DISTINCT, LATE BRONZE AGE ( c. 1650bc) WALL-PAINTINGS FROM AKROTIRI, THERA, COMPRISING ADVANCED GEOMETRICAL PATTERNS*.

This paper studies a set of wall-paintings of the Late Bronze Age (c. 1650bc) initially decorating the internal walls of the third floor of the edifice called ‘Xeste 3’, excavated at Akrotiri, Thera, whose restoration is now in progress. It deals with the methods used for the drawing of the geometri...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Archaeometry Vol. 48; no. 1; pp. 97 - 115
Main Authors: Papaodysseus, C., Panagopoulos, Th., Exarhos, M., Fragoulis, D., Roussopoulos, G., Rousopoulos, P., Galanopoulos, G., Triantafillou, C., Vlachopoulos, A., Doumas, C.
Format: Article
Published: Wiley-Blackwell Feb2006
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Online Access:View this record in EBSCOhost
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Summary:This paper studies a set of wall-paintings of the Late Bronze Age (c. 1650bc) initially decorating the internal walls of the third floor of the edifice called ‘Xeste 3’, excavated at Akrotiri, Thera, whose restoration is now in progress. It deals with the methods used for the drawing of the geometrical figures appearing in these wall-paintings. It is demonstrated that most of the depicted configurations correspond with accuracy to geometrical prototypes such as linear spirals and canonical polygons. It is pointed out that the steady lines of the figures, their remarkable repeatability, the precision of the geometrical shapes and their even distribution in the wall-paintings indicate a very distinctive use of the ‘Xeste 3’ third floor, which is now investigated.