Santorini

The present paper examines the patterns of urban growth and the related spatial planning policies in terms of safety criteria in the island of Santorini, which is the most active volcanic complex in South Aegean Sea. The exacerbated risk environment of the island, as shaped by its volcanic and seismic nature (having experienced the devastating earthquake in 1956) is further amplified by the uncontrolled mass tourism development and the subsequent urban sprawl. The emerging reality involves construction activity in high vulnerable areas, aggravating the hazardous potential of spatial development. Specifically, the study is an attempt to investigate whether safety principles and hazard mitigation issues are integrated into both the legislative framework of spatial planning and the urban growth processes, since the 1956 earthquake. In order to examine the patterns of urban growth, aerial photos of the two largest towns of the island, Fira and Emporio, since 1956, were selected and analysed in juxtaposition with maps that show the high volcanic, seismic and landslide risk areas. Further, an evaluative appraisal of the legislative framework and planning policies was made in terms of safety criteria and risk mitigation practices. The analysis included the legal framework of Regional Planning, Local City Planning, Master Plans and Building Codes enacted and reformed since the catastrophic earthquake of 1956.
        The paper argues that the spatial planning legislation and related reforms concerning Santorini island are characterized by lack of safety criteria. Planning provisions and legislative frameworks including General Law for Planning Settlements (FEK 124A/97), Zones of Building Control (ZOE-FEK 139/90 & 144/12), Master Plan of Fira (FEK 802D/91), General and Local Building Codes had been formulated decades ago and the following reforms do not take into consideration the developmental trends and the urban sprawl noticed since then. Ministerial Decrees appear as ultimate attempts to solve hazardous circumstances caused by illegal constructions in high-risk zones (FEK 174/11), although the absence of control mechanisms and disjoined administrative structures perpetuate the problem and aggravate the hazardous potential of urban growth. The practical implications of the findings are also discussed, while the substantial need for a systemic incorporation of safety elements in spatial planning policies, including a variety of actors and institutions to dealing with safe urban and social growth is pointed out.

Σαντορίνη. Κοινωνία και χώρος, 15ος-20ός αιώνας / Santorini. Society and Shelter, Ίδρυμα Λουκά και Ευαγγέλου Μπελλώνια, Αθήνα 1997.
Ερευνάται η εξέλιξη του κατασκευασμένου χώρου του νησιού, από τα πέντε καστέλια στο δίκτυο των νεότερων οικισμών, σε σχέση με την κοινωνική αντίστοιχη. Καταγράφεται η ιστορική φυσιογνωμία πριν την αλλοίωση που επέφεραν οι καταστροφές (από σεισμούς, κυρίως του 1956) και η ανοικοδόμηση - συνέπεια της μεγάλης τουριστικής ανάπτυξης των τελευταίων δεκαετιών.  Παρουσιάζεται η αρχιτεκτονική μορφολογία και τυπολογία των κτηρίων και τα υλικά δομής. Το εικονογραφικό υλικό δημοσιεύεται στο μεγαλύτερο μέρος του για πρώτη φορά. Προέρχεται από τη συλλογή Μαργαρίτας Σαμούρκα, από άλλες ιδιωτικές συλλογές, μουσεία και βιβλιοθήκες Ελλάδας και Ιταλίας. Η έκδοση είναι δίγλωσση, στην ελληνική και αγγλική γλώσσα.

Santorini is an island of the South Aegean Sea in the Cyclades, in southern Greece. It is known and admired for the natural beauty of its volcanic landscape its unique rock-hewn settlements, its rare natural wealth. Its importance also focuses on its rich history, while after being under the Venetian and Ottoman rule for many centuries it inherited a rare religious, social and cultural background. The paper focuses on Santorini's rare building structures and structural elements, created from the local volcanic materials and the wise ways these were used to produce high standard constructions and unique architecture. The applied methodology is based on the division of the time period between the 13 th c, until the beginning of the 20 th c and in three more specified periods which are the Venetian period (1204-1536), the Ottoman period, from 1536-the year that the Aegean is conquered by the Turks-(1537-1774) and the Modern Greek period, after the signing of Treaty of Kucuk Kainarca in 1774 (1775-1956). The methodology in this paper also involves the location and analysis of the structural elements (foundations, masonry walls, vaults etc) in a number of dated buildings 1 deriving from each aforementioned period. The comparative results for each structural element, offer a panorama of Santorini's history and evolution of its constructional methods, invented and used during the studied time period.

The Legend of Atlantis has always been a story of wonder; the tragedy of a utopia destroyed in a single night. The idea of this ‘fable’ has enthralled many, and so there arises a debate as old as the legend itself, about whether the composer Ancient Greek philosopher Plato, created a cautionary tale about the consequences of man’s hubris, or was recording the actual events of a spectacular and advanced civilisation of Atlantis being destroyed by what he seems to be describing as a cataclysmic volcanic eruption. At first I was comparing the perspectives academics had on the location of Atlantis, but could not find the amount of evidence I needed to support my historical investigation. Instead I moved towards forming an analysis of the legend itself, and therefore examining many debates surrounding the validity of his words. The most interesting aspect of his legend is the exciting prospect that Atlantis may actually have once existed. Many historians and scientists are analysing and examining many places around the world for the lost island, and the research I have done on this idea has highlighted the Minoan society on Crete, and most predominately the Theran civilisation on modern day Santorini, as a suspect for the long lost city of Atlantis. Many academics have contributed to the historical debates surrounding Plato’s allegory and have put forth enthralling theses that either strongly proves or disproves the veracity of the legend, which I have examined closely as my historical investigation.

The toponymic research that is being conducted since 2009 at Therasia has already produced more than 280 place-names that cover the whole spectrum of natural and man-made environment. This toponymic corpus, through a study that goes beyond the traditional lexicographical listing of place-names, brings forth a wide range of direct and indirect attestations of social, political and economic organisation on Therasia. Here I attempt to draw some preliminary conclusions pertaining to the above aspects of life on the island. The place-names are presented in thematic groups according to their formation and purpose: names descriptive of the natural environment (geophysical, fauna and vegetation, water features), names significant of human intervention on the environment (buildings, roads, property), names significant of the ways the islanders conceptualise their environment (familiarisation, centre and periphery, orientation), and names echoing the past (peoples and languages, legends and tales, abandoned settlements). Finally, Therasia is found to be more complex than it first seemed, with a long vivid history, and far more integrated to its wider geographical and political context than isolated.

Large, explosive, caldera-forming eruptions are amongst the most destructive phenomena on the planet, but the processes that allow the large bodies of crystal-poor silicic magma that feed them to assemble in the shallow crust are still poorly understood. Of particular interest is the timescales over which these reservoirs exist prior to eruption. Long storage times—up to 10^5 y—have previously been estimated using the repose times between eruptions and radiometric dating of crystals found within the eruptive products. However, more recent work modelling diffusion within single crystals has been used to argue that the reservoirs that feed even the largest eruptions are assembled over much shorter periods—10^1–10^2 y.

In order to address this question, I studied the >10 km3, 22-ka, dacitic Cape Riva eruption of Santorini, Greece. Over the ~18 ky preceding the Cape Riva eruption a series of dacitic lava dome and coulées were erupted, and these lavas are interspersed with occasional dacitic pumice fall deposits (the Therasia dome complex). These dacites have similar major element contents to the dacite that was erupted during the Cape Riva eruption, and have previously been described as “precursory leaks” from the growing Cape Riva magma reservoir. However, the Cape Riva magma is depleted in incompatible elements (such as K, Zr, La, Ce) relative to the Therasia magma, as are the plagioclase crystals in the respective magmas. This difference cannot be explained using shallow processes such as fractional crystallisation or crustal assimilation, which suggests that the Cape Riva and Therasia magmas are separate batches. Furthermore, there is evidence that the Therasia dacites were not fed from a long-lived, melt-dominated reservoir. There are non-systematic variations in melt composition, plagioclase rim compositions, and plagioclase textures throughout the sequence. In addition, high-temperature residence times of plagioclase and orthopyroxene crystals from the Therasia dacites estimated using diffusion chronometry are 10^1–10^2 y. This is short compared to the average time between eruptions (~1,500 y), which suggests the crystals in each lava grew only shortly before eruption. The different incompatible element contents of the Cape Riva and Therasia magmas and plagioclase crystals suggest that a new batch of incompatible-depleted silicic magma arrived in the shallow volcanic plumbing system shortly before the Cape Riva eruption. This influx must have taken place after the last Therasia eruption, which 40Ar/39Ar dates show occurred less than 2,800 ± 1,400 years before the Cape Riva eruption.

The rims of the plagioclase crystals found in the Cape Riva dacite are in equilibrium with a rhyodacite, with a similar composition to the Cape Riva glass. However, the major and trace element zoning patterns of the crystals record variations in the melt composition during their growth. The compositions at the centre of most crystals are the same as the rims; however, these crystals are often partially resorbed and overgrown by more calcic plagioclase. The plagioclase then grades normally back to rim compositions. This cycle is repeated up to three times. The tight relationships between the anorthite, Sr and Ti contents of the different zones suggests that the composition of the plagioclase crystals correlates with the composition of the melt from which they grew. The different plagioclase compositions correspond to dacitic and rhyodacitic melt compositions. The orthopyroxene crystals reveal a similar sequence, although they only record one cycle. These zoning patterns are interpreted to document the assembly of the Cape Riva reservoir in the shallow crust through the amalgamation of multiple batches of compositionally diverse magma. Models of magnesium diffusion in plagioclase and Fe–Mg interdiffusion in orthopyroxene suggest that this amalgamation took place within 10^1–10^2 y of the Cape Riva eruption.

In the 1960s and early 1970s it was fashionable among academics to identify Atlantis with Minoan Crete or Thera (Santorini) in the Aegean Sea. This Minoan hypothesis or Thera-Cretan theory was proposed in 1909 but did not attract much attention until it was popularised by three books in 1969. However, the hypothesis was criticised and arguably refuted in the late 1970s. Today there is consensus among archaeologists Atlantis never existed. This article details the background, heyday, and demise of the Minoan hypothesis, furthermore, it looks at why the Thera-Cretan theory collapsed

Radiocarbon dating of the Theran eruption has placed the event between 1627 and 1600 BC at the 95% confidence level. The art and pottery motifs at the site of Akrotiri, buried under the tephra, were dated by archaeologists to the Late Minoan 1A, about 150 years later than this ‘scientific’ date, thus producing a conflict between archaeologists (especially Egyptologists) and those who hold the radiocarbon dates paramount. The presentation focused on a very strong evidence in favor of the archaeologists: the sudden appearance of Theran pumice at Tell el Dab‘a stratum C/2, dated by Manfred Bietak to the reigns of Thutmose III and Amenhotep II (roughly 1450 to 1400 BC). Both pharaohs are represented by scarabs in this layer. The same is true of pumice found in the Levant (Tell el-‘Ajjul, Ashkelon, Tel Na‘ami) “only from the Late Bronze Age onwards, whilst all pumice from Middle Bronze Age strata is from other volcanoes” (Bietak 2004). Currently, no one has refuted such statements by respected Egyptologists and Levantine archaeologists. The pumice evidence thus places the Theran eruption about 1450 BC or slightly thereafter. The unadjusted BP (Before Present) radiocarbon date for the LB destruction of Jericho City IV is 45 ± 15 years later than the BP date for Thera. By comparing BP dates instead of the controversial ‘adjusted’ 14C dates, the destruction level at Jericho City IV dates to the late 15th or early 14th centuries BC, in agreement with the Late Bronze pottery from the site examined by Bryant Wood and John Garstang, and in conflict with Kathleen Kenyon’s much-quoted “Middle Bronze” date of 1580-1550 BC for the destruction.

After the 4th Crusade in 1204, the island of Thera (Santorini), integrates into the Venetian
Duchy of the Aegean. During that period the Venetians construct the island’s five fortified
settlements: the “castelli”. The ottoman succeeds smoothly the medieval era from the 16th c.
The signing of the Treaty of Küçük Kaynarca in 1774 becomes an important turning point
that boosts Santorini’s economy. Throughout the centuries, the island’s development is
violently interrupted by the volcanic eruptions and earthquakes. In this paper, the study of
Santorini’s construction technology and materials was approached by the analysis of a
number of structural mortars, taken from six buildings, from all the aforementioned
periods. The samples were analyzed at the Laboratory of Building Materials in Aristotle
University of Thessaloniki. The final evaluation was based on the mortars’ analysis results,
under the prism of the historic and socioeconomic background of Santorini. The
conclusions extracted, concern the persistence on the use of traditional local building
techniques and materials and in particular of the Santorini’s “Theran earth”, the famous
volcanic pozzolan, in making structural mortars.

Urban intervention in the historic area of “Sidera” in Oia, in the island of Thera (Santorini), Per- fecture of Cyclades Τhis paper’s objective is the creation of an urban intervention program in the area of ‘Sidera’ in the traditional settlement of Oia, which aims at its revitalization and sustainable development. The regional planning framework of the Perfecture of Cyclades, the conditions of protection, the geographic, historic and demographic development of the settlement of Oia and its built charac- teristics were studied in the search for information of the area. The fieldwork was conducted within the context of an urban programming and planning methodology. The existing condition of the 68 skins, with and without use, in the area of “Sidera” was imprinted and evaluated ac- cording to their use and historical criteria. Consequently, the proposed intervention’s strategies and the prioritization of the settlement’s problems were gathered in a report. The intervention program was therefore composed.  Five basic axes of intervention were compiled by analyzing the tendencies and probable scenarios of the settlement’s development: (Π, Π1, Π2, Π3, Π4): 1. (Π): The general frame for the sustain- able development for the sectors of culture, resources and sustainable development, as well as for attracting and maintaining population. 2. (Π1): The spatial-functional program of residence, in which interventions are being proposed for each group of skins. 3. (Π2): The program of land use and public Services. 4. (Π3): The program of roads and other networks. 5. (Π4): The program for free public spaces. The programs mentioned above were spatially projected onto maps, tables, diagrams etc., and through measures, works and actions of sustainable development, aim at the creation of adequate infrastructure, the reinforcement of social cohesion, and the effort for pre- serving cultural heritage with respect to the capacity of the energy resources of the island. The study was created as a dissertation project (2008), supervised by Prof. Evangelos P. Dimitriadis, for the Interdisciplinary Program of Postgraduate Studies at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, entitled “Protection, conservation and restoration of historic Monuments”. Then, after process- ing, the work was submitted by the writer to the technical services of the municipality of Thera and the local municipality of Oia.

The Attic myth of the abduction of Oreithyia by Boreas was very popular in the 5th century B.C., as attested by literary sources, Athenian sculptures and vase painting, as it formed an integral part of Athenian ideological narrative. According to a version of the myth, transmitted by the mythographer Akousilaos in the early 5th  century, Oreithyia was abducted in the course of a Panathenaic procession, where she marched as a kanephoros.  This version was taken up by Athenian art as attested for the first time by an Attic red-figure cinerary hydria exported to the island of Thera (Santorini). The vase reflects the glory of Athens in the second half of the 5th century, shedding new light on the connection of myth and cult in Classical Athens.

The formation of shallow, caldera-sized reservoirs of crystal-poor silicic magma requires the generation of large volumes of silicic melt, followed by the segregation of that melt and its accumulation in the upper crust. The 21.8 ± 0.4-ka Cape Riva eruption of Santorini discharged >10 km3 of crystal-poor dacitic magma, along with <<1 km3 of hybrid andesite, and collapsed a pre-existing lava shield. We have carried out a field, petrological, chemical, and high-resolution 40Ar/39Ar chronological study of a sequence of lavas discharged prior to the Cape Riva eruption to constrain the crustal residence time of the Cape Riva magma reservoir. The lavas were erupted between 39 and 25 ka, forming a ∼2-km3 complex of dacitic flows, coulées and domes up to 200 m thick (Therasia dome complex). The Therasia dacites show little chemical variation with time, suggesting derivation from one or more thermally buffered reservoirs. Minor pyroclastic layers occur intercalated within the lava succession, particularly near the top. A prominent pumice fall deposit correlates with the 26-ka Y-4 ash layer found in deep-sea sediments SE of Santorini. One of the last Therasia lavas to be discharged was a hybrid andesite formed by the mixing of dacite and basalt. The Cape Riva eruption occurred no more than 2,800 ± 1,400 years after the final Therasia activity. The Cape Riva dacite is similar in major element composition to the Therasia dacites, but is poorer in K and most incompatible trace elements (e.g. Rb, Zr and LREE). The same chemical differences are observed between the Cape Riva and Therasia hybrid andesites, and between the calculated basaltic mixing end-members of each series. The Therasia and Cape Riva dacites are distinct silicic magma batches and are not related by shallow processes of crystal fractionation or assimilation. The Therasia lavas were therefore not simply precursory leaks from the growing Cape Riva magma reservoir. The change 21.8 ky ago from a magma series richer in incompatible elements to one poorer in those elements is one step in the well documented decrease with time of incompatibles in Santorini magmas over the last 530 ky. The two dacitic magma batches are interpreted to have been emplaced sequentially into the upper crust beneath the summit of the volcano, the first (Therasia) then being partially, or wholly, flushed out by the arrival of the second (Cape Riva). This constrains the upper-crustal residence time of the Cape Riva reservoir to less than 2,800 ± 1,400 years, and the associated time-averaged magma accumulation rate to >0.004 km3 year-1. Rapid ascent and accumulation of the Cape Riva dacite may have been caused by an increased flux of mantle-derived basalt into the crust, explaining the occurrence of hybrid andesites (formed by the mixing of olivine basalt and dacite in approximately equal proportions) in the Cape Riva and late Therasia products. Pressurisation of the upper crustal plumbing system by sustained, high-flux injection of dacite and basalt may have triggered the transition from prolonged, largely effusive activity to explosive eruption and caldera collapse.

Two early and still readable linear texts were found carved on the walls of turquoise mine L at Serabit el-Khadim in the Sinai of Egypt by William Petrie in 1906. They were never properly translated. These texts were inscribed within bas-relief steles indicating they were officially sanctioned texts. These texts reference a dimmed sun which would only have occurred during the 1620 BCE volcanic eruption on the Minoan island on Thera. This interpretation dates the texts to the Hyksos rule of northern Egypt. The existence of 2 Minoan Linear A phoneme signs within these texts indicates that they were composed by Minoan traders. The language of these texts is Akkadian and most of their signs are alphabetic (consonant followed by any vowel sound).

Wachsmann, S., 1995.  Paddled and Oared Ships Before the Iron Age.  In The Age of the Galley:  Mediterranean Oared Vessels Since Pre-Classical Times. (Conway's History of the Ship.) R. Gardiner and J. Morrison, eds. London, Naval Institute Press: 10-35.

The vernacular architecture of Santorini, the dugout, has often been considered within the aesthetics of the landscape of the island but remains seriously understudied; only its typology and its interior design mostly in regard to ventilation have been adequately studied. Thus there has been plenty of room for historical conjecture about the reason(s) which led to and the time this form of housing appeared at Santorini that usually operates under the assumption that underground dwellings represent the lowest standards of living conditions. Against this view, dugout settlements and individual dwellings are considered in the present paper against the backdrop of factors that have been identified as influential to the choice of the form and structure of dwellings and the form and location of settlements, namely defensiveness, climate, access to raw materials, water supply, access to cultivable land, land ownership, transport and communication, as well as local particularities such as anti-seismic behavior. In the light of evidence demonstrating the suitability of dugouts in the natural environment and the economy of Santorini, it is argued that living underground was virtually the best and sole proper housing choice on the island further dictating the choice of settlement location into the ravines or over the cliffs of the Caldera.

The works of a pumice quarry at Ftellos on Thera revealed the remains of some pre-eruption buildings. The first period of the excavation there lead to the discovery of a dug out building consisting of more than two rooms circular or polygonal in plan. The bulk of the pottery coming from this building belongs to Phylakopi Ic and Early Phylakopi II periods. It must have gone out of use before the LBA eruption because it did not contain the materials which were ejected during that eruption.
Such a type of building has not been found in the Prehistoric Cyclades until now. In construction it shows some similarities to the building of the Christiana islet which is also subterranean. Ftellos buildings were dug in the sandy pre-eruption earth from top to bottom and not from the side like the rock-cut tombs of Melos and the modern houses of Thera and Therasia. An inner stonewall was built to hold this sandy earth. The roof was probably constructed of branches covered with clay

Theran LC I white-coated vases are distinctive for their special pictorial decoration. In their representations cultivated plants, such as barley, vetches, grapes etc., and vases depictions, such as the nippled ewer, are combined. Although such combinations of motifs find no parallel in the Aegean pottery decoration, a number of similar depictions (plants with vases) occur in a group of Minoan seals, the so-called talismanic seals, manufactured from MM III to LM IB period.
It seems possible that Theran vase-painters adopted the iconography of the Minoan talismanic seals imported to the island or arrived there with their owners, adapting it to the local conditions. Transfering the motif of the jug from the talismanic seals to their vases they transformed it into a nippled ewer, probably because that was the jug type Therans used for libations in rites associated with the promotion of vegetation.
What were, however, the reasons behind this artistic behaviour? The ideological background for the Minoan talismanic seals and the Theran White-coated vases decoration must have been common. The ideological background of the former is considered to be the need for a rustic cult in the agricultural Minoan Crete. The need for a rustic cult in the Bronze Age Thera appears to be quite strong as well. The cultivations of vetches, barley and vine, which are reflected in the pottery decoration and confirmed by the palaeobotanical evidence from Akrotiri, consist to be the main cultivations on Thera up today. The importance of rural economy to both the inhabitants of prehistoric Thera and Crete was the common denominator for the performance of rustic cult. Theran artists adopted the iconography of rustic cult from the Minoan talismanic seals because this cult was very important for Thera as well.

Lecture on the occasion of the opening of the virtual exhibition "The Stuff of Legend: Heinrich Schliemann’s Life and Work - Celebrating the Bicentennial of His Birth", organized by the Archives of the American School of Classical Studies (February 3, 2022).
https://www.ascsa.edu.gr/events/details/heinrich-schliemann-opening-lecture