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The Akrotiri excavation site is of a Cycladic cultural settlement on the Greek island of Santorini, associated with the Minoan civilization due to inscriptions in Linear A, and close similarities in artifact and fresco styles. [4] The excavation is named for a modern village situated on a hill nearby. The name of the site in antiquity is unknown.
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. West of Akrotiri and on Santorini's westmost tip, there is a lighthouse dating from 1892. Much of the town is built around the ruins of a 13th-century fortress, the Castle of Akrotiri. [3]
The Minoan eruption was a catastrophic volcanic eruption that devastated the Aegean island of Thera (also called Santorini) circa 1600 BCE. [ 2 ] [ 3 ] 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 paleotsunamis . [ 4 ]
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 earliest excavations on Santorini were conducted by French geologist F. Fouque in 1867, after some local people found old artifacts at a quarry. Later, in 1895-1900, the digs by German archeologist Baron Friedrich Hiller von Gaertringen revealed the ruins of ancient Thera on Mesa Vouno . [ 1 ]
Near the small hillside village of Akrotiri, Venetians engineers constructed a new castle on top of an existing Byzantine watchtower; this castle became one of the most defensible positions on the island. [2] The fortress remained unconquered throughout the first of the Ottoman-Venetian Wars before finally surrendering to the Ottomans in 1617 ...
A view of the mountaintop ruins of Ancient Thera from Mt. Elias. The theater is built into the slope below the city. Ancient Thera (Greek: Αρχαία Θήρα) is the name of an archaeological site [1] from classical antiquity [2] on the island of Santorini, which sits on the top of a limestone hill called Mesa Vouno.
From the layering of the palace, Evans developed an archaeological concept of the civilization that used it, which he called Minoan, following the pre-existing custom of labelling all objects from the location Minoan. Since their discovery, the ruins have been the centre of excavation, tourism, and occupation as a headquarters by governments ...