The ancient city of Thera sits on the top of the Mesa Vouno hill (part of the pre-volcanic core of the island) that comprises the southeastern cape of Santorini. It was founded, according to archaeological evidence, in the 8th century BC and was continuously inhabited at least until the 9th century AD. The urban, administrative and religious centre of the city-state of Thera reflects the culture that developed on the island during antiquity and provides, thanks to its long and uninterrupted habitation, rich testimonies for the historical tale of Thera throughout antiquity, so complementing the limited information of the written sources.
A short-lived settlement roughly of the 12th century BC in the Monolithos area shows that at the end of the prehistoric era the environmental condition of the soil now allowed the re-inhabitation of the island, long after the catastrophic volcanic eruption that violently interrupted its brilliant Cycladic flowering. However, its permanent re-inhabitation is marked by the establishment of Dorian colonists. According to the ancient historian Herodotus, Theras of Thera son of Autesionos, of the lineage of Cadmus, reigned in Sparta after the death of King Aristodemus, as guardian of his underage children. When the children came of age and assumed authority, he left, together with many Lacedaemonians and some Minyans, for Thera. Here he established a colony and, as a founding-settler, bestowed his name on the island, which until then had been called Kallisti.
Since that time, several settlements have grown up on the island, as well as smaller communities in various locations. The city of Thera, named after its founder, was located on the steep Mesa Vouno, which dominates the southeastern coast of the island, among plains of volcanic ash. A strategic position, as it allows control of the southeastern Aegean, is fortified by nature, and lies close to arable land and gentle coasts, it is also adjacent to the main springs of water on the island. The hill also abundantly provides of itself the necessary building material. Access to the city is provided by Sellada, the saddle between Mesa Vouno and the highest eminence of Prophet Elias to the north-west. Stone-paved roads on its slopes connect the city with the springs, the fertile plains and the coastline, where its ports are established – Oia to the north (Kamari) and Eleusis to the south (Perissa).
The city is spread out along the long ridge of the hill on one main axis – a road that runs along its length. Limited by the shape of the terrain, it kept its original structure and remained relatively small throughout antiquity. The narrow and steep edges to the ridge, wind-exposed as they are, hosted places of worship, while the residential core grew up in the smoother, wider part in between, relatively wind-protected. Open-air sanctuaries, temples, public buildings, a theatre, a market, shops, residential districts and a well-developed road network with a sewage system, all go to compose the city’s form as it is now preserved, one that was already in place in Hellenistic-Roman times.
Evidence for the first centuries of its habitation and the heyday of Thera in the Archaic years, (when its only colony, Cyrene, was founded on the coast of North Africa in 631 BC) are mainly to be found at places of worship. Such are the ‘market of the gods’ and the sanctuary of Apollo Carneios, the dominant deity of the Therans, at the southeastern end of the ridge, and the sanctuaries of Aphrodite and Hera at the entrance to the city. The Agora is another indication: it lies at the centre, which was later extended to the southernmost of the three continuous plateaus that constitute its final form. Prominent too among the relevant testimonies to its flourishing are the burials of the Geometric, Archaic and Classical periods discovered in the extensive cemetery outside the city, on the slopes of the mountain. A multitude of inscriptions further demonstrate this: they occur on the bare rocks, mainly on the southeastern edge of the ridge – a place of worship and education for adolescents since the time of the city’s founding – which record the Archaic Theran alphabet.
The large building insulae and the terraces that define the city’s image testify to the intense construction activity undertaken in the Hellenistic city, when Thera initially fell into the sphere of influence of the Ptolemies, monarchs of the Hellenistic kingdom of Egypt, and later became their actual possession (288 BC-145 BC). The residential area, until then limited to the sheltered area around the Agora, spread, as the Agora itself was expanded. Spacious houses are built, often with magnificent facades and peristyle atriums; numerous public buildings are erected. Among the last are the Royal Stoa, the administrative centre of the city, the theatre, the Gymnasium of the Ephebes and those buildings connected with the establishment of the Ptolemaic garrison and administration. At the same time, places of worship increased, with the establishment of sanctuaries in honour of foreign deities and the Ptolemaic kings, such as the sanctuary of the Egyptian Gods, whose worship was introduced to Thera during this period. Buildings were established to house religious associations, while the sculptures that adorn the agora, public buildings and sanctuaries also increased in number.
In Roman times, Thera initially fell into the Roman Province of Asia and later, under the administrative reforms of Diocletian, into the newly established ‘province of the islands’, like most of the Cyclades. Building activity in the city, although more limited, continues, especially in the 1st and 2nd centuries AD, while its embellishment with sculptures becomes even more intense. The Agora is expanded once again, public baths are constructed and extensive repairs-conversions are made to the buildings, be they sacred, public or private in nature.
Although seemingly in gradual decline since the 3rd century AD, the city continued to be inhabited even after the end of antiquity, as is indicated, among other things, by the foundation, probably in the 6th century, of two early Christian basilicas. In the 8th century, during the Arab invasions, its walls were strengthened in the necessary places and offered shelter to the inhabitants of its lower slopes. A multitude of makeshift shelters made of ancient building material among its half-ruined buildings testifies to the last period of its habitation, that after the largest eruption of the volcano of Thera in historical times, in 726 AD.
The city, after its final abandonment, was transformed into a ruin and with its antiquities remaining largely visible, it underwent extensive pillaging and stone-robbing. Its systematic research and discovery are due to the large-scale excavations carried out by the German philologist-epigraphist Hiller von Gaertringen and his associates (1896-1902). Systematic excavation research at the expense of the Archaeological Society of Athens was also carried out in its cemetery by the Superintendent of Antiquities N. Zapheiropoulos (1961-1982). Since the 1990s, smaller-scale excavations in the city and its cemetery have been undertaken by the Ephorate of Antiquities of the Cyclades, which also implemented the project ‘Development-Promotion of the Archaeological Site of Ancient Thera’ co-financed by the European Union (2003-2008).
Having been excavated across a particularly large area, the ancient city of Thera, today a planned archaeological site, reflects the organization and evolution of the asty of an island city-state. Its visit (average duration 1.5 hours) follows the ancient road network, allowing the sightseer to understand its topography, to get to know its main monuments and acquire a feel for its residential configuration.
