Ancient Thera

Ancient Thera (Greek: Αρχαία Θήρα) is the name of an archaeological site[1] from classical antiquity[2] on the island of Santorini, which sits on the top of a limestone hill called Mesa Vouno.

Excavation work continued between 1990 and 1994 under the leadership of Wolfram Hoepfner of the Free University of Berlin and resulted in a more precise understanding of the history of the southern Aegean.

Ancient Thera is open to the public and can be reached on a winding road that starts at Kamari or several footpaths from both sides of the mountain.

The ancient city consisted of a street almost 800 m long and especially wide for its time (between two and four meters) extending in a southeastern direction and containing several imposing buildings.

Separated off and facing the sea at the eastern tip of the plateau is a small sacred area with temple grounds and public facilities.

Herodotus goes on to write of a seven-year drought around the year 630 BCE which forced the inhabitants of Thera to send colonists to Cyrenaica in today's Libya.

A collection of 760 coins were found dating from the 6th century BCE, which give evidence of a modest amount of trade links to Athens and Corinth to the west and Ionia and Rhodes to the east.

The city was completely rebuilt for the officers; the former layout was replaced by a regular street grid, and imposing buildings in the form of peristyle houses were erected.

During Byzantine times, Thera as a diocesan town was again more frequently mentioned; up into the 5th century it was the only urban settlement on the island of Santorini.

The officers of the fleet resided in peristyle houses with colonnades, most of which were built on terraces on the eastern slope below the main street.

The second common type of inscription was also found on the spur of the ridge, but in this case on the rock walls around the forecourt of the gymnasium, where, according to the texts, competitions and sacred acts took place already before the construction of the sports ground.

These inscriptions survived thanks to the underlying limestone, which is coated with a dark, grayish blue crust which can be easily knocked off to expose the white stone underneath.

In other cases the inscriptions refer to sexual acts which probably describe pederastic relationships of elder erastes with young sportsmen and dancers.

There are two caves in the vicinity of Ancient Thera, one of which appears to be an additional antique sanctuary and the other either a place of cult worship or simply a garbage pit, depending on how the many remains of bones and traces of food preparation are interpreted.