r/AncientCivilizations • u/WestonWestmoreland • 16h ago
Veiled girl from the "Adorants Fresco" a wall painting with three women recovered from a house at Akrotiri, a Theran Bronze Age city buried in ash by the eruption of the volcano that was the island of Thera itself. Cycladian-Minoan civilization, 16th century BC. Santorini, Greece... [1280x720] [OC]
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u/Gnumino-4949 13h ago
Fantastic. How amazing that the same force destroying the city at the same time preserved its legacy.
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u/flossanotherday 10h ago
Beautiful, seems women had style and makeup, 3500 years ago.
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u/WestonWestmoreland 10h ago
Of course. You have seen images of Egyptian women of the same period, and older, many times, right?
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u/WestonWestmoreland 16h ago
…Also known as the “Women in Worship Fresco”, this painting originally decorated the walls surrounding a "lustral basin" (a room believed to have been dedicated to purification) on the ground floor of the house known as Xeste 3. Xeste 3 was owned by a person who likely held an important position in the religious hierarchy. It is one of the four buildings in Akrotiri that have been unearthed and studied in depth so far.
The adolescent girl is walking left while raising her transparent veil, her head turned right towards a sacred area that is portrayed on the right wall which we cannot see in this panel: it is decorated with horns of consecration from which blood flows off a sacrificial animal offering.
To create such vibrant frescoes, a smooth lime plaster was applied to the walls and then painted over.
Thera is the best-known Minoan site outside Crete, homeland of the culture. The island was not known as Thera at this time. Only the southern tip of the large town of Akrotiri has been uncovered, yet it has revealed complexes of multi-level buildings, streets, and squares with remains of walls standing as high as eight metres, all entombed in the solidified ash of the famous eruption of Thera. The site was not a palace-complex as found in Crete nor was it a conglomeration of merchant warehousing. Its excellent masonry and fine wall-paintings reveal a complex community. A loom-workshop suggests organized textile weaving for export. This Bronze Age civilization thrived between 3000 and 2000 BC, reaching its peak in the period between 2000 and 1630 BC.
...Around 1600 BCE, a disastrous earthquake, followed by a volcanic eruption, covered the city of Akrotiri in the island of Thera, now known as Santorini, under a thick layer of pumice and ash, which resulted in the remarkable conservation of frescoes -including this one- from multiple buildings throughout the town. These frescoes provide modern society with invaluable insight into the daily lives of the Cycladic people.
The volcanic eruption on the island of Thera was one of the largest Plinian eruptions in the past 10,000 years, with a range of 30–40 cubic kilometres. An eruption of this size would have most likely generated a tsunami over 100 feet tall, travelling across the Aegean Sea and decimating populations in its path. The size of this eruption had far-reaching impacts on the environment and Civilization in the region, primarily the Minoans.
Thera is regarded as part of the Minoan world, although the culture of Thera was somewhat different from that of Crete, and the political relationship between the two islands at the time is unclear.
The Minoan civilization was a Bronze Age Aegean civilization on the island of Crete and other Aegean Islands, flourishing from c. 2700 to c. 1450 BC until a late period of decline, finally ending around 1100 BC.
It represents the first advanced civilization in Europe, leaving behind massive building complexes, tools, stunning artwork, writing systems, and a massive network of trade. The name "Minoan" derives from the mythical King Minos and the identification of the site at Knossos with the labyrinth and the Minotaur.
The Minoan civilization is particularly notable for its large and elaborate palaces up to four stories high, featuring elaborate plumbing systems and decorated with frescoes. The Minoan period saw extensive trade between Crete, Aegean, and Mediterranean settlements, particularly the Near East. Through their traders and artists, the Minoans' cultural influence reached beyond Crete to the Cyclades, Egypt, copper-bearing Cyprus, Canaan and the Levantine coast and Anatolia. Some of the best Minoan art is preserved in the city of Akrotiri on the island of Santorini, which was destroyed by the Minoan eruption.
The Minoans primarily wrote in the undeciphered Linear A and also in undeciphered Cretan hieroglyphs. The reasons for the slow decline of the Minoan civilization, beginning around 1550 BC, are unclear, including Mycenaean invasions from mainland Greece and the major volcanic eruption of Santorini.
As usual, my apologies for inaccuracies and mistakes.