Spyridon MarinatosBorn 4 Nov 1901; died 1 Oct 1974 at age 72. Spyridon Nikolaou Marinatos was a Greek archaeologist whose most notable discovery was the site of an ancient port city on the island of Thera, in the southern Aegean Sea. The city, the name of which was not discovered, apparently had about 20,000 inhabitants when it was destroyed by the great volcanic eruption of 1500 BC. Among the finds made at the site were the finest frescoes discovered in the Mediterranean region to that time, surpassing even those found at Knossos in Crete. The most famous of these murals is the "Two Boys Boxing" (left).[Image: "Two Boys Boxing" mural, Marinatos's most famous fresco discovery.] |
