The Bronze Age. People usually picture hairy, uncivilized, grotesque-looking cavemen grunting about at each other and throwing rocks around aimlessly. Well, that’s at least somewhat what I envision—that is until just recently. In truth that’s not entirely correct.
About 3,500 years ago, on the islands of Crete and Santorini, people were living luxurious lives. They had a strong nautical base and were seafaring to near and far countries (such as China, Turkey, Serbia, and Egypt) trading and exchanging all kinds of products. They had sewage systems and irrigation, flourishing towns with squares and big buildings, cold AND hot running water, along with a bountiful supply of fish, olive oil, grapes, and honey. The people of this great civilization is known today as the Minoans. It is also known that this island, Santorini, and the Minoans, were supposedly the place and people of the prosperous, fabled civilization of Atlantis.
Right now the book we are reading in our book club, “The Lost Empire of Atlantis” by Gavin Menzies, shows and informs us about the people and their lives on Santorini around 1700 BC. It also brings us to the ruins of some of the Minoan towns, one of which is called Akrotiri; located on the southern tip of Santorini. Professor Spyridon Marinatos—trying to prove his theory about the Minoans—started the excavation in 1967. Digging and chiseling away 20 meters of volcanic rock, also called pumice, Spyridon unearthed the prehistoric town.
It so happens that a few days ago we visited the site and we also got to see Medusa’s house (the only way to actually make Tuck and Jones pay attention and show any sign of interest)! We learned that the Minoans were somewhat similar to Oompaloompas; the average man was only about 4 feet tall!
and to the right is Medusa’s house 😉
here’s us walking the streets of ancient Akrotiri… as you can see we are not of Minoan height
these stairs prove that the Minoans were shorter since the stairs are small and made for shorter legs
in the corner is a toilet and the wall was where the pipes of water were
this was a town square where markets and street vendors could sell their products (its also pretty small)
So anyways… how could such a large society of people who were so obviously well sophisticated and way ahead of their time get wiped out so easily and quickly?! It’s because back then, Santorini was a circular island and right in the middle was this colossal volcano that erupted and created a tsunami that traveled to Crete and killed the others living there. What was interesting was that in Akrotiri they had found no remains of human bones, which concludes that the people on Santorini must have known beforehand about the upcoming eruption (historians say there were earthquakes that happened that acted as an alarm) and fled to neighboring islands. The eruption is one of the biggest—besides Pompeii but they can’t know for sure—which thus created the largest Caldera in the world.
I can’t even start to comprehend what life would be like so long ago, but it seems to me like it wasn’t at all too shabby… except of course… the huge volcano eruption.
this is supposedly less than 20% of what the town really was back then
in person the site is actually relatively big – it’s incredible!
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