Spyridon Marinatos

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**Spyridon Marinatos**
Born	November 4, 1901 Paliki, Greece
Died	October 1, 1974 Santorini, Greece
Residence	Greece
Nationality	Greek
Field	archaeologist
Known for	Santorini excavation

Spyridon Nikolaou Marinatos (Greek: Σπυρίδων Νικολάου Μαρινᾶτος, 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 Akrotiri, a Minoan port city on the island of Thera, which was simultaneously destroyed and preserved by a massive volcanic eruption spawning the myth of Atlantis. Marinatos began excavations in 1967 and died at the site in 1974, after suffering a massive fall.

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).