Akrotiri, Thera: Indications of the Ideology of its Prehistoric Inhabitants

Speaking in Greek at the University of Cyprus, Christos Doumas of the University of Athens examines architectural and mobile finds from the Bronze Age settlement of Akrotiri on Thera (Santorini) for evidence of its inhabitants' ideology, dividing his material between attitudes toward the dead and beliefs concerning life and the future.

For the first category, Doumas reviews discoveries north of Complex Delta: the sacrificial pyre excavated by Spyridon Marinatos in 1969, a cist-like structure with Early Cycladic marble vessels and figurines over a stone cairn, and rock-cut chamber tombs revealed during shaft-digging for the site's bioclimatic roof. Around 2000 BC, the Middle Cycladic town expanded over this Early Cycladic cemetery; the chambers were emptied and filled with debris, and the community erected the cairn as a cenotaph, strewing sea pebbles and gravel as a purifying barrier against the pollution of death.

Turning to the living, Doumas traces an anthropocentric tradition from Early Cycladic figurines and Middle Cycladic figurative pottery to Late Bronze Age wall paintings, where human figures appear as youths with shaved heads signifying initiation. He examines the lustral basin and frescoes of Xeste 3 as a building for rites of passage into adolescence, alongside recent finds from the adjacent House of the Benches, where clay boxes painted red inside held Early Cycladic marble figurines, gold and bronze stags, and marble and faience vessels.

In the discussion, Vassos Karageorghis cites a late 9th-century BC inscribed bowl from Kition recording hair dedicated to Astarte, while Artemis Karnava and Ourania Kouka discuss whether the objects in the clay boxes were childhood possessions or ancestral grave goods.