Clairy Palyvou is Professor Emerita of the Department of Architecture at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in Greece. She has worked for the Greek Ministry of Culture, and she is the site architect of Akrotiri, Thera. Her academic work focuses mainly on the architecture and art of the early Aegean and Eastern Mediterranean cultures. Palyvou has lectured extensively in Europe and the United States and has published two books on the architecture of Akrotiri.

"“This extraordinary, relatively short book examines broadly the architecture of Late Bronze Age Akrotiri on the Cycladic island of Thera . . . Throughout, Palyvou focuses on aspects of building arrangement, morphology, materials, and techniques, as well as architectural concept: her often eloquent text is well illustrated with photographs and also with many of her detailed state and restored drawings. . . . Her analyses of materials and techniques (Ch. 9 and elsewhere) are exemplary . . . a rich presentation of history, architecture, and humanism as seen through the prism of a professional architect as well as a scholar and concerned observer. . . . This new multispectrum presentation is both a pleasure and challenge to read, more generous in its scope than most discussions of ancient architecture…Palyvou would be a strong, if not the only, candidate, one suspects, for writing an inspiring history of all aspects of Late Bronze Age Aegean Architecture." Shaw, J.W., American Journal of Archaeology 111, 2007, p. 579

• 1. The Volcanic Fate of Thera;2. The Archaeologist: An Unexpected Visitor 3,500 Years Later;3. The Settlement Pattern of Thera During the 2nd Millennium B.C.;4. The Akrotiri Region: Landscape Past and Present;5. The Town;6. The Buildings;7. A Guided Tour through the Town;8. A Synopsis of The Theran House Model;9. The Art of Building: Materials and Techniques;10. Design and Morphology;11. Reconciling with the Wrath of Engelados;12. Thera and Her Neighbors in a Time of Opulence.