THERA WALL PAINTING 1.500 B.C.

[aukepalmhof]

The Greek Post issued a set of 6 stamps in 2011 on her shipping activities.

The Greek Post gives the following by the issues:

Greek Shipping is the pillar of the country’s economy boasting a fleet that has ranked first in the world for a number of years and demonstrating its ability to weather the storms despite the current financial difficulties.
Supremacy over sea routes enchanted the Greek since ancient times, firing their imagination and developing their creativity. As a result, thousand of years ago, they constructed true sea-faring ships, which were important breakthroughs in navigational history, playing a particularly important role through the centuries.
They were warships, but also the means for disseminating Greek culture, the principles of Democracy, the arts and sciences; wakeful guards of the seas, they secured the trade routes which transported Greek ideas and products throughout the entire then-known world.

Within this framework, on 18 April 2011, the Philately Department is releasing the “Greek Shipping” Commemorative Series of Postage Stamps, an issue that includes six unique stamps, based on original miniature ships built by Evaggelos Grypiotis, designed and adapted by the artist Anthoula Lyga.

Euro 0.01 Ship from a Thera wall painting, 1,500 B.C.
Euro 0.20 Polyreme of the Hellenistic Period, 4th – 2nd cent. B.C.
Euro 0.60 Triakontoros 15th – 4th cent. B.C.
Euro 0.75 Hellenic Trireme 7th – 4th cent. B.C.
Euro 2.47 Macedonian Hexarme 4th – 3nd cent. B.C.
Euro 2.50 Byzantine Dromon 5th – 11th cent. A.D.


The 0.01 Euro depict a ship of the wall painting of Thera:
http://library.thinkquest.org/06aug/003 ... tql-iframe gives on this vessel as follows:

During the excavations in the Cape of Santorini, it was discovered in the south wall of room 5, the “West House”, a wall painting 4 meters long and 43 centimetres high, it is about a frieze that is most preserved among all the wall-paintings found in the excavations of the Cape of Thera, and it is exposed today at the Archaeological Museum in Athens. In this frieze we have a detailed and accurate representation of a cavalcade consisted of ships of any size.
They are represented to float between two parts and big ships carrying passengers and richly adorned.

Much has been written about the interpretation of its naval pageant; a ceremonial parade of ships or a war expedition. From where do these ships come and where do they go? The cavalcade of Santorini also gives us information about the way of navigating relevant to their type, information about the (iotiocpopia), the armour of the men and the numerous details that defeat many theories about the history of Aegean of this period, but also beliefs for the shipbuilding and navigation. It is about a (aucpinpwpoc) ship which directions, with a simple eversion of the position of the oarsmen. Another characteristic of the ship is that in the (nquuvn) there is a ram against the enemy ships as well the model of a wild cat to terrify the enemies.
Most researchers believe that they were advancved ships with a normal skinning, a processor of the polykopa ships of the geometric ages.

The ships represented in these wall-paintings and vessels were the ships of Thera (Theraika), which were the first known ships in the Greek region. The wall-paintings dated back to 1500 – 1600 B.C., about the minoic era. The strange thing is that knowledge is diminished later, close to 700 B.C., when Korinthos presented the first formation of a trireme. It measured 40 meters long and utilised 150 oarsmen in three rows and 50 more persons for the rest of their needs.

Greece 2011 0.01 Euro sg?, scott?