The Akrotiri Sculptures

The Akrotori excavations also allowed to allocate some already found small marble figures, known as harp players. They are exhibitioned in Germany in the Badische Landesmuseum.

It is only once that findings with a religious background have been discovered in Akrotiri: beside a deer antler, horns of goats and bulls were found, as well as a golden goat idol.

In the building Xeste 4 we find a "polythyron", a many-doored alleyway of pylons and doors. This kind of construction allows to open small rooms partially or completely to one big hall.

Insights into the buildings, disposing of up to three levels, are hardly possible, only in the entrance areas or cellar rooms. In the ground floor there were workshops and storage rooms, the living rooms being located in the upper levels. Adobe tubes led effluents into the sewer systems. Only wall constructions and façades – made of stone, adobe or wood – are recognizable from the outside. The most luxurious buildings were entirely made of stone and called "ksestes" (xeste). The houses’ floores were often decorated with schist and earth, as well as shells or mosaic stones. Timber frames were used as a protection against earthquakes, although in Xeste 1 a staircase, destroyed by an earthquake, can be seen. Amphoras, different ceramics and storage jars tell a more than 3,000 years old story.

Xeste 3 had two floors, each one disposing of fourteen rooms. The “Saffron Gatherers” is one of the frescoes found there. Telchines Street starts in front of the building. The following frescoes can be seen in the building B: "The Antelopes", "The Blue Monkeys" and "The Boxing Children". The fresco "Springtime" is originally from the Delta Complex, where there were also found several vases beside a wooden table. In the House of Anchors, also belonging to the Delta Complex, a black stone with a weight of 65 kg was found.

Frescoes of Akrotiri

Akrotiri