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PREHISTORIC MUSEUM OF THERA
The
Museum of Prehistoric Thera houses finds from the excavations at
Akrtotiri, conducted under the auspices of the Archaeological
Society at Athens, the earlier excavations at Potamos, made by
members of the German Archaeological Institute at Athens, and rescue
excavations at various other sites on the island, carried out by the
21st Ephorate of Antiquities for the Cyclades and Samos, as well as
objects discovered fortuitously or handed over.
The exhibition is structured in
four
units, referring to the history of research at Thera, the
geology of Thera, the island's history from the Late Neolithic to
the Late Cycladic I periond (early 17th century B.C.) and the heyday
of the city at
Akrotiri (mature Late Cycladic I period, 17th century B.C.). In
the last unit, in particular, various aspects are presented, such as
the plan and architecture of the city and its organization as an
urban centre, the emergent bureaucratic system, the development of
the monumental art of wall-painting, the rich and diverse pottery
repertoire, the elegant jewellery, the reciprocal influences between
vase-painting and wall-painting, and the city's and the island's
complex network of contacts with the outside word.
The exhibits include fossils of
plants that flourished before the human habitation of Thera and
archaeological objects. Among the earliest pieces are Neolithic
pottery, Early Cycladic marble figurines, Early Cycladic pottery,
including interesting pieces of the transitional phase from Late
Cycladic II to Late Cycladic III period (Kastri group) from the
Christiana islets and Akrotiri (3300-2000 B.C.) -Middle Cycladic
pottery with a series of impressive bird jugs, many of them
decorated with swallows - from Ftellos, Megalochori and Akrotiri
(20th-18th century B.C.), and Early Cycladic metal artefacts from
the last two sites.
Noteworthy among the numerous
exhibits from the period when the city at Akrotiri was at its zenith
(17th century B.C.) are the plaster casts of furniture, the
household equipment, the bronze vessels, tools and weapons, the
objects that bear witness to the practice of metalworking, the
sealings, seals and Linear A tablets. Impressive too are the
magnificent wall-painting ensembles (wall-painting of Ladies and
Papyri, wall-painting of the Blue Monkeys) and fragments of others
(the "African", Adorant Monkeys, Bird, floral motifs). Last, there
are numerous and luxurious clay vases including the remarkable
pithos with the bull, vases of stone and of clay imported from
different parts of the Aegean and the Eastern Mediterranean, and the
gold ibex figurine, a remarkable recent find.
The
exhibition endeavours to sketch the course of Thera in prehistoric
times, through selected finds from the thousands in the storerooms.
This was a dynamic and creative course which established the city at
Akrotiri as one of the most important Aegean centres during the 18th
and 17th centuries B.C.
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