Was there Local Access to Certain Ores/Minerals for the Theran People before the Minoan Eruption? An Addendum
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A number of potentially useful minerals exist on the present-day caldera wall including talc, azurite, malachite, iron oxides and lead minerals.
In the final session of the Third International Thera Congress some scientists noted the use of certain pigments in pottery/frescoes and lead used in weights. The reconstruction of the island shown in Fig. 1 roughly coincides with the present-day caldera shape in certain areas, especially where the pre-volcanic basement occurs. The following are found in this: lead minerals at Athinios (Fig. 1.1), talc and iron oxide at Cape Plaka (Fig. 1.2); azurite and malachite (Fig. 1.3) at Cape Therma (Klitgaard 1986). These resources may have been exploited by the Bronze-Age Therans. This possibility should be investigated by further close cooperation between the archaeologists and earth scientists.
In addition, the archaeological sites/settlements located on the caldera rim should be evaluated in the light of the new caldera reconstructions.
A number of prehistoric sites (Early, Middle and Late Bronze Age) have been located on the caldera rim, some of which have been investigated. The prevailing view to date is that these were probably shepherd's installations on the slopes of the supposed high mountain occupying the centre of the island before the eruption.
In the light of the possibility that a caldera already existed in the centre of the present one, however, a different interpretation may be placed on these settlements along the edge of the caldera. The locating of the aforementioned minerals, which were also used at Akrotiri in the Late Bronze Age, may signify a different role. These discoveries open up a new chapter, not only in Theran studies, but in Aegean prehistory as a whole, and may shed further light on early metallurgy in the Aegean, as well as help explain the development of Akrotiri.
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| For figure please refer to book. | |
| Figure mentioned in this paper: | |
| Fig. 1: | Santorini (solid line) with the reconstruction of the pre-Minoan eruption shape (dashed line). The numbers mark the sites where there was possible access to certain minerals/ores before the Minoan eruption. Dots mark the archaeological sites. |
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| Source: | "Thera and the Aegean World III" Volume One: "Archaeology" |
| Proceedings of the Third International Congress, Santorini, Greece, 3-9 September 1989. | |
| Pages: | pp. 502 - 503 |
| Written by: | - W.L. Friedrich Geologisk Institut, Aarhus Universitet, C.F. Møllers Alle 120, DK-8000 Aarhus, C., Denmark. - C.G. Doumas Lambrou Fotiadi 27, Athens 116 36, Greece. |
| Book information: | |
| ©The Thera Foundation | |
| ISBN: | 0 9506133 4 7 |
| ISBN (Vol 1-3) | 0 9506133 7 1 |
| Published by: | The Thera Foundation, 105-109 Bishopsgate, London EC2M 3UQ, England |
| Editor: | D.A. Hardy with, C.G. Doumas; J.A. Sakellarakis, P.M. Warren |
| To order the book from amazon.co.uk: | http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0950613347/qid=1142346164/sr=1-7/ref=sr_1_0_7/026-5808754-1144459 |