Akrotiri: Genesis, Life and Death

An archaeologist finds it frustrating to reflect on what may still be below ground, so I shall make no dogmatic assertions, but merely draw your attention to points which I believe help us to reach tentative conclusions regarding the cultural, trading and possibly historical implications of the material.

By the very nature of its destruction, Akrotiri is unique in the Aegean in having preserved details of a culture which fell at one time, but before looking at this final period I shall quickly trace the development of the island's settlements.

From various parts of the original island comes evidence of habitation in all periods from the Neolithic to the Late Bronze Age, but at Akrotiri (on account of the hazardous nature of the excavation) it has not yet been possible to obtain clear stratigraphic levels down to bedrock. Chance finds, however, indicate early cultural links with the Cyclades and Crete which were to strengthen as time progressed: in the latter half of the Middle Bronze Age ties with Phylakopi were particularly close.

The final period before the destruction surely corresponds to the "Thalassocracy of Minos", when Minoan influence was at its height in the Aegean, although islands preserved many traditional features. The architectural setting is thoroughly Minoan at Akrotiri, with frescoes and small finds mainly associated with those of Crete. Levantine imports, fresco details and some of the ceramics, of which there is a great variety, imply contacts further afield, ranging from the Greek Mainland to Egypt. The so-called "imported Syrian amphora" suggests from its type that Akrotiri may not have been destroyed until the fifteenth century was well-advanced.

The ceramics, which I have divided into four categories, imply on the one hand that traditional Cycladic liveliness had not been stifled by the more sophisticated products of Crete, and on the other hand that there was already in existence in the Aegean a koine style with islanders acting as intermediaries. Crete was certainly supplying most of the ideas, but I can find no evidence of her showing aggressive tendencies.

When the destruction of Thera finally came, the refugees could look to the north as well as the south for sanctuary, and I believe we should seek one explanation for the golden wealth of Mycenae in the exodus from Thera prior to the eruption. The influx, however large or small, would have included men of standing and artisans, who would help perpetuate Minoan artistic standards into the Late Mycenaean III period. Certainly, there are notable frescoes on Mainland Palace sites which exhibit details only found as yet in Thera.

INTRODUCTION

I am very happy to contribute this paper for the Second International Scientific Congress, though warned by its name against deviating from proven facts.

However, since I may be classed as a theoretical archaeologist with little experience in the practice of field-work, I must arrive at my tentative conclusions largely through stylistic analysis of material found by the experts in situ, often nagged by the question: what still remains below ground? Thanks to the devotion of the late Professor Spyridon Marinatos and his team, sufficient has been found already for me, having studied the ceramics and artefacts in their fresco-illustrated architectural setting, to bring to your notice some facts which I believe help us to reconstruct not only the cultural life and commercial contacts of Akrotiri but also general trends of historical significance. Before looking at the evidence from the destruction levels, which are surely unique at this time in the Mediterranean, I shall briefly review the sparse material from the previous settlements.

During the course of more than a century sporadic finds have been made at various points in the Thera-Therasia complex dating to the Neolithic, Early and Middle Bronze Ages, while the sinking of shafts for the Dexion cover supports at Akrotiri has given us a glimpse of what preceded the final period without providing a clear stratigraphical sequence. In EC times Thera was clearly in touch with her neighbours in the south-east Aegean generally, probably with Crete, and via Crete with Egypt ⁽¹⁾. Typical MC strata at Akrotiri are represented by a dark-on-light rectilinear-patterned pithos, a small jar with a MM IA type potmark, imported Kamares sherds and scraps of pictorial-style pottery largely Melian in origin, as are sherds of panelled cups with naturalistic ornament of the MC III period ⁽²⁾.

Similar Melian ware from Phylakopi, which has been found on Mainland sites and possibly in Cyprus, came from earlier excavations and was housed in the old Phira museum, numbered, for example, as Akr. H47 (panelled cup), H36 (incurved bowl) and H59 (full-throated jug of Temple Repositories' type). The commercial activity of Phylakopi was therefore instrumental in linking together different parts of the Aegean area and probably carrying some Minoan ceramics north. It hardly comes as a surprise, since sherds of Mainland polychrome ware with rectilinear patterns occur in transitional MC III - LC I contexts at the current excavations at Phylakopi, to find at Akrotiri Mainland products such as versions of the Melian panelled cup and a fine polychrome jug (Delta 17) which is one of the finest examples of the abstract treatment to which Melian birds were being subjected: the Samikon tumulus has provided the closest parallel, which is sufficiently inferior to suggest that the prototype should be sought elsewhere on the Mainland ⁽³⁾ .

A probable levelling which appears to have been carried out towards the end of the MC period after earthquake damage prepared the way for the final building complexes, which, because of the volcanic destruction, present the best picture we are ever likely to have of a true Minoan colony or trading-post of the "Thalassocracy of Minos", which reached its peak in LM I, though it should be remembered that Thera may have been specially ear-marked for development because of her convenient geographical location in the middle of the Aegean and maybe thriving viticulture (Scholes 1956, 30).

Xeste 3, which may have been built for other than purely domestic reasons, may yet be quoted as possessing most of the typically Minoan architectural features such as a polythyron, lustral basin/bathroom, reception benches and a wealth of frescoes, which can be paralleled on many Minoan sites, such as Knossos, Nirou Chani, Phaistos, Pyrgos and Zakro. Pillar-rooms, fine ashlar masonry, the parathyron arrangement of door and window (which surely must have occurred in Crete), lattice-windows, stone horns of consecration and plumbing arrangements are attested for in various areas. The majority of the frescoes, which are superior to fragments of others from the Cyclades and Rhodes, were no doubt the work of Minoan artists, with the "Priestess" from the hand of an apprentice. A relatively early work was probably the "Spring Fresco", which together with that of the "Antelopes" features the same graduated outlining of body-sections seen on a faience animal group from the Temple Repositories. The miniature "Ship Fresco" seems to me to be somewhat later, as it is embellished with two decorative motifs at least (festooned pendants and inverted upsilon-like signs indicating water) which are found on LM IB / II ceramics. Latest might have been painted the stylised clumps of papyrus and the rather formal women in the "House of the Ladies", which in Mycenaean rather than Minoan fashion lack a natural setting.

Before considering the ceramics, I shall briefly mention some other artefacts, bearing in mind that the inhabitants who had the will and means to leave before the catastrophe was total, did so, taking portable objects of value with them, thereby depriving us of some diagnostic material. What remained was not intrinsically valuable but sufficiently indicative of conformity to a Minoan lifestyle which accommodated local practice and absorbed international influences.

The "talismanic" sealstone is not precisely datable, but a clear Minoan import, while the "lentoid gem of brown jasper" (Marinatos) inscribed with a crude griffin-like creature and dolphin may be of local workmanship and looks late. The majority of the stone vessels fall mainly into Professor Warren's MM III - LM I category; a mastos-shaped rhyton seems unparalleled elsewhere, also two alabaster lids, one of which carries a rosette/compound-star design which occurs often at Akrotiri, as on a Xeste 3 fresco, a lid of green faience and a weight of one talent.

For comparison in alabaster we have a fine pyxis incorporating rosette and figure-of-8 shield ornament, but know nothing of its context except that it possibly came from Siteia (Marinatos 1972 pls. 72 a.b; 73a). Several stone chalices (and more clay copies) were, to judge from the religious scene of the Tiryns gold ring, ritual vessels of Minoan origin exported to various settlements north of Crete and well-known from Mycenae (Shaft-Graves A IV and V). Grave IV held "Nestor's Cup" which is simply a more elaborate gold version with the necessary side-supports, and Grave V supplies the closest extant parallel for two ostrich-egg rhyta but is more ornately decorated with faience dolphins and a base disc consisting of a wooden rosette gold-plated in Egyptian fashion, both decorative motifs favoured highly in Thera ⁽⁴⁾.

Of the clay theriomorphic rhyta, a net-imprisoned bull seems almost certainly to have been imported from Pseira, while a fragmentary bull's head exhibits the fine treatment of hair we know from the superb chlorite example from Zakro (Marinatos 1970, col. pl. A2; 197, pl. 85b; Seager 1910, fig 7; Platon 1971, 160). The lioness' /cat's heads may be local copies of the Minoan type, but more intriguing is the boar's head which is currently unique. One thinks immediately of Mycenaean boar's tusk helmets, but should remember that these appear on MM III sealings and perhaps the earliest representation of a boar-hunt is on an incised dagger-blade from Lasithi of MM II date ⁽⁵⁾. Two pieces of restorable furniture should be mentioned: a wooden (olive-wood?) stool with the same shape of leg as the Knossian Throne, and a wooden tripod-table whose feet appear to be copying superimposed papyrus-tufts, thus similar in concept to the handle terminals of cups from Dendra and Isopata ⁽⁶⁾. From the many bronze vessels I select for comment the ewer with a zone of hybrid lily /papyrus, for here is a Minoan type again but with ornament, to judge from a gold cup from Dendra, which persisted until the LH II period (Marinatos 1971, pls. 94 - 95; Persson 1942 fig. 88). The well-known bronze sword-blade inlaid with gold axes curiously has two histories, one claiming possession by Zahn in Thera in 1899, the other (authenticated by Soren Dietz in Copenhagen where it is housed) stating acquisition in Athens in 1873 from the collection of Professor Phousopoulos who gave the provenience as Thera.

If we accept it as Theran, we have here a piece better known from the Argolid, and clearly decorated in the isolationist manner shown on the LH II dolphin-inlaid dagger from Prosymna.

We can only judge the jewellery of the period from fresco representations. Blue necklaces and bracelets may indicate importation of Egyptian lapis-lazuli, turquoise or glass-paste beads: before the site of Agh. Irini in Keos was excavated by Professor Caskey I found a small nodule of lapis-lazuli on the surface. Most interesting I find the elaborate gold hoop-earrings worn by a girl on the polythyron fresco of Xeste 3, for surely Shaft-Grave A III has preserved the identical gold, interior details authenticated as representing current fashion in other articles too supplied by the cloisonné dagger-hilt from Grave A IV, and the sleeve-design on the "Priestess" fresco (Marinatos 1976, pl. 60). A broken clay idol remains to be mentioned: how artistic it was in its pristine state is now impossible to say, but it does look remarkably like a precursor of the Mycenaean Psi-type (Alexiou 1968, 254; fig 4) ⁽⁷⁾.

Pottery imported from beyond the immediate Aegean area is small in quantity, but now we have a Canaanite Jar, similar to examples from Lachish, Megiddo and Hazor of Palestinian LB I date (contemporary with XVIII th dynasty Egypt and Mycenaean I-II). We cannot be certain what the jar would have contained, although Egyptian tomb-evidence suggests beer and grain; what is perhaps more interesting is that Akrotiri's destruction-date could have been in the second half of the fifteenth century ⁽⁸⁾. That no Egyptian imports have been discovered so far is hardly surprising in view of the few found in Crete. We know that the two areas were in contact, but it would be idle to speculate what the exchange commodities were, although we are reasonably sure that at this and a later period Cyprus exported timber to Egypt and received gold in return.

For convenience's sake I have divided the pottery found in Thera into four classes, from which I select a few pieces I think significant:

A. Imported Aegean fabrics.

B. Local copies of A.

C. Theran Figured-Style.

D. Traditional Cycladic types.

• A.

David Williams has very kindly told me that his petrological studies enable him to distinguish at least six different production centres whose wares came to Akrotiri ; my eyes can only suggest three regions: Crete, the Cyclades and Greece.

Undoubted Minoan imports range in size from cups to pithoi, close parallels being found at Knossos and sites east to Zakro. Clay-analysis might confirm my theory that some large undecorated pitchers and hastily-painted stirrup-jars of a form closer to LB III types than LM IA were made actually on Thera for commercial reasons: nowhere else were so many devices sported on stirrup-jars for the securing of the stopper (which might consist of a 'conical' cup wedged in damp clay) and no doubt sealings and labels, ranging from three small handles and hooked protuberances to pierced false-necks; even one pitcher of coarse domestic fabric (unpublished, but seen, thanks to the kindness of Professor Marinatos in 1974, in the apotheke at Akrotiri) is furnished with three small handles on its neck for a similar purpose ⁽⁹⁾ . Although no Marine Style vases have been found, a consideration of the elaborately painted table of offerings and frescoes from the West House indicates that the style was imminent. I find myself in agreement with several authorities who have stated the case for ceramic overlaps, which certainly occurred at Zakro where Professor Platon found LM IA Floral Style, LM IB Marine Style and the "Precursory Palace Style" in similar deposits. Quite possibly a reflection of the latter can be seen on some local Theran and Melian pots where abroad reserved spiral is the main decoration (Platon 1971, 114; Marinatos 1971 pl, 69a; Atkinson 1904, pl. XXVI, I).

Oliver Dickinson has already detected some LH I spiralled Vaphio cups, which might have been expected in view of the wide diffusion of this ware from the Dodecanese to the Aeolian Islands and the manifestly close contacts between Thera and the Mainland in late MC III. Other pieces may now be added which may be rather later in date. I illustrate an unpublisned LH I - IIA jar from Mycenae (plate I, no. 3) ⁽¹⁰⁾ which shows that the stone-pattern which forms the sole pattern of a LM I alabastron from Akrotiri has now become a mere accessory.

This basic design of connected circles rather than running spirals characterises two cups from Akrotiri which I would accept as Mycenaean although I have not handled them: the static nature of the design is alien to the Minoan spirit. Comparable pieces occur in some Shaft-Graves, one showing the "snowstorm" filling (perhaps connected with the stone-pattern) seen on many local Theran pots: Grave B Gamma and Grave B Delta had jars, B Omicron a bridge-spouted vase, and A III a jar showing the painter was undecided whether to use connected circles or a spiral ⁽¹¹⁾. A short-stemmed goblet presents a problem of provenience, as its zig-zag basic design is more associable with LH III formulae although it is bordered by a typical LM IA spotted line. This group of vases marks a distinct advance on the typical LH I from Mycenae seen on plate I, nos. 1 and 2 (Marinatos 1976, pl. 48, 3rd row left).

• B.

The local vases of Class B reproduce a fraction of the variety of the decoration of their Minoan prototypes, in the light-on-dark and dark-on-light techniques, often breaking up the Minoan coherence and producing a somewhat bizarre effect heightened frequently by the use of polychrome additions added to the matt or semi-lustrous dark paint. Slap-dash execution indicates hasty mass-production not so evident in contemporary Melian ware; "Red and Black" pieces were generally more carefully painted, with the crocuses given the delicate stem of a vorticella.

Most Minoan types, however, were copied, including a number of strainers and pithoi with base outlets. That this ware circulated in the area is shown by at least two finds in LC I contexts at the current excavations at Phylakopi : a sherd from a black-surfaced vessel decorated with white lily-like flowers, and an askos with red-painted spiral on a spotted ground. A more plainly decorated round-necked ewer should be mentioned as its chronological implications are again late: the arcade pattern of the shoulder is basically the same as the elaborated one on a stirrup-jar from tomb 4 at Sellopoulo of LM LIIIA date (Marinatos 1970, pl. 50, I, cf. Popham 1974, pl. 34a).

• C.

Some of the Theran Figured-Style pieces are products of one of the workshops which produced Class B wares and are often polychrome. The speed with which the painters worked (on, for example, the kymbai) adds to the liveliness of the animals' movements: the style is convincing enough when swallows or dolphins are shown, but it is quite obvious that no four-legged animal ever trotted past the studio windows. One swallow-decorated export at least found its way to Mycenae, found in Shaft-Grave B Gamma. There is no contemporary figured-style elsewhere, although a Minoan imported "basket" from Varkiza presents a formalised version of some Theran vessels on which plunging dolphins dive between rockwork (e.g. Renaudin 1922, pl. XIII; Vermeule 1972, fig. 27). Possibly in this class we see the final flowering of the Melian fauna of MC III.

• D.

Certain types of Traditional Cycladic Ware persisted because they had not outgrown their uses. The nippled ewer, probably introduced from Phylakopi in MC III, clearly had a cult function associated with the Mother Goddess: it appears with a variety of profiles, embellished with eyes, often ears, single or double necklaces and was deemed sufficiently important to be portrayed on other vessels.

The one loop-handled bowl survived as a measure, and there are still some instances of incurved bowls, their exterior rim decoration hastily accomplished with metope-like decoration formed from groups of vertical lines punctuated at intervals by a simple motif: two Mainland sherds from Mycenae carry a similar decoration in matt paint (Plate I, nos. 4 and 5) which is most closely paralleled by that of a bridge-spouted vase from Thera, where the upper zone features half of a double-axe as the interval ornament (old Phira Museum, Akr. H9 / 12). Even larger vessels of Class B could be decorated in the same way as a time-saver. Finally, something of a caricature of Mainland efforts to make sense of curvilinear polychrome: a spouted hydria with the appropriate eyes and necklace of a ewer, painted with the speediest palms ever seen (Marinatos 1976, pl. 44a). One feels that these people had a sense of humour.

To sum up, the ceramics give every indication that while Minoan imports helped to create a native style, traditional elements were by no means stamped out. Close similarities between imported Mycenaean and Minoan suggest a free interplay of ideas in a period not specially marked by military conflict. Mainland principalities were gradually being formed, benefiting quite clearly from contact via the Cyclades with Crete and the knowledge Crete had of the Levant. It may be argued from the fact that Cretan sites were unfortified (and likewise apparently Akrotiri) there was no fear of attack from without. I would venture to add that Minoan culture suggests to me a people intensely interested in the details of their natural environment and more concerned to appease deities thought responsible for frequent earthquake damage than to deliberately embark on a career of overseas conquest. We have no clear evidence from Cycladic and southern Greek sites of deliberate destruction by Cretan forces, but rather a gradual Minoanization which had begun well before the end of the Middle Bronze Age ⁽¹²⁾ . Sherds of Mainland polychrome pots with rectilinear designs occur generally at Phylakopi in transitional MC - LC I contexts, and during the earlier Shaft-Grave period at Mycenae pottery often of Mainland types seems to have been decorated rapidly by Cycladic painters (Graves B Beta, Gamma, Delta, Kappa; Mu and Omicron, A I and III at least - though it seems likely that Schliemann did not keep all his sherds!).

Different racial characteristics seen on the frescoes reinforce the idea of international exchange and cooperation. There is at least one African, while on the polythyron fresco of Xeste 3 different styles of hairdressing and distinctly different facial features suggest that girls from different regions were joining in a seasonal festival. Whether the heads of some are shaven merely leaving distinctive locks as on some youthful Egyptians on XVIII th dynasty tomb-paintings is hard to decide, but the curling tress over the forehead is quite possibly a fashion reflecting the royal wearing of the Egyptian uraeus. Devices painted on the hulls in the "Ship Fresco" -dolphins, birds and panthers - may simply represent speed and grace in the three elements, but it is conceivable they are national symbols too.

Whatever the "Shipwreck" and "Landing of Troops" actually depicted is problematical as so much is missing, but what does seem clear is that the troops are expected. Were they in fact returning home from some successful venture, but with the loss of some men on arrival, rough seas crashing two vessels against a very rocky promontory?

Against such a background earthquakes and eruptions suddenly ended the life of a thriving and prosperous community and probably had disastrous effects upon Cretan sites a short while afterwards. Christos Doumas has convincingly shown that the island was not abandoned immediately after the first earthquake, but that well-planned clearing-operations were put in hand (1974, 365). Soon afterwards a mass exodus must have started of masters and artisans alike. Some may have turned to Crete, but with no improvement in the outlook made their way to the north and were given sanctuary at Mycenae and possibly in Messenia too, since their contacts were long-standing. If we accept the direction of the exodus at a period when LH IIA was already being manufactured, it becomes immediately clear why so many objects with affinities at Akrotiri were found, for example in Shaft-Grave A III, which contained the bodies of three women and two children, no doubt the offspring of a union between immigrants and the native ruling stock. Decorative gold items from this grave included a Vaphio dolphin cup, a strip with swallows, a plaque with beaded pendants, panthers facing each other on palm-tops, an animal chase in a palm setting, in addition to the famous gold earrings. The fine crystal bowl from Grave B Omicron may well have found its way to Mycenae from the excellent workshops at Zakro via Thera, the Levantine inspiration for the reversed duck's head learnt perhaps in Ugarit or Egypt itself. Indeed a rock-crystal headed pin from Grave A III has its counterpart at Akrotiri, again a Zakro product, while a girl on Xeste 3 fresco carries a bead necklace of the same material. It does not seem necessary to presuppose actual immigration from the Levantine area, in view of the evidence of trade. The niello technique of the inlaid dagger-blades may be eastern in origin, but the subject matter of the scenes is Aegean.

We may suppose too a further influx from Crete when many Cretan sites were abandoned after the collapse of the caldera. How else can one explain the intensification of Minoan influence? Unless tombs of the period are found on Thera we shall never know whether the sudden and early appearance of the tholos on the Mainland could be explained by a form developed there. Should we not also expect a palace-complex with maybe an archive-room? Lastly, I speculate whether it might not have been at Akrotiri that Mycenaeans became conversant with the Linear A script and toyed with the idea of adapting it for their own use: I am no expert in this field, but to my eye the supposed ARESANA inscription consists of signs at home in either Linear A or B.

I find it impossible to date the destruction much earlier than 1450 B.C. A final piece of evidence is provided from the world of frescoes. Close examination of the eye-treatment used for some of the girls on Xeste 3 polythyron fresco shows a highlighting device consisting of slightly convex lines on either side of the pupil. Although scrutinizing Minoan work from Crete, I find no parallel there.

It reappears, however, on Mainland Palace sites: the griffin at Pylos, women at Tiryns and one at Mycenae, found as recently as 1970. The latter is clearly an imitative piece, down to the double chin of the girl from Thera (Marinatos 1976, pl. 59; Orlandos 1970 - 71, col. pl. facing p. 98).

None of the earliest mainland examples can be dated before LH III at the earliest. These are clearly the work of artists trained in the Theran tradition, whose artistic conventions can hardly have survived beyond two generations at most.

- (1). A Cycladic figurine in ivory was found at Archanes : lecture at Cambridge, given by J. A. Sakellarakis on May 17, 1977.

- (2). The Pot-mark: cf. Marinatos 1970, fig. 3; Evans 1921, fig. 18a. The panelled cups: cr. Marinatos 1968, fig. 72 and Atkinson et al. 1904, pl. XVI, 8.

- (3). I am indebted to Professor Renfrew for permission to mention unpublished material from Phylokopi. Cf. Marinatos 1972, pl. 62 and Furtwaengler and Loeschke 1879, pl. XI, 54; also Marinatos 1976, pl. 43a; Yalouris 1965, pl. 6a.

- (4). Engelbach (1942, 134) mentions the Egyptians' ability to plate all kinds of objects.

- (5). Marinatos 1976, pl. 57a. A boar's tusk was found in the first excavations at Phylakopi (Atkinson et al. 1904, 192; Evans 1921, fig. 541).

- (6). Persson (1942, fig. 118) assembles a useful group of similar representations.

- (7). Marinatos 1970, fig. 143 (left). Marinatos' comments on its date (p. 61) are not clear.

- (8). I must thank Dr. Harriet Crawford for putting me in touch with Mrs Morag Woudhuysen of the Dept. of Archaeology and Anthropology here, who has kindly supplied this information.

- (9). Cf. Marinatos 1969, col. pl. D and Platon 1971, 117. Renaudin (1922, fig. 10) illustrated one stirrup-jar using all devices possible.

- (10). I am indebted to Dr. Elizabeth French for permission to illustrate the material from Mycenae on Plate I.

- (11). Marinatos 1976, pl. 48 (second row left, first row left); Mylonas 1972, pls. 43a, 65g, 170g; Furtwaengler and Loeschke 1879, pl. IV, 19.

- (12). Robin Barber's belief that Akrotiri might have been deliberately developed "as a counter to the unwelcome authority of Phylakopi" (1974, 52) seems to me to overstate the case for Phylakopi, whose Aegean role was that of a commercial intermediary rather than a significant power.

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