Spyridon Marinatos
Spyridon Nikolaou Marinatos (
Greek:
Σπυρίδων Νικόλαου Μαρινάτος,
November 4,
1901 –
October 1,
1974) was one of the premier
Greek archaeologists of the
20th century. His most notable discovery was the site of a
Minoan port city on the island of
Thera, which was simultaneously destroyed and preserved by a massive volcanic eruption (ca
1650-
1600 BCE) spawning the myth of
Atlantis. Marinatos began excavations in
1967 and died at the site in 1974, after suffering a massive
stroke.
Marinatos was director-general of antiquities for the Greek Ministry of Culture during the autocratic rule of the colonels. The acquaintance he cultivated with the colonels who were in power in Greece, especially the widely-despised
Georgios Papadopoulos, opened bureaucratic doors for him, but created controversy among his academic peers.
His
Crete and Mycenae (
1960) was originally published in
Greek, in
1959.His summing-up of the excavations on Santorini is "Life and Art in Prehistoric Thera,"
Proceedings of the British Academy, vol. 57 (
1972).
Marinatos was responsible for excavations at:
*
Amnisos*
Thera*
Vathypetro*
Archaeological site of Akrotiri Thera:
