Building Complex Delta

This view is bolstered by the presence of double walls at certain points. Excavation of the complex in incomplete, which fact hampers the drawing of definitive conclusions as to the precise limits of each section. Of the fourteen or so rooms located to date, only Delta 2 on the ground floor and Delta 17 on the first floor seem to have been decorated with wall-paintings. Room Delta 2 probably belonged to the eastern unit of the complex and access was via a spacious chamber (or courtyard) on its east side. The other three sides were surrounded by double walls, the function of which still eludes us. There were no surfaces suitable for decoration on the eastern wall, which was punctuated by a door at its north end, a window in the middle and a closet at the south end.

ICONOGRAPHIC PROGRAMME

The iconographic programme constituted a single composition which extended over three blind walls, the north, west and south. The wall-painting in Room Delta 2 displays certain peculiarities and deviations from the basis principles of spacial organization normally applied at Akrotiri. Firstly there is no lower register: the main theme begins at ground level. In the upper register the artist incorporated a large shelf which ran along the entire length of the west wall. The entire surface above this shelf was framed by a broad black band and the intervening space painted red.

The main subject is the composition now known as the 'Spring Fresco'. Using a range of colours, including black, red, yellow and blue in various combinations, the artist represented the mountainous and rocky landscape of Santorini, planted with blossoming lilies, between which swallows fly in a diversity of positions. The plants, with yellow leaves and stalks and red flowers, are depicted in clusters of three. There are two exceptions to this rule where the plants sprout in clusters of two - one is more or less in the middle of the west wall and the other at the western end of the south. In general the swallows are shown in profile, in accordance with the principle of latteral layering, and only in the pair on the west wall and the single swallow at the west end of the south wall has the artist evidently attempted to render birds from below.

This wall-painting is a striking example of the disregarding of architectural features. The entire surface of the north wall was painted as if the small doorway in the north-west corner did not exist. Concerning the interpretation of the theme, there is virtual consensus of opinion that its significance was religious, even though the contents of the room do not support such a contention. The small bed, recovered as a cast, the host of domestic vases, the bronze tools and vessels found in Room Delta 2 do not seem to have been intrinsically religious. However, if Delta 2 is a room in a private house, it constitutes the only instance, so far, of a ground-floor chamber adorned with wall-paintings. The pair of stone sacral horns found in front of the east facade of Complex Delta must have been an architectural element of this building. And if this element is religious in character, then the presence of sacral horns may be regarded as signifying the existence of a holy room within the building. The discovery of two rhyta in the form of a boar's head in the adjacent Room Delta 17 is not necessarily significant, since this same room produced an abundance of everyday vessels and tools. Given our minimal knowledge of what constitutes sacred, domestic and public in this period, it is difficult to establish objective criteria for characterizing Delta 2 as a room associated with cult. If, however, it was a shrine, it ceased to function as such at some phase and was used for storing the vessels and tools found inside it.

Of the decoration from Room Delta 17 only a small fragment, with a representation of osier branches, has survived. Consequently no comments can be made on the iconographic programme. Unfortunately the course of the torrent in later times ran through this room and the entire upper storey and greater part of the ground floor with its contents have been carried away and destroyed.

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