The next Cycladic Seminar, organized by Marisa Marthari, will take place on Thursday, 22 May 2025, 6.30 p.m. at the Archaeological Society at Athens, 22 Panepistimiou St.
Lefteris Platon (Professor in the Department of History and Archaeology of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens) will address the topic
“Akrotiri, Thera – Zakros, Crete: “Parallel Lives” for two island towns in the Aegean Bronze Age.”
Akrotiri, Thera: a coastal site of a large urban settlement on this Cycladic island, whose history of occupation is traced back to the Early Cycladic Period, evidently prosperous until the middle of the 2nd Millennium BCE, just before it was devastated during the hitherto largest recorded eruption of its volcano.
Zakros in the Sitia Region: a coastal settlement on Crete, with an equally long history of occupation and sudden destruction, whose archaeological traces present analogies to those of Akrotiri. In this site, a small, yet very important, Minoan “palace” operated in close collaboration to the contemporary town. The latter, although suffering the same destruction as the palace, seems to have preceded its establishment.
The analogies between these settlements, however, are not restricted to their prosperity, their chronological parallelism and the abrupt nature of their final destruction. The spade of two important Greek archaeologists -and, coincidentally, also connected in their professional life- had the good fortune to bring to light, almost at the same period (during the 1960s and the beginning of 1970s), two virtually untouched towns, with all their buildings and finds still intact, eloquent witnesses of the lives and pursuits of their inhabitants. It would not be an overstatement to say that the assemblages recovered in Akrotiri and Zakros remain the richest and most complete, at least as far as Aegean Bronze Age art is concerned.
The topic of this lecture is to present, in a concise way, the evidence that can be drawn from a comparative assessment of the two settlements, highlighting their similarities, as well as their differences. Such cross-examination becomes even more important, as there are indications that these settlements also were obviously in contact, a matter whose significance can only be stressed through a broad and synthetic overview.
The seminar will be in Greek and the subtitles on the PP will be in English.
The seminar can also be followed online.
Link:
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/89494798641?pwd=HA4RwWF9skwXzRhBEt6l9K93ombfeJ.1
Meeting ID: 894 9479 8641, Passcode: 285829.
The lecture will be recorded and available for viewing post-event date (Cycladic Seminar / Κυκλαδικό Σεμινάριο).
