Ancient Thera
Alt-Thera is an ancient city on the ridge of the 360 m high, steep mountain Mesa Vouno on the Greek island of Santorini . It is named after the mythical ruler of the island of Theras and has been proven to have been from the 9th century BC. Inhabited until the year 726. The city was systematically researched from 1895 by the German archaeologist Friedrich Hiller von Gaertringen and excavated until 1904. It was not until 1990 to 1994 that new excavations were undertaken under the direction of Wolfram Hoepfner from the Free University of Berlin , which were able to give a more precise picture of the history of the southern Aegean.
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The town
The city consists of a street almost 800 m long and between 2 and 4 m wide for the time, in a south-easterly direction with a few representative buildings, from which a small spur road branches off at right angles. At the end of this is the command post, built high on the slope. After about 200 m, the city expands to an exposed plateau of about 100 by 100 m, high above the rocky coast, on which the residential areas are grouped around an agora . Opposite you is a theater built into the slope. Set off at the eastern tip of the plateau and facing the sea is a small sacred area with temples and public facilities.
All buildings are made of the limestone of the mountain itself. Wood was rare on the island and was only used sparingly.
Below the mountain, on the outskirts of what is now Kamari , was a necropolis that was in use for most of the city. The town also had a port that was not precisely localized until now, where shipyards and accommodation for seafarers and soldiers are suspected. Finds on the edge of Perissa , south of the mountain, suggest the port there.
history
After the Minoan eruption of the Santorini volcano around 1620 BC. With the destruction of all settlements on the island, it took several centuries until it was again suitable for human settlement. Herodotus and Pausanias mention an early settlement of Phoenicians who allegedly descended from Kadmos , but this has not yet been archaeologically grasped.
The foundation of the city of Alt-Thera came from Doric colonists from Sparta , who recognized the strategic position of the rock ridge. Herodotus and Pausanias tell of the mythical ruler Theras , also a descendant of the Phoenician ruler Kadmos and son of King Autesion of Thebes , who ruled over Sparta and Laconia as the guardian of his underage nephews Eurysthenes and Prokles and, after they came of age, a new settlement on the island Kalliste ( ancient Greek Καλλίστῃ ) built. According to Herodotus, this would have been eight generations after the Phoenicians first settled on the island. The island Thera ( modern Greek Θήρα Thira ) is named after him and the name then goes back to the 9th century BC. Archaeologically verifiable city transferred. Herodotus mentions that there were seven settlement areas on the island, of which the city on the ridge is considered the most important.
In archaic times, the city was only an insignificant settlement on the edge of the Cyclades . Herodotus also writes of a seven-year drought around the year 630 BC. BC, who forced the residents of Thera to send colonists to Cyrenaica in what is now Libya . This settlement was extremely successful, so that Thera enjoyed a good reputation as the mother city of Cyrene for a long time, despite its minor importance. From the 6th century BC A collection of 760 coins was found, which testifies to modest trade relations as far as Athens and Corinth in the west and Ionia and Rhodes in the east.
The role of the city changed when in the second half of the 3rd century BC. BC, i.e. in Hellenistic times , the Ptolemaic navy of the entire Aegean was stationed in the port of the city. The city was completely rebuilt for the officers, the previous structure was replaced by a regular street grid and representative buildings in the form of peristyle houses were created.
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Much is known from inscriptions about the role of Ptolemaic soldiers in the city. Initially only three officers and around 300 soldiers were stationed in Thera, later other officials and retired officers settled there, who significantly changed the character of the city. However, it is not known whether the entire population was placed under military administration or whether it was able to maintain its political independence. On the one hand the soldiers were Greeks from the mainland, on the other hand the proportion of Egyptian mercenaries quickly increased, who with their deities strongly influenced the cults of the city. The fleet base was around 145 BC. Then withdrew again until the turn of the times, historical records from the city were completely missing.
In Roman times from the middle of the 1st century BC. The island and city belonged to the province of Asia and although no high officials resided on the island, a certain wealth and importance of Thera can be seen in elaborate building projects and the fact that Therans were able to achieve high positions, including twice the office of provincial chief priest.
In the first third of the 3rd century, the empire was disintegrating, also in the absence of reports about the island. In Byzantine times it was mentioned more often as a bishopric and was the only urban settlement on the island of Santorini until the 5th century. Like the entire region, it subsequently became less important. A basilica dates from the 6th century as a predecessor of the double church Agios Stefanos at the entrance to the city near the saddle. In the year 726 the city was buried with pumice stone during a small eruption of the volcano of Santorini and shortly afterwards it was abandoned. Theophanes , a chronicler from Byzantium, reported on the destruction .
Only tiny traces of the earlier settlement have survived, so that the description of the city essentially refers to the Hellenistic heyday of the place and later developments.
Buildings
Particularly noteworthy are:
- The Agora: The main square of the city adapts to the shape of the ridge and is around 110 m long and between 17 and 30 m wide. On the western slope side there are public buildings, the view to the east to the sea is unobstructed from the whole square because the private houses on this side were laid out below the level of the agora.
- The Basilike Stoa is a huge columned hall measuring 46 by 10 m along the agora. A row of ten Doric columns in the central axis supports the roof. It formed the center of public life. In the first century it was completely rebuilt and statues of the imperial family were placed in a partitioned room at the north end.
- The theater was built in the 2nd century in the hillside below the main street and with around 1,500 seats goes far beyond the needs of the city itself. Performances were held here that attracted visitors from all settlements on the island and perhaps neighboring islands.
- The sacred area on the spur of the ridge was grouped around a grotto dedicated to Hermes and Heracles . In addition to the most important temple of Apollo Carneios came in the 3rd century BC. A common rock sanctuary of the Egyptian gods added and since the 2nd century BC. BC also a gymnasium of the Ephebe , to which thermal baths were built in Roman times in the first century AD .
- At the highest point of the city at the end of a cul-de-sac was a representative building that is interpreted as the command office of the fleet. The courtyard directly next to it, which has been converted on two sides, is interpreted as the gymnasium of the garrison.
Private houses can be found of two types. The officers of the fleet lived in spacious peristyle houses with colonnades, which were mainly laid out on terraces on the eastern slope, below the main road. From there the residents had a spectacular view of the sea more than 300 m below them. Most of the city's residents inhabited the plateau of the mountain. Their houses are built around a small central courtyard, under which the absolutely necessary cistern was located. Some of the houses had two floors, and in some cases the site also allows for small cellars.
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| North side of the agora | Basilica Stoa | Roman baths | theatre |
Arts and Culture
The location is sparse, the city lost its importance towards the end of its use and only a few works have survived from its heyday. Noteworthy are inscriptions on the sacred precinct on the spur of the ridge from the early days of the city. They come from the change from the 9th to the 8th century BC. BC and thus belong to the oldest known uses of the Greek alphabet, which emerged from the Phoenician script . The number of letters has been reduced, and some letters are still used in previous forms. Some of the inscriptions are dedications of altar stones to various gods of Greek mythology . These are four times Zeus , twice Koures (which could possibly hide further invocations of Zeus) as well as Apollon , Lochaia , Damia , the Dioscuri , Cheiron , Deuteros , Boreas once each. Then the Erinyes , Athanaia , Biris , the Charites , Hermes and Kore are set off . The diversity is just as striking as the naming of many gods who were not in the foreground elsewhere. Also noteworthy is the accumulation of smaller gods associated with family, birth, children and raising children.
The second common type of inscription is also found on the spur of the ridge, but on the rock walls around the forecourt of the gymnasium, where, according to the texts, competitions and ordinations took place before the sports ground was built. The local inscriptions are due to the special rock. The limestone is covered with a dark gray-blue crust that can be knocked off with little effort, so that the white stone emerges. Inscriptions could not only be created by specialized stonemasons, but could be left by anyone. Some of the texts relate directly to competitions: the name of the fighter who could throw it the farthest is engraved on a heavy stone. On the other hand, the inscriptions refer to sexual acts that are believed to describe pederastic relationships between older men and young athletes and dancers. The texts are in very early Greek and therefore require some interpretation. It is an open question whether it is boasting or whether the sexual acts had a ritual background.
Ceramics were found from both the geometric style of the 8th and the oriental style of the 7th century. The design is based on models from the island of Naxos , but comes to Santorini with a delay. From the second half of the 7th century come some, but mostly badly damaged figures, which are called "Daedal idols". They were found as grave goods. Only one of the idols has largely been preserved. It depicts a woman whose raised arms are interpreted as a lament for the dead.
The best-known finds from Ancient Thera are several taller-than-man- high statues of youths called kouroi , which were also made in the second half of the 7th century BC. Were hewn. Since the island has no marble quarries, no own stylistic tradition emerged. Both the marble and the artistic expression came from the island of Naxos . The most beautiful statue of this line, called Apollo of Thera , dates to the beginning of the 6th century . All statues were found in burial fields below the city.
In the vicinity of Alt-Thera there are two caves, one of which is another ancient sanctuary and the other, with its diverse bones and traces of food preparation, must be interpreted either as a place of worship or as a waste pit.
literature
- Christos Doumas : Santorini - The island and its archaeological treasures . Herder Verlag, Freiburg, 1992, ISBN 3-451-22637-5 .
- Wolfram Hoepfner (Ed.): The Doric Thera . Gebrüder Mann Verlag, Berlin, 1997, ISBN 3-7861-1869-8 (writings from the seminar for classical archeology at the Free University of Berlin).
- Friedrich Hiller von Gaertringen : The gods cults of Thera , in: Klio 1, 1901, pp. 212-227
- Friedrich Hiller von Gaertringen: Old Thera before the founding of Cyrene , in: Klio 33, 1940, pp. 57–72.
- Hiller von Gaertringen / H. Dragendorff / P. Wilski (Eds.): Thera. Investigations, measurements and excavations from 1895 to 1902 . Publishing house Georg Reimer, Berlin:
- Volume I: The island of Thera in antiquity and present
- Volume II .: Theraeische graves
- Volume III .: City History of Thera
- Volume IV .: Climatological Observations from Thera
- Edward Brongersma: The Thera Inscriptions. Ritual or Slander? , in: Journal of Homosexuality , 20 (4) 1990. (also online: The Thera Inscriptions , English)
- Christian Michlits: The story of Theras in Hellenistic and Roman times . Diploma thesis, University of Vienna, 2008 (also online in full text: Geschichte Theras ; PDF; 11.0 MB)
- Christian Michlits: The archaeological evidence of Thera from the Hellenistic and Roman times . Diploma thesis, University of Vienna, 2012 (also online in full text: Archäologie Theras ; PDF; 29.0 MB)
Web links
- Information on the location from the German Archaeological Institute
- Website of the Greek Ministry of Culture on Ancient Thera (English)
- Ancient Thera; Archaeological Receipts Fund (PDF, English, Greek; 1.7 MB)
- Marie-Claire A. Beaulieu: The temenos of Artemidoros on Thera. Classical Association of the Middle West and South (CAMWS), Gainesville 2006
- Alt-Thíra (PDF; 287 kB) - visit
Individual evidence
Coordinates: 36 ° 21 ′ 50 " N , 25 ° 28 ′ 41" E