SANTORIN PREHISTORIC MUSEUM

This archaeological museum (Μουσείο Προϊστορικής Θήρας/Mousio Proïstorikos Thiras) brings together objects from Santorini from the 5th millennium to the 17th century BC. Most come from the Cycladic and Minoan site of Akrotiri, including vases painted with swallows (20th-18th centuries BC). The masterpieces are the frescoes in the houses of Akoriti, buried and preserved by the ashes of the great volcano eruption around 1610 BC. The most famous is that of the Fisherman: a naked young man (a rarity in Minoan art) with a strange hairstyle (blue with two natural locks) holding iridescent-scaled fish (dolphinfish) suspended by the gills. The Blue Monkeys fresco is surprising. It occupies two sections of wall and depicts blue-grey primates climbing rocks to escape a dog. At first, archaeologists thought they were monkeys imported from Africa by the Minoans. We now know that they are Hanuman langurs (Semnopithecus entellus) living in India. This suggests links with Asia at the height of Minoan civilization... but also an Egyptian influence in the choice of symbolic coat color.
Procession or expedition? Akrotiri's largest fresco is the Nautical Procession. Spanning 3.90 m in length, it occupied the ceremonial area of a dwelling. It depicts 14 rowing boats with canopies for passengers. The ships depart from a city with gray, white, red and yellow walls and reach another city with a monumental staircase and gray, red and yellow buildings, some adorned with the horns typical of Minoan cities. Details abound (dolphins, land animals, hunting scenes...) and interpretations differ: some see a military expedition to Libya, others a ritual procession between Akrotiri and a Cretan city (Knossos or Phaistos). The Papyrus fresco illustrates a good knowledge of Egyptian flora, as this plant grows neither on Crete nor in the Cyclades. Finally, the Ladies fresco comes from the same house as the Papyrus fresco: two women in Minoan dress, probably taking part in a religious ceremony. Three other Akrotiri frescoes can be seen at the National Archaeological Museum in Athens: the Children Boxers, the Spring and the Antelope.