Plate tectonics had an amazing impact on shaping the ancient Aegean civilization. The rough mountains forced the early Greeks to take to the sea and explore the world in search for better lands. When the Thera volcano (Santorini) exploded, it destroyed the Minoan civilisation. It created the marbles we admire on the Acropolis, created the shallow Aegean sea with abundant fish stock and made Athens with its silver mines a power which would challenge and defeat the mightiest empire in the world, the Persians. We understand this context today. For the ancients it was a divine fate.
Kamares in Sifnos, where all the Ferry Boats arrive from the mainland and other islands
As the African plate pushed north over the past 65 million years, it closed the Tethys Sea and lifted, folded and twisted the old seafloor into the Alps, the Apennine, the Balkans and the Anatolian mountains. The sedimental structure of many limestone and schist layers (mud baked into stones) is visible to the naked eye. My beloved geography teacher, Professor Brunner, took us on many excursions to the Swiss Alps to investigate these limestone formations. He always carried a bottle of diluted hydrochloric acid. A drop of acid on limestone makes it foam – voilà, we were looking at a sediment from the Tethys Sea floor – baked and compressed calcium shells of millions and millions of tiny little sea creatures.
The Geology of the Southern Aegean with its twisted, twirled and broken sedimental layers
What I never could reconcile was the fact that there are so many gold, silver, copper and led mines in the Aegean. Gold and silver is usually found at the periphery of old volcanos. The pressurized magma cracks open fissures where hot gases from the earth’s core escape. They are saturated with gaseous gold and silver and other heavy metals which condense as they climbs and cools down. This creates the ore veins which are mined and which can be easily detected. Had the privilege to visit many gold mines early in my career we built a gold trading & hedging business. The feature is common to all precious metal mines in the world.
Hot saturated Gases travelled up the red Fissures and deposited Silver in the grey bodies
We should thus find gold and silver around Thera (Santorini). Maybe there are but they would be below the surrounding sea and inaccessible. After a while I found a geology map which finally lifted the secret. The Tethys sea floor was so twisted and folded and broken up, that fissures opened in the earth mantel which allowed hot gases from the core to rise and reach upper levels of the crust. Of course, these fumes came saturated with precious metals, and created large silver deposits close to the surface when they condensed. It would be very interesting to find out why copper is dominant in Cyprus and Anatolia, silver in Greece and gold in Bulgaria. There must be a geological explanation but I have not found it yet.
View on Agios Sostis on Sifnos - the Entrance to the silver mines is to the right of the Church
During our last week from Santorini to Athens, we will stop overnight at the island of Siphnos and then pass the southern tip of Attica, where the Lavrion silver district is located. Still have to find a guide who can show us the mine shafts since they are not easy to find. But find we shall.
Lion Hung - Part of the Relief which decorated the Siphon Treasury in Delphi built in 525 BC
Sifnos has a remarkably unremarkable history for its importance. It is best known for the Siphnian Treasury which it gave to the Holy Site of Delphi in 525 BC. The beautiful building did not survive but the four-sided frieze with its reliefs did and can be visited in the Delphi Museum. It is impressive and indicates the existence of a sophisticated and wealthy community on Sifnos.
Entrance to the ancient Silver Mine in Agios Sostis
Sadly, there are almost no historical records except that the island was frequently raided by pirates due to its immense wealth and that it was an ally of Athens during the Persian Wars. In the 4th century BC it was briefly occupied by Persia and then liberated by the forces of Alexandre the Great. The silver mines must still have been in operation if Alexandre decided to deviate his forces from his main war effort. He would not have done so for a rocky island with no value. Today, the island is quite peaceful and off the beaten track. It has none of the big monuments which attract tourists.
The quiet and beautiful Bay of Agios Georgi in Sifnos' South
The same is true for Lavrion, Attica’s ancient silver district. Luckily, it has Cap Sounion with its beautiful temple of Zeus. Thanks to the tourists it attracts, some old silver mines have been excavated and are relatively easily accessible. The yield of the mines started to drop by 300 BC. They were depleted by 100 BC. Athens loss of power and importance reflected the loss of income from its mines.
Sifnos was so frequently raided, the Population had to withdraw to Kastro to survive
The fissures in the ancient Tethys sea floor changed world history, nonetheless. Without the silver from the mines, ancient Greece would not have risen and we may never have experienced its spill-offs like critical thinking, natural science, modern medicine, literature and plays and our form of governance, democracy (rule of people) - at least for a while. But this is speculative history. The plate tectonic crated the silver veins and deposits and we have to be grateful for its indirect results.