Akrotiri - a peak at life and art 3700 years ago

The city of Akrotiri on Santorini was twice destroyed by earthquakes and rebuilt better each time. However, it could not withstand the eruption of roughly 1620-1610 BCE that resulted in the flooded caldera we now call Santorini.













Reminder - Nea Kameni and Palea Kameni are the volcanoes.

Santorini and Therasia are the non-flooded portions of the caldera rim.







Less than 10% of Akrotiri has been excavated and like all the other archaeological sites 

a lot of imagination is needed to “see” the city as it was. 

But, what is known from the excavation so far is that Akrotiri was a large, 

impressive, and thriving commerce and trading seaport city. 























We were completely unaware that the entirety of the excavated portion of 

Akrotiri is protected from the elements.

We thought we were going into the “museum” aspect of the site and instead it was this.








The building has a “living roof” except where the skylights are so you really don’t have any clue to the vastness of what you are walking into until you are there.







The wooden door and window frames have been replaced with concrete (for stability).

These buildings would have been two to three stories tall. 
















It’s hard to imagine this level of sophistication 3700 years ago.

How did they craft and fire clay vessels this large (4-5’ tall)?








These vessels were found in this room/building but not intact. 

The restoration teams have pieced them back together. The blank areas are parts not original.






Presumably the inhabitants had enough warning to evacuate because no human 

remains have been found and few items of high value such as jewelry. 

What they couldn’t take with them were the many fresco paintings that 

adorned the building interiors. We saw two large frescoes in Athens at 

the National Archaeological Museum but the Prehistory museum in 

Fira on Santorini has many others.


Frescos in Athens that are from Akrotiri







Human figures are ⅔ life-size.




















Aspects of the fresco that couldn’t be pieced together are painted.








Overall the frescoes would have covered all the wall space in a room.







The Prehistory museum in Fira on Santorini has the frescoes displayed in spaces that are to scale of the rooms they were found in (in pieces on the floor).

In this case, the gray blocks on the floor where Jeff is standing represent supportive columns.






A small portion of a fresco frieze that ran above the windows in one of the rooms.
















More Akrotiri frescoes from the museum in Fira


























This tiny (2” tall x 3-4” long) hollow gold Ibex is one of two gold items found at Akrotiri.

The other was a single gold bead.

The Ibex was found in 1999 in pristine condition. 

It had been stored in a wooden box inside a clay box.


















This bronze saw has serrated teeth just like we have on any wood saw out in the garage. 

But this one is at least 3700 years old!












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