The archaeological site of Akrotiri is the name given to a small Minoan settlement located on the volcanic island of Thera (or Santorini) in the Aegean Sea. Occupied first in the late Neolithic, Akrotiri grew to an important trade center during the middle and late Bronze Age, with an elaborate drainage system and a palace.
In the late 1700s BC, a series of earthquakes forced the abandonment of the town, and a good thing too: Thera then erupted, covering the city in ash and splitting the island in two.
Greek archaeologist Spyridon Marinatos excavated Akrotiri in the late 1960s and early 1970s; and then Christos Doumas took over. Akrotiri has been suggested as a possible origin of Plato's Atlantis legend; archaeologists are more interested in the effects the eruption had on the Minoan culture. Most recently, controversy has stirred over the precise date of the eruptions at Akrotiri, with both ice core and volcanic dates indicating about 1625 BC, or about 100 years earlier than traditional dates.
Sources
The best source for more information about Akrotiri is the project website of the Thera Foundation, which has some high-resolution images.
Louis, Filippos I., Roger A. Clark, Ioannis F. Louis, and Makropoulos C. C. 2005 . Journal of Applied Geophysics 57(4):306-326.
Manning, Sturt W., et al. 2006 Chronology for the Aegean Late Bronze Age 1700–1400 B.C. Science 312 (5773):565-569.
Zielinski, Gregory A. and Mark S. Germani 1998 New ice-core evidence challenges the 1620s BC age for the Santorini (Minoan eruption). Journal of Archaeological Science 25:279-289.
This glossary entry is part of the Dictionary of Archaeology. Any mistakes are the responsibility of Kris Hirst.
