An Interdisciplinary Study of Middle Cycladic White Wares from Akrotiri on Thera

Abstract

Few archaeological sites have drawn, and held the imagination and attention of the range of scholars as the prehistoric settlement of Akrotiri on Thera in the southern Cyclades, currently excavated by Athens University and the Greek Archaeological Society [1,2]. The archaeological significance of Akrotiri can hardly be overstated from any perspective. With respect to the controversial question of a Minoan hegemony, it lies on a particularly strategic point in Bronze Age trading routes between the mainland, the Cycladic islands and Crete [3\. By the sixteenth century BC the many Minoan features present in Theran material culture (such as fresco iconography, Linear A tablets, ceramic motifs and architectural details) continue to provoke debate concerning the existence, or extent of a Minoan thalassocracy. Thus characterizations of what may be distinguished as truly “local” attributes of Theran crafts in the earlier periods are increasingly important.