Ok, this may be my most geeky blogpost of all, my long dreams of archaeology showing clear.  After Michelle and I went to Akrotiri, and we met the other tour groups, most dispersed to the village of Oia (wish someone would blog-picture that for us!), but I wandered off by myself, and eventually got to this Museum of Prehistoric Thira--which is where many of the artifacts from Akrotiri are located.  [But check this out--when I googled 'Santorini museum,' I got a whole range of places I didn't even suspect were there.  Need a week on this island sometime.]

So, I took way too many pictures here, half of them with that yellow museum-case light.  Several kinds of things here--a few bronze implements (this was the Bronze Age, after all), many pieces of pottery, and most astonding, the recovered wall frescos, which have survived and retained their color after being buried in volcanic ash for 3500 years.  I tried to take notes as I went along taking pictures, but I also had to dodge around a German group and others, so my notes don't tell me much--'Neolithic obsidian, marble fig 7800BCE, jugs 1700BCE, Linear A fragments'--oh, well.  Here's more old vases than most of you will want to see.

Here, an odd little table, recovered from the ash, looking strangely fragile, touching...

then a set of bronze scale plates (I suspect the plexiglass stand and chain are not original...


with a set of weight-measures...

then one of the many curiously-shaped vases...

and an odd human figure...

Here, a larger standing basin, decorated with various fish and dolphins...

Here, one of the wall frescoes, a woman holding out her arm--notice the make-up, the bracelet, the delicate wrist...

lilies in this same set...

and a woman facing the other...

Here a vase decorated with a bull on one side, and fish on the other (though I'm only giving you the bull)...

there, vases inscribed with grain and grapes...


Here, an oddly feminine vase (there were quite a few with this design)...

This vase with something swimming--I'm tempted to say plesiosaur, or a cousin of the critter in Loch Ness, which I belive Patti's son Jeff took of photo of when we were there last year...


A double wine jug--Big Gulp, or a way to keep it cooler?

The spectacular Blue Monkeys wall fresco...

and the only precious metal ornament found so far at Akrotiri, a small gold calf that was in a pit with a collection of various horns, as if an invocation to whatever gods to calm the volcano...

Ok, I'll stop with this museum.  About 4, 5 more blogs [donkey, Akropolis, Delphi, Temple of Poseidon...], and I'll be done.

later, bob

So, Michelle and I missed the boat around the volcano, and several other cool things on Santorini, in order to go to Akrotiri--the archaeological site of what is often called the Minoan Pompeii.  Ok, Pompeii you know--the Roman village covered with ash when Mt. Vesuvius erupted in 79 AD, preserving intact much of the lifestyle of the people there (and the people, too, at Pompeii...but that's another trip).

Akrotiri, at least that's what we call it now, was a village on the south side of Santorini, during the Minoan age.  It was some sort of fishing and trading village, linked to Crete.  [A more complete history here.]  Then about 1450 BCE, the local volcano erupted, and encased this village in ash and pumice, effectively erasing it from history and habitation.  Just for context, in 1450 BCE, Troy itself was a flourishing kingdom, still 200 years before its fall.

Some folks think that Plato perhaps created the legend of Atlantis from this volcanic explosion, and from the fate of Akrotiri.  So, we walked past, in town, the Hotel Atlantis, and this, my favorite sign in the modern town...

Our guide told us the place was rediscovered when workers told the builders of the Suez Canal that this island was a good source of pumice, used to line the Canal.  (And pumice mining was long an enterprise here, though more recently forbidden, since eventually the whole island might be mined away.)  Excavations started on the village in 1967, and a new structure recently built over the site to protect it from the weather--artifacts that had been preserved from quakes and weather for 3500 years could quickly be destroyed, now that we've uncovered them.  Recent--this site opened in April, 2012.

So, Michelle was bummed that we didn't get to Crete, which our original tour with EF had promised (still not clear on this change), but at least we did get into the same era, perhaps some cousins of ancient Minoan Civilization...

Our wikipedia friends give us this map of the excavation site:


So, here's what we saw...the basic interior, with the new dome...


one of the pillars of this new protection...

an overview...

this place where people lived and walked, 3500 years ago...

two beds, overturned and preserved in the ash...


a house where hundreds of jars were once stored...

and...


some of the walls...

and Michelle trying to absorb it all...


Oh, one thing--no bodies were discovered here, unlike at Pompeii.  Apparently, the volcano rumbled and smoked and shook the earth enough that people knew what was coming.  They packed up and got off the island....So, some artifacts weren't found here, especially precious metals, jewelry, weapons, things easy to transport. (But miles more of probably village have still not been excavated--we may find one of those paintings that tells us to launch off for a distant star!)  The wall frescoes remained, but those are in the museum in the middle of town.

later, bob

Here's a quick image excursion through this Greek isle--mine not quite as strenuous as Christina's, I think.  But first, a map...

[stolen from http://www.greeka.com/cyclades/santorini/santorini-map/santorini.gif ]
Santorini is itself a collection of several islands, the newest of which is this crumbly pile of lava, which, sadly, I didn't have time to climb around on.

One of the other tours got to swim into some of the volcanic steam pools, and boat around this isle.  I'm jealous.  I never get to do any fun stuff...   :(

Again, several small boats back and forth to let the captive masses of the cruise ship escape for the day.


My tour took us first up to the top of the main island for a look around...

 



 
a small chapel, with the island's peculiar blue...


some specimens Michelle collected on the hilltop, pressing in her journal...

more houses, glimpsed from the bus...

the bells of a larger church...

a door, still with Santorini's colors...

a tiny patio,

where it would have been nice to stop for an afternoon of wine and bread and olive oil, but alas, the real people were either inside napping through the heat, or just avoiding the swarms of humanity from yet another cruise ship (didn't they know that we were the really special ones they would delight to talk to?)

One of the walkways through the hilltop houses....

some houses in progress...

one of (the only?) those iconic blue domes the island is known for...

a passage through apartments, up to one of the old forts...

another pleasant view...

and here, some of the islands grapes, which are not supported, but are coiled, to preserve the scant moisture from dew.  Notice also the walls of black volcanic stone in the background.

more momentarily,
bob

Christina