The excavations continue at the Dormition site at the southeastern end of the island of Thirassia and the findings are significant.
According to a statement by the Ministry of Culture, a prehistoric settlement is revealed on the hill overlooking the newest monastery of the Assumption and almost in touch with it.The excavation brings to light an Early Cycladic and Mesocyclic settlement of the 3rd and the beginning of the 2nd millennium BC, facing the caldera to the east and Aspronisi to the south.
Part of the settlement has been eroded and dragged into the cliff during the geological detachment of the island of Thirassia by Aspronisi as a result of the great Minoan volcanic eruption.
The settlement of Koimisi provides important data for the Thera-Thirassia complex during the early phases of the Bronze Age and also gives new information on the shape of the NA boundary of the pre-explosive caldera, at the gradual expanse of which the prehistoric settlement lay.
The work revealed a particularly interesting man-made occupation of the site with a series of buildings of various designs whose common feature is the exploitation of the rocks and the natural space as a framework and component of the foundations and skeleton of the buildings.
Large volcanic rocks emerge across the surface of the relief, define the slopes of the slope, form the surfaces available for construction and are incorporated into the structures.
The structure is dense and the buildings are said to be hooked to each other, with stone platforms between them, which form the stepped slope of the slope.
Volcanic materials were also used in the construction as a substrate for the floors, while plates from the lower and older geological strata of Thirassia, which should have been visible in the already formed caldera draft, were used as roof tiles.
During this year’s excavation, the revelation of an ellipsoid building with monumental features was completed and several floors of the settlement were excavated in successive floors of the Early and Middle Bronze Age, giving important insights into the organization of the site as well as the succession of habitation phases.
The boundaries of the settlement were also investigated at the hillside hillside.
Based mainly on ceramics, the settlement dates back to the Early Cycladic II, the Early Cycladic II / III and the Middle Cycladic period, with phases analogous to Akrotiri.
They lived in crops and livestock
The finds include ceramic, polished and sculpted stone tools, and various housework, bones, shingles, wood and other organic remains.
As evidenced by material evidence, the economy depended on crops and livestock.
The exploration of the technocentes is in progress, but from the multitude of crushing tools and large storage vases, we can conclude that the practice of diversified crops has been the basis of nutrition along with livestock products (milk and meat) and marine resources.
Techniques are mainly tattooed and spunbonded as well as technological production of obsidian products.
But the multitude and the diversification of the tools imply the practice of a variety of techniques, within the framework of the techno-economic organization of the settlement. The analysis of ceramic clay indicates the importance of local therma production as well as the presence of imported ceramics from various regions of the Aegean.
The settlement was abandoned for unknown reasons shortly before the Late Cycladic period, that is, shortly before the last phase of Cape Verde. When the Minoan eruption and the subsequent cover of the island with layers of volcanic material was made, the settlement had already been abandoned.
Since the position at the Alafouzou mines in the southern part of the island flourishes in the Late Cycladic period, we can conclude that some of the inhabitants were transported to the west, to lower plateaux with another type of architecture similar to that of Akrotiri and with the same art and art.
The research team is the Ionian University (Kostas Smonias), the University of Crete (Iris Tzachili) and the Ephorate of Antiquities of the Cyclades (Maya Efstathiou). Professor of AUTh. Claris Palyvos and an interdisciplinary team of archaeologists and other researchers. For the realization of the research it is very important to support the Municipality of Thira and the Institute of Aegean Prehistory (INSTAP).
