Akrotiri (Greek: Ακρωτήρι, pronounced Greek: [akroˈtiri]) is a Cycladic Bronze Age settlement site on the volcanic Greek island of Santorini. The name comes from the nearby village of Akrotiri.
The settlement was destroyed during the Theran eruption sometime in the 16th century BC, and was buried in volcanic ash, which helped preserve its fine frescoes. Akrotiri has been excavated since 1967, after earlier excavations on the island.
___Pumice_q.jpg)
Santorini, officially Thira or Thera, is a Greek island in the southern Aegean Sea, about 200 km (120 mi) southeast from the mainland. It is the largest island of a small, circular archipelago formed by the Santorini caldera. It is the southernmost member of the Cyclades group of islands, with an area of approximately 73 km (28 sq mi) and a 2021 census population of 15,480. The municipality of Santorini includes the inhabited islands of Santorini and Therasia, and the uninhabited islands of Nea Kameni, Palaia Kameni, Aspronisi, Anydros, and Christiana. The total land area is 91 km (35 sq mi). Santorini is part of the Thira regional unit.
Santorini is the most active volcanic centre in the South Aegean Volcanic Arc. The volcanic arc is approximately 500 km (300 mi) long and 20 to 40 km (12 to 25 mi) wide. The region first became volcanically active around 3–4 million years ago, though volcanism on Thera began around 2 million years ago with the extrusion of dacitic lavas from vents around Akrotiri. One of the largest volcanic eruptions in recorded history struck the island about 3,600 years ago, leaving a large water-filled caldera surrounded by deep volcanic ash deposits.
The Minoan eruption was a catastrophic volcanic eruption that devastated the Aegean island of Thera (also called Santorini) circa 1600 BC. It destroyed the Minoan settlement at Akrotiri, as well as communities and agricultural areas on nearby islands and the coast of Crete with subsequent earthquakes and tsunamis. With a Volcanic Explosivity Index (VEI) of 7, it resulted in the ejection of approximately 28–41 km (6.7–9.8 cu mi) of dense-rock equivalent (DRE), the eruption was one of the largest volcanic events in human history. Because tephra from the Minoan eruption serves as a marker horizon in nearly all archaeological sites in the Eastern Mediterranean, its precise date is of high importance and has been fiercely debated among archaeologists and volcanologists for decades, without coming to a definite conclusion.
Although there are no clear ancient records of the eruption, its plume and volcanic lightning may have been described in the Egyptian Tempest Stele. The Chinese Bamboo Annals reported unusual yellow skies and summer frost at the beginning of the Shang dynasty, which may have been a consequence of volcanic winter (similar to 1816, the Year Without a Summer, after the 1815 eruption of Mount Tambora).
Akrotiri (Greek: Ακρωτήρι) is a village and a community on the island of Santorini in Greece. It is located 15 kilometers south of the capital Fira, built on the slopes of a hill offering staggering views of the caldera cliffs. On top of this hill, there are remains of a Venetian castle (Goulas). Akrotiri is part of the Thira region and had 515 permanent inhabitants according to the Greek census of 2021.
Approximately 2 km southeast, the Minoan Bronze Age Akrotiri archaeological site is located. This is one of the most important of its kind in the Aegean.
The wall paintings of ancient Thera are famous frescoes discovered by Spyridon Marinatos at the excavations of Akrotiri on the Greek island of Santorini (or Thera). They are regarded as part of Minoan art, although the culture of Thera was somewhat different from that of Crete, and the political relationship between the two islands at the time is unclear. They have the advantage of mostly being excavated in a more complete condition, still on their walls, than Minoan paintings from Knossos and other Cretan sites.
Most of the frescos are now in the Prehistoric Museum of Thera on Santorini, or the National Archaeological Museum of Athens, which has several of the most complete and famous scenes.
The Akrotiri Boxer Fresco, discovered in 1967, is one of the Wall Paintings of Thera and a leading example of Minoan painting, though the version usually shown (as here) includes large sections "reconstructed" by archaeologists, which can be identified by their smooth texture. It is a fresco depicting two young boys wearing boxing gloves and belts and dates back to the Bronze Age, 1700 BC. Around 1600 BC, a disastrous earthquake, followed by a volcanic eruption, covered Akrotiri, Greece in a thick layer of pumice and ash, which resulted in the remarkable conservation of frescoes, including the Akrotiri Boxer Fresco, from multiple buildings throughout the town. This particular fresco was found in room B1 of Building Beta along with the Antelope Fresco. The boys' shaved heads and stray locks indicate their youth, while their darker skin tone indicates their gender. The boy on the right is completely nude except for a belt, whereas the boy on the left has jewellery; most likely markers of a higher status. They appear to be slightly over life-size at roughly 5 ft 10 in (1.78 m). To create such vibrant frescoes, a smooth lime plaster was applied to the walls and then painted over. It is impossible to know whether the match was a competitive one or simply a routine sport.
Spyridon Marinatos (Greek: Σπυρίδων Μαρινάτος; 17 November [O.S. 4 November] 1901 – 1 October 1974) was a Greek archaeologist who specialised in the Minoan and Mycenaean civilizations of the Aegean Bronze Age. He is best known for the excavation of the Minoan site of Akrotiri on Thera, which he conducted between 1967 and 1974. He received many honours in Greece and abroad, and was considered one of the most important Greek archaeologists of his day.
A native of Kephallonia, Marinatos was educated at the University of Athens, the Friedrich Wilhelms University of Berlin, and the University of Halle. His early teachers included noted archaeologists such as Panagiotis Kavvadias, Christos Tsountas and Georg Karo. He joined the Greek Archaeological Service in 1919, and spent much of his early career on the island of Crete, where he excavated several Minoan sites, served as director of the Heraklion Museum, and formulated his theory that the collapse of Neopalatial Minoan society had been the result of the eruption of the volcanic island of Thera around 1600 BCE.