters and sold in the harbor. But their favorite delicacy was snails, brought to the island from Crete.

This is how Christos Doumas, emeritus professor of archaeology at the University of Athens, describes life in Akrotiri during the 2nd millennium BC. He also speaks about the wealth accumulated on Thera in that distant time from commerce: “The island had trade relations not only with Crete but also with mainland Greece, the Dodecanese, Cyprus, Syria and Egypt.” Thus, the prehistoric Therans, having satisfied their basic needs and thanks to the wealth they gradually acquired, were able to turn their attention to more pleasurable pursuits, for instance the art of good eating. Doumas focuses in particular on how art flourished as a means of projecting social status, and on the democratic structure of Theran society. “It is telling that men, women and children are equally depicted in wall paintings. For this reason, Akrotiri is also called the ‘prehistoric Venice of the Aegean’.”

THE DAY IT ALL CHANGED

This then was the situation until the spring of 1613 BC, when the island’s volcano came out of its slumber. The eruption that followed, the most powerful in the world of the past 10,000 years, completely destroyed Santorini (Thera) and the nearby islands. “If there had been no volcano, however, there would have been no Santorini as we know it today and, of course, there would have been no Akrotiri. Thanks to the volcanic ash, the remains of the prehistoric settlement have been preserved down the centuries,” explains the man who has made this place his life’s work.

In 1975 Doumas took over the excavations begun by the eminent archaeologist Spyridon Marinatos. Since then, he has brought to light an incredible wealth of information about the “Pompeii of the Aegean.” And at the age of 82 he continues to work ceaselessly. “We should be proud of Akrotiri,” says Doumas. “It is part of archaeology courses at universities all over the world. In the history of Aegean civilization, it is considered to have equal importance with the Acropolis (for the Classical period) and Mount Athos (for the Byzantine period). It is a momentous legacy.” All this makes a visit to Akrotiri a unique experience. The archaeological site (covering an area of 12,000 m2) is protected by a bioclimatic shelter that is supported by 96 steel columns, designed by the architect Nikos Fintikakis. Specially designed walkways take visitors around and through the settlement, while there are viewing platforms that provide excellent vantage points.

And, of course, at the Museum of Prehistoric Thera in Fira, the experience is enhanced with important finds from the excavations: marble figurines, pottery, bronze implements, cooking utensils and impressive storage jars with designs indicative of their content. Pay close attention to the celebrated Theran wall paintings (Blue Monkeys fresco, House of the Ladies fresco, etc), the work of outstanding artists, as well as artifacts (seals, lead weights, clay tablets inscribed with Linear A script) that provide evidence that the complex society of prehistoric Akrotiri devised and used systems of writing and measurement. That is, they applied methods for the management of goods, developing a type of bureaucracy. Finally, just before leaving the exhibition area, don’t forget to visit the most impressive find: a gold ibex figurine, quite unique, which was found in December 1999 in excellent condition in its wooden case. Concluding our conversation with Professor Doumas, I ask him what Akrotiri means to him personally. “The scene of the… crime,” he replies laughing. “I will always return here, as long as I can still stand. And when you consider that only 3 percent of the prehistoric settlement has been investigated, we archaeologists still have many centuries of work beneath the shelter!”

The view is stunning from the top of Mesa Vouno (365 meters), on the south-eastern tip of Santorini. Kamari (Ancient Oia) and Perissa (old Eleusis) stretch out before us as we gaze beyond, into the horizon of the Aegean Sea. The Dorians arrived at this rugged, wind-swept spot in the 8th century BC. They were led by the Spartan King Theras who, with a few dozen Lacedaemonians, landed on the Cycladic island, established a colony and named the island Thera in his own honor – until then it had been known as Strongyle (after its round shape) or Kallisti (meaning “most beautiful”).

The Spartans knew what they were doing when they settled Mesa Vouno. “Its precipitous location is naturally fortified and has great strategic advantages, as one could easily control the entire south-eastern Aegean from this vantage point,” explains Maya Efstathiou, an archaeologist with the 21st Ephorate of Antiquities of Cyclades. Other factors were also important to those people who left hearth and home to make a new start in a foreign land: the island’s only natural springs were here and, in addition, the limestone provide and abundance of building material.

Thus Ancient Thera was born. Through the centuries and historical turmoil, it experienced periods of prosperity and poverty, as well as security and anguish. One thing, however, is certain: ever since that time, Santorini was conquered and settled by a succession of different nations. It was never again abandoned as it had been in prehistoric times after the terrible volcanic eruption that wiped away the brilliant civilization of Akrotiri.

The city of Thera evolved into the island’s administrative, religious and commercial center, with public buildings, markets, baths, temples and churches, neighborhoods of private residences, a theater, water reservoirs, a sewage system and an excellent road network. Its buildings were defined by their simple yet graceful lines.

The quantity and provenance of the imported products discovered in excavations show that Thera had commercial ties and was linked as far back as the 8th century BC with all the major urban centers of the time, from Corinth and mainland Greece, to the islands of the Northern Aegean, the Cyclades and Crete, all the way to Cyprus and North Africa. It was, in fact, one of the first places to adopt the Phoenician alphabet as the basis of Greek writing. Its decline began in the late 3rd century AD as it became safer and more comfortable for residents to live near the island’s seaports of Oia and Ancient Eleusis.

“In the late 7th and 8th centuries, Arab raids rendered life on the coast dangerous and makeshift settlements began to form in the hills once more.

A short time later, however, Ancient Thera was abandoned for good,” notes Efstathiou. The city luckily did not disappear into the annals of history, as numerous traces of its past remained always visible and the testimonies of travelers have kept its memory alive.

German-led excavations in the 19th century and Greek ones after that have revealed a good part of the ancient city, and the archaeological site today gives visitors a feel of its pulse. The picture comes together with a visit to the Archaeological Museum of Fira, which contains some of the most significant finds from the site, such as statues and votive offerings, and decorative and utilitarian objects – souvenirs of lives whose true stories we may never know.

February, 1961. A young archaeologist arrives by sea in Santorini, after a 48-hour sail from Mykonos! He has changed boats twice, overnighted in Syros and Ios, and now catches his first glimpse of the caldera at dawn. “Anyone who hasn’t visited Santorini by boat at least once, entered that giant crater and sensed the awe that it provokes, is missing out,” says Christos Doumas, an emeritus professor of prehistoric archaeology.

Back then, he was 28 years old and a junior archaeologist in the Cyclades. His mission was to evaluate a group of graves (early Christian, as it turned out) that had been revealed during building work to enlarge the high school of Thera – as the island is officially called.

Santorini in those days bore no relation to the glamorous image it presents today. “Everywhere there was evidence of the great earthquake of 1956. Oia was a tiny village, almost in ruins. At Fira, there was only Nikolas’ taverna. That is where all of us, the workers who weren’t locals, went to eat. Most of the island’s inhabitants were farmers or herders –there were very few craftsmen – and given that they only produced grapes and tomatoes, they had to import a lot of their produce.” That year, Doumas spent only a few weeks in Santorini. But he would come back, and stay for good

Today, 2017. A few months ago, Christos Doumas was made an honorary citizen of Thera. It was to be expected. His occupation with the island’s ancient heritage now goes back more than 50 years. “As a student of the ancient civilizations of the Aegean, I have become accustomed to measuring time in millennia. Half a century is like an instant,” the professor and director of the Akrotiri excavations says, laughing. “However, taking stock of what I have achieved in that half century makes me feel rich. Once, a high school student from Emporio asked me what I had gained from working in Santorini all these years. I replied that ‘the wealth that I acquired here is priceless. And it is of such a kind that I am not afraid of losing it or having it stolen.’”

In the autumn of 1968, Doumas returned to Athens from England, where he had received his doctorate. “I presented myself to Spyridon Marinatos, the general director of the Archaeological Service, who one year earlier had begun to excavate Akrotiri. He asked me where I would like to serve. I replied that I would prefer to return to the Cyclades. ‘I need someone to work with me at Akrotiri,’ he told me. That is how I found myself back in Santorini. I was lucky. By working next to Marinatos, I learned a lot.”

From that point on, Doumas never left. He now feels like a Santorinian. “I feel like an Akrotirian! If I go a month without visiting the excavation, I get withdrawal symptoms…”

PRIDE IN AKROTIRI

In 1974, Marinatos passed away and the following year Doumas himself took over running the excavation, bringing to light an amazing wealth of finds and information. He continues to work tirelessly at the age of 83. “We should be proud of Akrotiri. It is on the curriculum in every university in the world where archaeology is taught. In the long-term history of Aegean civilization, it is considered on a par with the Acropolis and Mt Athos. It is an incredibly significant heritage, which it is our duty to present to the world, and not to abuse,” he says.

Listening to him talk about prehistoric Thera is a joy. He talks about its inhabitants who, having covered their basic needs, graduated to pleasure, developing gastronomy. He speaks, too, of the flowering of art as way of projecting social status and about a society with a democratic structure. “It is not accidental that men, women and children are all depicted to an equal degree in the frescoes.

This is why Akrotiri is known as the ‘prehistoric Venice of the Aegean,’” he explains, referring the Italian republic’s reputation for egalitarianism. Even hearing him talk about the volcanic eruption, the largest on the planet in the last 10,000 years, that totally destroyed Santorini and the nearby islands, is fascinating. “If it weren’t for the volcano, we wouldn’t have Santorini as we know it today, and of course there would be no Akrotiri. The volcanic ash ‘saved’ the remains of the prehistoric town from the passage of time,” he stresses.

What has he learned from archaeology? “That the history of humanity can’t be shoehorned into the little boxes that we archaeologists have created, such as ‘from x date to y.’ It is a continuum, and if you can’t understand that, you won’t understand anything. Every civilization is nothing but the sum of the responses of humans to the environment. We have a variety of environments on this planet, and therefore a variety of civilizations.”

And what has this excavation still got to contribute, 50 years on? “Within the covered area, we’ve identified 35 buildings. Of these, only four have been excavated, and we’ve recovered over 14,000 whole pots from them! You can appreciate that we still have many centuries of work under this protective roof!”

SANTORINI OF YESTERYEAR

Doumas’ stories bring us back to a time when even a telephone call was a complicated undertaking. “From the excavation site, we had to walk to Mrs Kalliope’s house; she had the only telephone in the area. She connected us to Pyrgos, they connected us to Fira and then the call would go through to Athens. The whole thing took about an hour.” Doumas wasn’t always at the site. “From 1968, when I settled permanently, I spent all week at Akrotiri and on weekends I explored the ‘other’ Santorini: the trails, the villages, the Byzantine and post-Byzantine monuments. I wanted to understand how this society evolved. For example, in Fira at the time, there were around 15 carpenters, for a population of fewer than 400. Why, I wondered, did they need so many?

I soon learned that they crafted the barrels for the wine that was exported. The ships that left mainly for Odessa (which had a large Greek community) full of barrels of wine couldn’t return empty; it wasn’t economical. So they filled their holds with wheat and stacked their decks with tree trunks for the Santorinians to build new barrels for the next round of exports. These are the kind of fascinating things I learned.”

In Santorini, Doumas learned about more than the place and its people; a mainlander, he got to understand the behavior, culture and character of islanders. “Santorinians, even if they didn’t all travel, heard stories from the sailors, and had open horizons, as all islanders do. They developed a respect for ‘the other,’ an understanding that, all over the world, people face more or less the same problems. And another thing: for the islander, the sea is a road that can open up new horizons, but if you don’t develop initiatives, if you don’t improvise when required, the almost perpetually stormy sea can ‘eat you alive.’

This uncertainty accounts for the fact that we Greeks find it hard to plan ahead. For the Aegean islander, it’s the end goal that matters, not the time required to accomplish it.” Recently, Prof. Doumas authored a book titled “Prehistoric Thera,” which is published by the John S. Latsis Public Benefit Foundation and distributed for free to research institutions such as museums and university libraries. What did he want to convey to the reader? “An understanding that ‘sic transit gloria mundi’ or ‘thus passes the glory of this world.’”

Is he concerned about his own legacy? “Honestly, no. I’ve done good things and bad things. Some will remember the former, others the latter. It’s my reputation now that concerns me, not after I’m gone. I don’t believe in the next world. I’m not afraid of becoming a cloud…”

These days, shipborne visitors landing on Santorini quickly come face to face with its impressive geological and cultural past, as they disembark at the foot of its sheer volcanic cliffs. Three main archaeological attractions – the houses and streets of “Pompeii-like”Akrotiri, the ruins of the hilltop town of Thera and the island’s once-fortified towns and watchtowers – bear witness to three major phases in Santorini’s lengthy history: the prehistoric period,Geometric through Early Christian or Byzantine times and the medieval to early modern era.

Recurrent features in all these times were war and peace, as Santorini (or Thera) evolved from being a quiet island settlement, to a key maritime crossroads, a frequent target for pirates and, most significantly for its native population, a political plaything of great Western and Eastern powers

RISE AND FALL OF AKROTIRI

The earliest inhabitants of Santorini arrived during the Neolithic era, by at least the 4th millennium BC. Minimal, scattered traces of their architecture and pottery reveal they were very few in number, probably attracted by the natural abundance of the volcanically-formed island – freshwater springs, rich, arable soils and an encircling sea well-stocked with fish and other marine creatures.

Obsidian was also a much-desired volcanic product in Neolithic times, used for tool manufacturing, and early sea travelers may have looked to Santorini as a potential source of this valuable raw material, supplementary to the region’s main supply on nearby Milos.

As prehistoric seafaring expanded in the Aegean, more and more people migrated to Santorini, settling especially on a peninsula (“akrotiri”) at the southwestern end of the island, beside a large, south-facing bay that offered a naturally protected harbor.

After limited Neolithic occupation, the site known today as Akrotiri was reinhabited during the Early Bronze Age, from ca. 2,500 BC, and then went on to become an increasingly populated, prosperous and architecturally elaborate urban center and maritime hub through the Middle and early Late Bronze Ages (ca. 2,000-ca. 1,627 BC).

In the last quarter of the 17th c. BC, however, one or more earthquakes and minor volcanic eruptions were followed by a massive, far more devastating explosion that altered the island’s landscape and buried the town of Akrotiri beneath meters of volcanic ash. Thus was created one of the Mediterranean’s great archaeological sites, covering an enormous area of about 200,000m2 (20ha), which serves as a long-sealed time capsule of Late Bronze Age Aegean life.

Rediscovered in 1967 by archaeologist Spyridon Marinatos, Akrotiri has been steadily unearthed to the point where now about one hectare of ruins can be viewed beneath a vast protective roof. Removal of the thick ash layer revealed a remarkable prehistoric town: a sophisticated Cycladic culture heavily influenced by the Minoans of Crete, who likely were frequent visitors for trade with Akrotiri or even long-term or permanent residents.

Cultural affinities with Knossos and other Minoan centers include a light-spirited appreciation of nature and life, reflected in the more than fifty-eight colorful frescoes so far recovered and conserved. Among the extraordinary images are semi-tropical and spring landscapes, papyrus plants, dolphins, monkeys, antelopes, nearly-naked boxing boys, a young priestess, elegant ladies harvesting saffron, a fisherman holding up his bountiful catch and a fleet of ships arriving at port. Scenes from a naval battle may be allusions to an historical event and may show that life on Santorini was not always serene.

Minoan architectural influence is seen in Akrotiri’s multi-storied buildings, some with suites of rooms with multiple doors, light wells and lustral basins. Water and waste were managed through a complex system of pipes and drains. Akrotiri’s excavations, led by Professor Christos Doumas since 1975, have also yielded tens of thousands of ceramic vessels and other artifacts of stone, metal and ivory. Even traces of wooden furniture, bed frames and basketry have been preserved within the site’s volcanic overburden.

Some thirty-five buildings stand beneath the modern roof, separated by a network of streets occasionally punctuated by small open squares. There are lavish public buildings such as “Xesti 3,” where a small golden ibex offering was found in 1999, and the imposing “Xesti 4” with its monumental façade of squared blocks and a painted procession of life-sized male figures that flanks its stepped entranceway.

Private residences include the “West House,” which features storerooms, workshops, a kitchen, a mill installation, a weaving room, a storeroom stocked with ceramic vessels, a bathroom and two possible bedrooms splendidly decorated with murals.

The exotic subjects of some wall paintings and the many imported objects recovered at Akrotiri indicate the town enjoyed links with the outside world, including mainland Greece, Crete, other southern Aegean islands, Cyprus, Syria and Egypt. Its diverse population included traders, craftsmen, fishermen, farmers, shepherds, priests, priestesses and probably civic officials, at least some of whom were literate, judging from inscribed Linear A tablets discovered in “Building Complex D.”

To date, no royal palace or other evidence for a singular leader has been detected. Also lacking are any skeletal traces of the inhabitants themselves. This could mean they rightly took earlier seismic and volcanic events as signs of impending disaster, and thus were able to evacuate their doomed island before its final, cataclysmic eruption.

According to Doumas, further investigation outside the town – especially westward, where residents may have fled upwind to avoid smoke, ash and noxious gases – may still reveal burials or other archaeological clues regarding the ultimate fate of the exceptional and mysteriously absent Akrotirian people.

ANCIENT THERA: THE MOUNTAIN CITADEL

After the great Theran eruption, there is scant archaeological evidence for inhabitants on the island for many centuries. The historianHerodotus, however, reports that during this period, “…Theras…was preparing to lead out colonists from Lacedaemon [Sparta]. ThisTheras was of the line of Cadmus… and…held the royal power of Sparta… On the island now called Thera, but then Calliste, there were descendants of Membliarus…a Phoenician…[who had] dwelt [there]…for eight generations…It was these that Theras was preparing to join…to settle among…and not drive them out but claim them as in fact his own people.”

The presence of such mainland Greek (Dorian) colonists is well attested in the 9th and 8th c. BC by Geometric graves and pottery, which indicate the island’s new center of settlement was now on its east coast – on the slopes and summit of the mountain Mesa Vouno, overlooking the bays of Kamari and Perissa. It was here that the Geometric-through-Early Byzantine town of “Ancient Thera” was established.

Thera, named after its mythical founder, grew to be a far-reaching trade station, as shown by hundreds of excavated coins (6th c. BC) linking the town with Athens and Corinth to the west, and Rhodesand Ionia (western Anatolia) to the East. It also sent out its own colonists when, as Herodotus further reports, a seven-year drought (ca. 630 BC) led Therans to sail to Libya and establish the great port city of Cyrenaica.

Thera’s zenith came in Hellenistic times, during the 4th–2nd c. BC, when Alexander the Great’s rivalrous successors and later theEgyptian Ptolemaic navy exploited its port facilities as a strategic naval base. The fortified mountain-top town was reorganized with a more regular plan of paved, often stepped streets; affluent courtyard houses appeared; and religious/public life was enhanced with numerous temples, sanctuaries, gymnasia, Doric stoas (colonnaded walkways), a theater and/or council house (capacity 1,500) and, in Roman times, a bath complex.

German and Greek archaeologists, excavating since 1895, have unearthed a central marketplace and administrative center(agora); a major sanctuary honoring the Spartan deity Apollo Karneios; a large manmade terrace for hosting the annual Karneia festival; another sanctuary adorned with statues and relief-carvings, founded by the Ptolemaic admiral Artemidoros of Perge and dedicated mainly toPoseidon, Zeus and Apollo; a shrine for the Egyptian gods Serapis, Isis and Anubis; a natural grotto dedicated to Hermes and Hercules; and many dwellings, including an impressive residence thought to belong to the commander of the Ptolemaic fleet.

In early Christian times, Thera became the seat of a bishopric – the first bishop was Dioskouros (AD 324-344) – and several basilicas or smaller churches were soon established, sometimes on the spot of a previous pagan temple or shrine whose stones were reused for the new building. By the 8th or 9th c. AD, Thera had declined and was finally abandoned, perhaps partly as a result of renewed threats from the island’s volcano, such as the heavy barrage of pumice stone recorded as having fallen on the town in AD 726.

OUTSIDE INTERFERENCE AND ULTIMATE FREEDOM

In addition to the dangers they faced from volcanic activity, Santorinians were also plagued by seaborne bandits and covetous foreign powers. The story of Santorini in the medieval and early modern era represents a microcosm of the larger history of the Aegean islands during this period.

Many coastal communities, seeking greater security, moved inlandafter the mid- 7th c. Marauding Saracen (Arab/Muslim) pirates took control of Crete in the early 9th c. and began exacting tribute or “taxes” from the Cycladic islands. Through the following centuries, Santorini held little political or military significance and suffered greatly from poverty.

With the European Crusaders’ victory over Constantinople in 1204, the Venetians moved into the Aegean; Mark Sanudo took Naxos in 1205; and his relative Jaccopo Barozzi was initially granted “Santorini,” a name that recalls the conspicuous church of Santa Irini(Aghia Irini) in coastal Perissa.

As wealthy, adventuring lords divided up spoils from the Fourth Crusade, a feudal system was imposed in the Cyclades much like that in Europe; sea routes through the region were made safer; and maritime trade flourished. In Santorini, wine and cotton became profitable products. An aristocratic culture also developed. John IV Crispo, a governor of the Duchy of Naxos (1518-1564), is said to have fostered a lavish court life and tried to emulate locally the Western Renaissance.

Despite such lofty aspirations, the Aegean remained fraught with risk. The Santorinians of the 13th through 17th c. increasingly found themselves on the fringes of a watery battlefield, caught between disputatious Byzantines, Venetians, Genoese, Catholics,Orthodox, Spaniards (Catalans) and Turks. Commonly heard on Cycladic streets and wharves were Greek, Italian and Turkish, while even the multi-lingual wording of contemporary legal documents reflected this rich mixture of cultures.

Pirates of diverse origin also continued to pose a threat, as they repeatedly raided Santorini and neighboring Aegean islands. Among them were the Barbary Pirates (from North Africa) and the infamous Barbarossa, Grand Admiral of the Ottoman Navy, in the 16th c. Albanian, Maltese and other Christian pirates – such asHugues Creveliers, “the Hercules of the seas” – defied the Turks’ increasing hegemony in the 17th c., often aided by priests and monks who gave them provisions.

Francois Richard, a Jesuit, recorded at this time that Santorini had poor resources and suffered from severe drought when rainwater did not fill the islanders’ rock-cut cisterns. Moreover, he noted that, to counteract the danger of pirates, “most of the villagers’ houses or farmhouses, even churches and chapels, are underground. Thus, many families have over their roofs the fields, vineyards and gardens they cultivate.” Santorini’s wines, according to Richard, were exported toChios, Smyrni, Chandakas (Heraklion) and Constantinople.

The larger towns or important manors on Santorini were fortified by the island’s Venetian lords with stout, castle-like walls. These “kastelia,” equipped with gateways and “goulades” (watchtowers), existed atSkaros (or present-day Imerovigli), Oia (Castle of Aghios Nikolaos or Apanomerias), Pyrgos, Emporio and Akrotiri (Punta Castelli). Although heavily damaged by the earthquake of 1956, remains of these defensive structures are still visible today. They stood on strategic spots, difficult to attack from the sea, and served as nuclei for expanded settlement during later, more peaceful times. The best-preserved outlying watchtower is that of the Venetian Bozzi family in the island’s present-day capital of Fira.

Santorini’s fortunes greatly improved following the Greek War of Independence in 1821. Despite characteristically arid soils and few fresh water resources, agriculture and industry developed and commercial shipping flourished through the 19th and early 20th c.Before steam ships eclipsed sailing vessels in the late 1800s, Santorini possessed one of the largest merchant fleets in the Aegean, while Oia came to be known as “the village of the captains.”

The devastating 1956 earthquake severely altered the island’s upward course; many homes were destroyed, lives were losts and livelihoods were wiped out. The people of Santorini once again returned to poverty and hardship. However, since the economic resurgence of the 1970s, Santorini has, with the help of its unique history, stunning geology and burgeoning wine and tourism industries, now reached new heights of world-wide popularity as a vacation destination.