Santorini Volcano site lists this painting as a young girl collecting crocus (AKA saffron, expensive today herb used for cooking, then also for dye)
She is in the far left room, #3 in the link below, the complete painting. In any case, it is interesting to look at these wall frescos in a kind fo virtual exhibit.
http://www.therafoundation.org/wallpaintingexhibition
http://3quarksdaily.blogs.com/3quarksdaily/2007/04/saffron_mother.html
(wall painting from Akrotiri, Santorini)
http://www.santorini.net/caldera.html webcam, note time difference, as I write this it is midnight here and 9 AM in Athens.
Santorini is the largest active caldera (sea crater) in the world, 5 times larger than Krakatoa between Sumatra & Java in Indonesia. The Thira eruption is estimated to have been 5 times more powerful than the one of Krakatoa that is described by J.V.Luce in “The End of Atlantis” http://www.ntua.gr/arch/geometry/tns/santorini/
When Vesuvius erupted in 1631, some villages were completely buried beneath ash, and people could not find their houses and fields any more. Santorini erupted 3000 years earlier and 100 times stronger.
http://www.decadevolcano.net/santorini/atlantis.htm
Many believe that Santorini once was Atlantis. But why ?
Atlantis – the story about a prosperous land that disappeared without trace, sunk into the sea by the anger of gods – has been one of the oldest myths of mankind. Atlantis stands for one of mankind’s oldest dreams and myths, the one of the lost paradise. In similar versions it occurs in many civilizations. The classical Atlantis story, however, the one where the name Atlantis is used, is the one told by the Ancient Greek philosopher Plato in two of his dialogues, Kritias and Timaeus. In Plato’s version it is not a objective report of events, but rather a moral tale that uses the story of – true or invented – events in the background. As a consequence, when it comes to interpreting the story as a report, it is not ambiguous. One of the most debated questions has always been the location of the place Plato might have referred to.
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I have been on this guy’s volcano site for literally days enjoying all the photos and stopping to read various accounts of his group’s travels and volcano exploration . I don’t think he is American as the site traces to Heidewig, St. Wendel . It is clear he has put much time and care into all this, layer upon layer, category under category, index upon index. Heknows how to catalogue stuff. The loose/lose confusion is completely forgiveable since he is probably not an American!
In any case, Monday I found a great volcanic rock on the beach and because of an interest in geology I started looking up things on the net , I spotted his pictures in google image search which led to the volcano site and Atlantis, which led to other sites and wall paintings from excavations-
http://www.santorini.gr-santorini.com/archaeology/akrotiri.htm
http://www.santorini-culture.gr/eng_santorini_greece_in_greek.html
Wiki actually seems to have a lot of good stuff on this
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santorini
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akrotiri_%28Santorini%29
Another site: http://www.mlahanas.de/Greece/Cities/Santorini.html
sister site of : http://www.hellenica.de/Griechenland/Geo/GriechenlandA.html
Of course I realize this may all be BS. The excavations are real , however- Just too tired right now at almost 1AM to try and build a case step by step. I was happy enough to just sift through all this and learn about the area and history, geologically speaking, and the excavation at Akrotiri, learn about the Minoan society. On one of these earlier links it is said there were no bodies found in the dig and only one item of gold hidden under things -very uncommon to not find hardly any metals in a society that had metallurgy- these facts point to people evacuating before the volcano went off. Of course there are naysayers or other people who want Atlantis for themselves- and it is highly possible there are many such ‘lost civilization’s – such as our current one, rapidly de-evolving as it is.
http://www.dmoz.org/Science/Social_Sciences/Archaeology/Alternative/Lost_Civilizations/Atlantis/
The Spoils of War 