Akrotiri prehistoric village
What happened and who were they?
From the findings of the excavations it is now known that the area of Akrotiri was inhabited during the Late Neolithic period (around 4500 BC) and during the 18th century BC. had become a city.
At the beginning of the 17th century BC. leveled by an earthquake, but rebuilt on the ruins and flourished during the Late Cycladic period, until the burial of the Minoan eruption.
The location was safe, as it was protected from the north winds, while the relief favored the development of agricultural activities. It is speculated to have been the capital of the island, but this has yet to be confirmed. The area of the excavation is close to 14 acres, a small percentage of the prehistoric city, estimated to be about 200 acres and have about 30,000 inhabitants.
The building was dense and had high-rise buildings with rich frescoes, organized warehouses, industrial space, excellent urban organization with streets, squares and had a developed drainage system, which passed under the pavement and connected directly to residences. The building materials were stone, clay, mud bricks reinforced with straw, wood, plaster inside and out. The large number of frescoes, which decorated many of his buildings, usually the upper floors, gave a refined and refined urban society, which he clothed in luxury, elegance, colorful and impressive.
The explosion
The fact that no human skeletons were found in the settlement indicates that a number of warning earthquakes forced the inhabitants to leave it early. However, before the settlement was buried by an eruption of volcanic ash, it was hit by a major earthquake. Some residents later returned to the village to free those who did not have the opportunity to go and collect valuables and personal belongings. Other precursors of volcanic phenomena, however, forced the inhabitants to leave the city again, as is shown by the fact that the work of opening the roads was never completed, while a large number of vessels were found in heaps of ruins, where, apparently, they had originally been placed to moved to safer places. The time, however, between the earthquake and the eruption of the volcano should not exceed a few dozen days, while the duration of the first eruption until the creation of the caldera is estimated at two to three days later.
The successive waves of ash carried away the roofs and upper parts of the buildings of the settlement. After the volcanic eruption and deposition of volcanic material that led to the burial of the village, torrential rain followed, which eroded pumice and ash in many cases as well. The rain carried wet mud to the ground floor of the settlement’s buildings, which led both to the preservation of their contents and to the survival of the floors of the upper floors.
