The Early and Middle Bronze Age Settlement of Koimisis on Therasia

Kostas Sbonias of the Ionian University presents the results of archaeological survey and excavation at the Bronze Age settlement of Koimisis on Therasia, which formed part of the volcanic island of Thera before the Bronze Age eruption. Organised by the Archaeological Research Unit of the University of Cyprus, the lecture places the site within the prehistoric settlement history of Thera, studied chiefly through Akrotiri.

Situated on a steep hill at the southern tip of Therasia overlooking the pre-eruption caldera, Koimisis was identified on slopes where the prehistoric Cape Riva geological surface remained exposed. Excavations conducted since 2014 with Iris Tzahili, Magda Stathi and Clairy Palyvou have uncovered a settlement of roughly 0.4 hectares arranged on artificial terraces with retaining walls, paved areas, roads and a monumental external wall pierced by a staircase. Its architecture combines rectangular spaces with partly subterranean ellipsoid and apsidal buildings.

Stratified pottery spans the Early Cycladic I, Kampos and Keros-Syros phases to the end of the Middle Cycladic period, with petrographic analysis showing clays from the Akrotiri area alongside imports from Naxos, Ios and Kea. Sbonias discusses an Early Cycladic II handle impressed with two seals, one geometric and one bearing three rows of signs with no known parallels in later Aegean scripts, as well as plant and animal remains. The settlement contracted in the Middle Bronze Age and was abandoned at the end of the Middle Cycladic period, probably after an earthquake, before being sealed by the eruption a century later. A charred olive trunk found beneath the pumice and analysed with Charlotte Pearson yields radiocarbon dates in the late 17th and 16th centuries BC.