Minoan eruption

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The island of Santorini today: The volcanic caldera is formed from the main island, the island of Thirasia in the west and the tiny rocky island of Aspronisi in the southwest. In the middle of the island are the two islands Palea Kameni and Nea Kameni , which were formed after the Minoan eruption .

The Minoan eruption (also called Thera or Santorin eruption ) is the late Bronze Age eruption of the Aegean volcanic island Thera (today Santorini ), which began in the 17th or 16th century BC. The settlement of Akrotiri (modern name) , which is closely related to the Minoan culture , was buried on Santorini. Its direct effects are controversial; the opinion, often held until the 1960s, that he brought about the fall of the Minoan civilization in Crete , is controversial today.

The pyroclastics released during the eruption can be found in archaeological sites throughout the eastern Mediterranean and thus offer a fixed point in stratigraphy . The dating of the eruption is controversial; There was about 100 years between the historiographically and scientifically determined data. Since a refinement of the scientific methodology, however, the radiocarbon dating can be reconciled with the historiographical findings.

The Santorini volcano

The Santorini volcano is a result of plate tectonic processes. It belongs to a volcanic arch of islands in the southern Aegean Sea , which lies above a subduction zone created by the collision of the African and Eurasian plates .

The core of the island consists of metamorphic rocks between 200 and 40 million years old. Today they are only visible on the surface at the highest point, the Profitis Ilias (567 m), but are located in four places on the southern island under younger strata. The rest of the island consists of volcanic rock that was formed in at least twelve medium-sized and larger and other smaller eruptions since the Pleistocene , i.e. in the last 1.8 million years. Most of these are pyroclastic deposits, but five lava flows can be detected throughout the area. Age determinations of the rocks suggest an interval of 20,000 years between larger and 5000 years between small eruptions.

Volcanism in the Santorini area began about 2 million years ago when the first eruptions from the seabed occurred in the area of ​​the Akrotiri Peninsula and probably also at the location of the Christiania Islands , 20 km southwest of Santorini. The island of Santorini is the result of a complex history of volcanic eruptions during this period, during which the island repeatedly changed shape and size. Around 400,000 years ago, the focus of volcanic activity shifted to the center of what is now the caldera. The most characteristic type of activity in the last 400,000 years has been the cyclical construction of shield volcanoes, which were created around 3,600 years ago by major explosive and destructive events such as the eruption, which had a strong impact on the cultures of the eastern Mediterranean in particular. In detail, the volcanic development of Santorini can be divided into six main stages:

  • Akrotiri volcanoes (approx. 2 million - 600,000 years ago)
  • Ash cone of the Akrotiri peninsula (approx. 600 - 300 ka)
  • Peristeria volcano (530 - 300 ka)
  • First eruption cycle (360 - 180 ka)
  • Second eruption cycle (180 ka - 1613 BC) with Cape Riva eruption (21 ka)
  • Kameni shield (1613 BC - present)

Modern studies show that the archipelago almost had its present form in Minoan times (including an island in the middle of the caldera ), which it received from the Cape Riva eruption about 21,000 years ago.

Extent of the eruption

Distribution map of theraic tephra after the Minoan eruption

The Greek archaeologist Spyridon Marinatos published a theory in 1939 according to which the eruption of the Thera volcano led to the demise of the Minoan culture on Crete. For Marinatos, the Thera eruption must have resembled that of the Indonesian volcano Krakatau , which killed around 36,000 people in 1883. In addition to a shower of ash that had darkened the sky for several hundred kilometers, the tidal wave resulting from the eruption was an important parallel for him. With a height of up to 15 m, the wave triggered by Krakatau in 1883 washed over the coast of the neighboring islands and destroyed numerous cities. Marinatos assumed a similarly devastating flooding of the coasts of Crete by the Thera eruption and suspected that this was the cause of the fall of the Minoan civilization.

Meanwhile, traces of tidal waves have been identified in some places on the northeast coast of Crete. So in Pseira , Palaikastro and Papadiokambos . Even on the coast of Israel were tsunami traces found and dated. The excavations of Palaikastro show that the whole place was flooded and destroyed, but was later at least partially rebuilt, so the Minoan culture still existed.

The extent of the eruption assumed by Marinatos - he assumed four times the amount of tephra (80–120 km³) compared to the Krakatau eruption (20–30 km³), which would correspond to an eruption of magnitude 7 on the volcanic explosion index (VEI) - was in Corrected downwards over the years. Since the thickness of the ash layers on the neighboring islands did not confirm Marinatos' assumption, a smaller eruption (30 km³) of strength VEI 6 was assumed. A pollen analysis of sediment layers before and after the Thera eruption also indicated minimal changes in the regional vegetation and thus a relatively small eruption.

In 2002, however, layers of ash were found which, due to their thickness, are understood as an indication of an eruption that is more than twice as strong (up to 100 km³ of tephra). Further investigations of the sea floor around Santorini in 2006 identified deposits of pyroclastic currents in considerable thickness. The new estimate based on this now resulted in a total volume of 60 km³ magma , which safely increased the strength to 7 according to VEI.

Phases of the eruption

The outbreak is now divided into four major phases. Several earthquakes preceded it. The residents then left the island. They had enough time to take their valuables with them. During the excavations of the city of Akrotiri, no corpses, jewelry or elaborate tools were found. Akrotiri was apparently visited again shortly after the earthquake. Attempts were made to salvage undestroyed pithoi (storage containers) and pieces of furniture, to tear down walls in danger of collapsing and to sort building materials for reuse.

However, the rescue operation was canceled, the helpers fled again, leaving behind the storage containers and furniture that had already been provided. The cause is considered to be the first case of pyroclastics . It was only a small amount of volcanic ash and lapilli from a chimney almost exactly in the center of the island. Then there was a pause. Since tufts of grass have been found on some stumps of the wall in Akrotiri, there is speculation about a rest period of several months.

The first discharge of pumice stone

Pumice stone from the Minoan eruption from the north coast of Crete in Papadiokambos west of Sitia ( Sitia Archaeological Museum)

The first phase of the actual eruption consisted of a Plinian eruption of light pumice stone and ash. The deposition happened at approx. 3 cm / min, the maximum thickness of the layer is 7 m. Where the ashes gathered under steep slopes, 11 m can be reached. The output began with white material and changed to pink, in which increasingly boulders in bright yellow, orange and red tones are embedded. The colors come from the increasing temperatures of the rock when it hits the ground or previous layers.

The energy of this phase is considered to be rather low. The material was ejected by volcanic gases ; initially no water had entered the chimney. The duration of this phase is estimated to be between one and eight hours. Only in the uppermost layers of the first phase do pyroclastic currents mix into the loose deposits - the lava had come into contact with the sea water.

Pyroclastic currents

When seawater was able to get into the volcanic vent through cracks in the rock and evaporated, a phreatomagmatic explosion occurred with the energy of the eruption multiplied. The volcano could now eject much heavier material, but its deposits are also distributed much more unevenly.

The second phase began with the eruption of round lapilli with a diameter of around 10 mm, mixed with ashes and a few larger lumps. Deposits from this eruption reach a thickness of 5.90 m on Thirasia in the west and only about 10 cm in the very east of the island. This is followed by a layer of only 1-18 cm of white ash and another thick layer between 6 m in the west and 15 cm in the east and southeast. This second layer is composed of lapilli with embedded volcanic bombs , the size of which ranges from a few centimeters to blocks with a diameter of 5 m. The blocks consist mainly of black, smooth lava, which was also typical of earlier volcanic eruptions on Santorini, for example on the Skaros rock .

The second phase lasted about an hour. The volcanic vent tore in a southerly direction, as can be inferred from the orientation of some deposits.

Phreatomagmatic deposits

The third phase of the eruption saw the greatest discharge of volcanic material. The pyroclastics flowed in a continuous stream, dragging rocks of enormous size with it. In this phase the blocks reached a diameter of 20 m, typically 0.5–2 m. They consist of porphyry dacite and to a small extent of material comparable to obsidian .

The blocks are embedded in streams of ash, rivers of lapilli and, towards the end, streams of pumice stone with a high water content. In some places in the southeast of the island, the deposits of the third phase reach a thickness of 55 m.

During this phase, the chimney shifted to the north again. The penetrating lake water mixed with the volcanic material and, according to one interpretation, formed an enormous mass of hot mud called lahar . It is said to have flowed over the up to 400 m high walls of the caldera. So much material was ejected that the resulting cavity collapsed and the island collapsed above it. This formed the northern half of today's caldera. On the outside of the island, the volcanic currents flowed into the sea, adding shallow coastal plains to them.

Ignimbrite, lahar and debris flows

The outbreak ended with the fourth phase. It is multifaceted. The deposition of ignimbrite layers alternated with lahar rivers, ash flows and enormous amounts of debris. Ash clouds may also be emitted in between. Most of the material flowed off to the edges of the island: While on the caldera only around 1 m thick layers are included in the fourth phase, depending on the terrain they form alluvial fans up to 40 m thick on the outside .

The rocks of the fourth phase are smaller than before, the maximum size no longer exceeds 2 m. It can also be proven that lahar currents flowed back into the caldera at two points in the south. So the energy of the eruption must have decreased significantly. McCoy / Heiken assume that only now, at the very end of the eruption, the ring of the island collapsed, the northwest channel between the main island and Thirasia was formed and the rock in southern Thirasia collapsed. Only the Aspronisi rocky land , remnants of an earlier eruption, remained.

Meaning and dating

The deposit of Theraean tephra in almost the entire eastern Mediterranean - from Nichoria in Messinia to Anatolia and the Black Sea to the Nile Delta - offers a unique benchmark for the synchronization of various relative chronologies from these regions. At the same time, practically the entire absolute chronology of the Late Bronze Age in the eastern Mediterranean as well as synchronous time steps in large parts of the rest of Europe and the Middle East is dependent on the dating of this eruption, which is why the question of the dating of the Minoan eruption is understandably one of the most controversial in belongs to today's archaeological research.

Since the 1980s in particular, numerous investigations using a wide variety of methods have essentially led to a division of opinions into two camps: on the one hand, the representatives of the “late dating” (1530–1520 BC) and, accordingly, the “short chronology” the other those of the "early dating" (1628–1620 BC) and the "long chronology". It is also noteworthy that the “fronts” do not run between the natural sciences and the humanities, but across all camps. The debate, which is largely conducted in high-profile science magazines such as Nature and Science , has not yet received a definitive answer.

Archaeological-historiographical method

Marinatos originally dated the Minoan eruption roughly 1500 BC. BC ± 50 years, since he assumed this period for the fall of the Minoan palace centers on Crete. Although excavations in the following decades showed that the Minoan civilization did not occur suddenly, but only from around 1450 BC. BC set in a period of probably several decades, the dating of the Minoan eruption turned out to be in the late 16th century BC. From an archaeological point of view as the most likely. In the meantime, finds came to light on Crete (e.g. further developed vase painting styles), which on the one hand no longer occur on Santorini, but on the other hand clearly date before the collapse of the Minoan culture and on Crete above deposits of ashes, which are probably from the Eruption came to the fore.

The relative chronology of the Minoan culture, which was already worked out by Arthur Evans and has been refined since then, was last u. a. 1989 by Peter Warren and Vronwy Hankey linked with the very reliable, absolute chronology of Egypt . Accordingly, the phase “Middle Minoan III” (MM III) with the Hyksos period , the phase “Late Minoan IA” (SM IA) with the end of the second intermediate period and “Late Minoan IB” (SM IB) with the time of Hatshepsut and Thutmose III. in connection. If one uses this line of argument to set the Minoan eruption about 30 years before the end of the SM IA phase, this results in a period from 1530 to 1500 BC. Chr.

Other archaeologists make arguments for an early dating of the Minoan eruption, such as Wolf-Dietrich Niemeier , the excavator of the palace of Tel Kabri in Palestine , who points out that a doorstep was built in 1600 BC. The building destroyed in the 3rd century BC corresponds exactly to the one uncovered in Akrotiri. The wall paintings also showed clear stylistic connections to the frescoes on Thera. Therefore Niemeier advocates the "long chronology" and a displacement of the end of LM IA from 1500 to 1600. In the same vein interpret results of the excavations at Tell el- c Ajjul in the Gaza Strip . However, since an early dating would mean that in addition to the Minoan chronology, the Egyptian chronology, which is considered to be very certain, would have to be revised - and thus all chronologies that depend on it in the Near East and all of Europe - leading Egyptologists, and in particular Manfred Bietak , decided against it . In Tell el-Daba, Bietak found the same offset between the 14 C-dating and the placement in the relative chronology of Egypt. He dates the Minoan eruption to the reign of Thutmose III around 1450 BC due to a very controversial assignment of excavation layers ( stratum C / 2 in Tell el-Daba). u. Z. ( short chronology ).

A Minoan fresco from Auaris , Egypt. Such finds made it possible to link the archaeologically established Minoan chronology with the absolute chronology of Egypt.

The ceramic style known as white slip plays a special role : it was found in layers that can be dated relatively chronologically on Santorini before the eruption, in Cyprus and in the Hyksos capital Auaris in today's Egypt. If it is possible to arrange the pieces in a chronological order of the development, they would not only enable the synchronization of the cultural areas, but also clarify the question of the early or later dating of the Minoan eruption.

Since around the middle of the 2nd millennium BC When the political conditions in Egypt and Mesopotamia were in a state of upheaval, there is no clear written record of the catastrophe with which a historiographic date would be possible. An Egyptian inscription, the so-called “ storm stele ” by Ahmose I, remains controversial. This - also formally - highly unusual description of a natural disaster reports enormous roaring and days of darkness all over Egypt, which is very reminiscent of typical side effects of a severe volcanic eruption, e.g. B. the Krakatau eruption of 1883. The time of the catastrophe lies between the 11th and the 22nd year of Ahmose's reign, ie 1539–1528 BC. BC (after Beckerath ) or 1519–1508 BC BC (after Schneider ) or 1528–1517 BC BC (after Hornung , Krauss & Warburton ). If the described "storm" was triggered by the Minoan eruption, this is a date from a historiographical point of view. However, since no tephra layers of the Minoan eruption have been detected during the reign of Ahmose in Auaris or other places in Lower Egypt, this “storm” can also be symbolically interpreted as a state of devastation in Egypt after the end of the Hyksos period .

Another piece in this puzzle is the Papyrus Ipuwer , which contains a very similar description of a natural disaster and dates from around 1670 (± 40) BC. u. Z. is dated. Due to the very similar descriptions in the Ipuwer papyrus and the storm stele, the dating of the reign of Ahmose I after the heliacal rise of Sirius is not undisputed, as is the above-mentioned dating of the Minoan eruption to the time of Thutmose III.

Scientific methods

The "classic" dating of the Minoan eruption based on historical methods to approx. 1530/00 BC Was first questioned in 1987 when the evaluation of ice cores from Greenland at that time was the only major volcanic eruption in the middle of the 2nd millennium BC. To approx. 1645 BC BC (± 20 years).

The increased concentration of sulfuric acid that was found in layers from this period could not be clearly associated with Thera, but was based on the assumption that it was in the 2nd millennium BC. Chr. There was no other big eruption, taken as " most likely candidate for the Minoan eruption ". The assumption that the Minoan eruption was large enough to leave acidic residues even on Greenland was based on Marinatos' original theory of an eruption similar to Tambora. An eruption of this size, however, had to result in short-term changes in the climate, a so-called volcanic winter , as it had also occurred in the largest known eruption in historical time - Tambora in 1815 (see year without summer ).

A climatic change in the 17th century BC can be seen on the annual rings of long-lived pines. Prove.

As early as 1984 during the dendrochronological examination of long-lived pines in the Californian White Mountains (see Bristlecone-Pines-Chronology ) an unusually narrow annual ring from the year 1627 BC was found. That pointed to an extremely cold summer. The conclusion that this could have been the result of the Minoan eruption has not yet been drawn in 1984. This only happened in 1988 - against the background of the Greenland ice core analysis, when an examination of Irish oaks also revealed a sequence of unusually narrow annual rings beginning in 1628 BC. Could be established. Another investigation in 1996 with wood samples from Anatolia confirmed the climate anomaly, with two above-average broad annual rings indicating unusually mild and humid summers. Most recently, in 2000, an investigation of several pine trunks from a peat bog in Sweden found another indication of climate change.

A direct assignment of the climate change of the 1620s BC BC to the Minoan eruption was not possible with the findings. This means that astronomical changes or the eruption of another volcano as the cause of the annual ring anomalies and the acid peak in the Greenland Ice Sheet are much more likely. In 1990, Canadian researchers proposed the Avellino eruption of Vesuvius , which they dated back to 1660 BC using radiocarbon dating ( 14 C). BC (± 43 years). An eruption of Mount St. Helens was also observed in the 17th century BC. Dated.

In 1998, investigations revealed that the particles of volcanic glass found in ice cores in 1987 did not chemically match the eruption on Santorini. In 2004, these particles were assigned to the eruption of Mount Aniakchak in Alaska with the help of newer analysis methods . This has since been contradicted, the distribution of elements and isotopes of the acid peaks would fit well with the data from Santorini, the high calcium values ​​in pottery shards from Santorini do not necessarily have to be found in the ashes in the Greenland ice, so that it can be found at the particles could be traces of the Minoan eruption.

Find position of the olive tree branch discovered in 2002 in the pumice layer on Santorini

Some more recent 14 C dates again speak for the years 1620 to 1600 BC. Chr .: The radiocarbon dating of the branch of an olive tree buried by the volcanic eruption on Thera in 2006 , which was found in the pumice layer of the island in November 2002 , showed an age of 1613 BC. Chr. ± 13 years. Evidence of leaves shows that the branch was buried alive by the eruption. For the first time, the individual annual rings of the branch were individually 14 C-dated and the confidence intervals were considerably reduced due to their known time intervals . In 2007, another piece of the same branch and a second, longer and superficially charred branch with several side branches were discovered just nine meters away from the first site, which have not yet been dated. Objections were raised against the results because olive trees do not develop pronounced annual rings, whereupon the authors of the dating pointed out that their result was still unambiguous even without the confidence intervals, only as a reliable sequence of the samples.

The time discrepancy between the findings in the Greenland ice from 1645 BC Chr. To the 14 C data from the 1620s could be put into perspective if a corresponding curve of the beryllium isotope 10 Be is provided and analyzed in addition to the classic 14 C data . There was a time difference of exactly 20 years, which means that the acid peaks in the ice in the analysis would match the assumed data from Santorini much more precisely.

In 2006 archaeological finds of tsunami deposits near Palaikastro on Crete, using refined methods, showed an age of around 1650 ± 30 BC. The tsunami debris contains farm animal bones and ceramics along with volcanic ashes from the eruption, allowing three different dating methods to be used and compared.

A calibration curve created in 2018 for the period from 1700 to 1500 BC. BC, which has ten to twenty times the accuracy for this period than the previously used dendrochronological data, enabled the previous radiocarbon measurements to be recalibrated. As a result, the scientific dating shifted to the period between 1600 and 1525 BC. And is compatible with the archaeological findings.

Socio-cultural impact

It is unclear how the Minoan eruption directly or indirectly to the civilization of the Minoans has impacted because they no written or pictorial representations of the disaster have left. The already mentioned archaeological evidence “only” speaks against a sudden destruction of the Minoan culture by the eruption, they cannot say more. Since the island of Santorin, the southernmost Cycladic island, was the only one to be reached within a day's trip from Crete, it was the central stepping stone for the trade of the Minoans to the north. A network model of the Bronze Age sea trade in the Aegean suggests that the destruction of the Akrotiri base briefly triggered increased trade efforts via alternative routes. In the long term, however, the increased effort would have considerably restricted long-distance trade, so that the decline of the Minoan culture may have been indirectly promoted by the volcanic eruption.

System of Evans System of Plato Egyptian Dynasties ( Second Intermediate Period , New Kingdom ) Low dating High dating
Late Minoan IA Middle of the New Palace period 13th – 17th, 18th dynasty ( Hyksos , Ahmose I to Thutmose II ) 1600-1480 BC Chr. 1700-1580 BC Chr.
Late Minoan IB End of the New Palace period 18th Dynasty ( Hatshepsut , Thutmose III. ) 1480-1430 BC Chr. 1580-1490 BC Chr.

Except for the already mentioned, controversial stele of Pharaoh Ahmose, there is no contemporary evidence of the Minoan eruption that allows any conclusions to be drawn about its effects.

It is also unclear whether the Minoan eruption was reflected in later myths . Numerous local myths relating to floods and the myth of the Deucalion Flood have been associated with the Minoan eruption. Usually the battle of a god with Poseidon is reported, which floods the country. However, none of these myths explicitly speak of a volcanic eruption. Therefore it can only be brought into connection with Thera via partly tortuous interpretation and with the assumption of a catastrophic flood after the eruption. Interestingly, dated Parian Chronicle the Deucalion flood into the year 1529/1528 v. BC and is therefore within the period of the archaeological-historiographical method.

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Also in the Argonauts occurring Talos was interpreted as a reflection of the Minoan eruption: a bronze giant, Crete guarded and enemy ships with boulders pelts. Richard Hennig assumes that this myth arose in the decades immediately before the eruption, when the island volcano was more or less active.

Various authors also associate the biblical Ten Plagues of Exodus with the consequences ( historical exodus research ) of the Minoan eruption.

The Greek seismologist Angelos Galanopoulos suspected as early as the 1960s, the eruption as a model for the sinking of the island state of Atlantis , the Plato in his works Timaeus and Critias described.

literature

  • Volker J. Dietrich: The cradle of occidental culture and the Minoan catastrophe - a volcano changes the world . In: New Year's Gazette published by the Natural Research Society in Zurich . NGZ, Zurich 2004 ( digitized [PDF; 4.0 MB ; accessed on February 28, 2016]).
  • Christos Doumas : The Minoan Eruption of the Santorini Volcano . In: Antiquity 48, 1974, ISSN  0003-598X , pp. 110-115.
  • Walter L. Friedrich: Fire in the sea. The Santorini volcano, its natural history and the legend of Atlantis . 2nd Edition. Spectrum - Akademischer Verlag Munich, Munich 2005, ISBN 3-8274-1582-9 .
  • Walter L. Friedrich: The minoan eruption of santorini around 1613 BC and its consequences . In: Harald Meller , François Bertemes , Hans-Rudolf Bork , Roberto Risch (eds.): Meetings of the State Museum for Prehistory Halle . 1600 - Cultural upheaval in the shadow of the Thera outbreak? tape 9 . State Office for Monument Preservation and Archeology Saxony-Anhalt and State Museum for Prehistory, Halle (Saale), 2013, ISBN 978-3-944507-01-9 , p. 37-48 ( digitized version [PDF; 2.0 MB ; accessed on February 28, 2016]).
  • Stefan Hiller : The explosion of the Thera volcano. In: Gymnasium 82, 1975, ISSN  0342-5231 , pp. 32-74.
  • Hans Lohmann : The Santorin disaster. An archaeological myth? In: Eckart Olshausen , Holger Sonnabend (Ed.): Natural disasters in the ancient world . Steiner, Stuttgart 1998, ISBN 3-515-07252-7 , ( Geographica historica , 10 ISSN  1381-0472 ), (Stuttgart Colloquium on the Historical Geography of Antiquity 6, 1996), pp. 337-363.
  • Sturt W. Manning: A Test of Time. The Volcano of Thera and Chronology and History of the Aegean and East Mediterranean in the Mid Second Millennium BC . Oxbow, Oxford 1999, ISBN 1-900188-99-6 .
  • Floyd W. McCoy / Grant Heiken: The Late-Bronze Age explosive eruption of Thera (Santorini), Greece. Regional and local effects. In: Floyd W. McCoy, Grant Heiken (Eds.): Volcanic Hazards and Disasters in Human Antiquity. Geological Society of America, Boulder, Colo. 2000, ISBN 0-8137-2345-0 , ( Geological Society of America Special Papers 345, ISSN  0072-1077 ), pp. 43-70, wcc.hawaii.edu (PDF; 3.21 MB).
  • Hendrik Bruins, Johannes van der Plicht, Alexander MacGillivray: The Minoan Santorini Eruption and Tsunami Deposits in Crete (Palaikastro): Geological, Archaeological, 14C Dating and Egyptian Chronology . In: Radiocarbon . tape 51 , no. 2 . Arizona Board of Regents, 2009, p. 397–411 (English, digitized version [accessed March 3, 2017]).
  • Tatyana Novikova, Gerassimos A. Papadopoulos, Floyd W. McCoy: Modeling of tsunami generated by the giant Late Bronze Age eruption of Thera, South Aegean Sea, Greece . In: Geophysical Journal International . No. 186 . Oxford University Press, Oxford 2011, pp. 665–680 ( digital copy [PDF; 1,2 MB ; accessed on February 22, 2016]).
  • Harald Meller, François Bertemes, Hans-Rudolf Bork, Roberto Risch (eds.): 1600 - Cultural upheaval in the shadow of the Thera outbreak? 1600 - Cultural change in the shadow of the Thera eruption? 4th Central German Archaeological Day from October 14th to 16th, 2011 in Halle (Saale). 4th Archaeological Conference of Central Germany October 14–16, 2011 in Halle (Saale) (= conferences of the State Museum for Prehistory Halle. Volume 9). State Office for Monument Preservation and Archeology Saxony-Anhalt and State Museum for Prehistory, Halle (Saale) 2013, ISBN 978-3-944507-00-2 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Spyridon Marinatos: The Volcanic Destruction of Minoan Crete. In: Antiquity 13, 1939, pp. 425-439.
  2. ^ A b Walter L. Friedrich: Fire in the sea. The Santorini volcano, its natural history and the legend of Atlantis. 2nd Edition. Spektrum Akademischer Verlag, Heidelberg 2004, ISBN 3-8274-1582-9 .
  3. ^ A b Floyd W. McCoy & Grant Heiken, The Late-Bronze Age explosive eruption of Thera (Santorini), Greece - Regional and local effects. In: Volcanic Hazards and Disasters in Human Antiquity , Special Paper 345 of the Geological Society of America, Boulder 2000, ISBN 0-8137-2345-0 , pp. 43-70.
  4. ^ TH Druitt, et al .: Explosive volcanism on Santorini, Greece. Geological Magazine (1989), Vol. 126, No. 2, pp. 95-126
  5. ^ S. Wulf, M. Kraml, T. Kuhn, M. Schwarz, M. Inthorn, J. Keller, I. Kuscu, P. Halbach: Marine tephra from the Cape Riva eruption (22 ka) of Santorini in the Sea of Marmara. In: Marine Geology , Volume 183, Issues 1-4, April 30, 2002, pp. 131-141.
  6. ^ Walter L. Friedrich: Santorini - Volcano, Natural History, Mythology. Aarhus University Press 2009, ISBN 978-87-7934-505-8 , p. 95.
  7. ↑ Lisa Leander: Tsunami traces on Israel's coast. epoc-online from October 14, 2009.
  8. ↑ a b Hendrik J. Bruins, Johannes van derpflicht, J. Alexander MacGillivray: The Minoan Santorini eruption and tsunami deposits in Palaikastro (Crete): Dating by geology, archeology, 14 C, and Egyptian chronology . In: Radiocarbon, Vol. 51, No. 2. Arizona Board of Regents on behalf of the University of Arizona, 2009, pp. 397-411 , accessed May 2, 2011 .
  9. ↑ Christos Doumas et al .: Santorini tephra from Rhodes. In: Nature 287, 1980, pp. 322-324. doi: 10.1038 / 287322a0
  10. ^ WJ Eastwood et al .: The environmental impact of the Minoan eruption of Santorini (Thera): statistical analysis of palaeoecological data from Gölhisar, southwest Turkey. In: The Holocene 12, 2002, pp. 431-444. doi: 10.1191 / 0959683602hl557rp
  11. ↑ Floyd W. McCoy et al .: Modeling the Climatic Effects fo the LBA Eruption of Thera: New Calculations of Tephra Volumes May Suggest a Significantly Larger Eruption than Previously Reported. In: Proceedings of the Chapman Conference on Volcanism and the Earth's Atmosphere , Am. Geophysical Union, Santorini, 2002, pp. 21-22. agu.org (PDF)
  12. ↑ Haraldur Sigurdsson, Steven Carey: Thera 2006 Expedition Summary . Graduate School of Oceanography University of Rhode Island.
  13. ↑ The presentation of the process follows McCoy / Heiken 2000, unless other sources are given.
  14. ↑ Representation of the reconstruction of the eruption in four phases. The tsunami formed in phases 3 and 4 and not when the caldera collapsed . Graphic from P. Nomikou, TH Druitt, et al .: Post-eruptive flooding of Santorini caldera and implications for tsunami generation. Nature Communications 7: 13332, November 2016 [1]
  15. ↑ Clairy Palyvou: Akrotiri Thera - in architecture of affluence 3500 years old. INSTAP Academic Press, Philadelphia 2005, ISBN 1-931534-14-4 , p. 11.
  16. ↑ RSJ Sparks & CJN Wilson: The Minoan Deposits - A Review of Their Characteristics and Interpretation. In: DA Hardy (Ed.): Thera and the Aegean World III. London 1990.
  17. ^ George Rapp et al .: Pumice from Thera (Santorini) Identified from a Greek Mainland Archeological Excavation. In: Science 179, 1973, pp. 471-473. doi: 10.1126 / science.179.4072.471
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  19. Jump up ↑ Frederic Guichard et al .: Tephra from the Minoan eruption of Santorini in sediments of the Black Sea. In: Nature 363, 1993, pp. 610-612. doi: 10.1038 / 363610a0
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  23. ↑ Wolf-Dietrich Niemeier: New Archaeological Evidence for a 17th century date of the 'Minoan Eruption' from Israel (Tel Kabri, Western Galilee). In: Thera and the Aegean world, 3.3. Chronology. Proceedings of the Third International Congress, Santorini, Greece, September 3-9, 1989 , edited by DA Hardy, London 1990, pp. 114-119. ISBN 0-9506133-6-3
  24. ^ Wolf-Dietrich Niemeier: Tel Kabri: Aegean Fresco Paintings in a Canaanite Palace. In: Seymour Gittin (Ed.): Recent Excavations in Israel: A View to the West , Kendall, Dubuque 1995. ISBN 0-7872-0486-2
  25. ↑ Peter M. Fischer: The chronology of Tell el- c Ajjul, Gaza - stratigraphy, Thera, pumice and radiocarbon dating. In: Jan Heinemeier, Walter Friedrich: Time's Up! - Dating the Minoan Eruption of Santorini, Acts of the Minoan Eruption Chronology Workshop, Sandbjerg November 2007 . Monographs of the Danish Institute at Athens, Vol. 10, Aarhus University Press, 2009, ISBN 978-87-7934-024-4 , pp. 253-265.
  26. ↑ Manfred Bietak (Ed.): Trade, Power and Cultural Exchange: Hyksos Egypt and the Eastern Mediterranean World 1800–1500 BC (= Egypt and Levante 5), Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna 1995. ISBN 3-7001-2205-5 .
  27. ↑ Walter Kutschera, Manfred Bietak, et al .: The Chronology of Tell el-Daba: A Crucial Meeting Point of 14C Dating, Archeology, and Egyptology in the 2nd Millennium BC. In: Radiocarbon. Volume 54, No. 3, 2012, pp. 407-422.
  28. ^ Malcom H. Wiener: Times Change: The Current State of the Debate in Old World Chronology. In: SCIEM. 3, p. 40, quotation: “In addition to the pottery evidence, the contexts of waterborne pumice from the Theran eruption found in Egypt and the Near East have been considered as evidence relating to the date of the eruption. At Tell el-Daba, Theran pumice in large quantities was found at five locations, three of which the excavator believes were workshops active during the reign of Thuthmosis III and not abandoned until late in his reign or the following reign of Amenophis II, in any event after c. 1450 BC… Pumice from the Theran eruption has also been found in Eighteenth Dynasty, likely post-1525 BC contexts at Tell el-Ajjul and Tell Nami in Canaan. "
  29. ↑ Sturt W. Manning: Clarifying the 'High' v. 'Low' Aegean / Cypriot Chronology for the Mid Second Millennium BC: Assessing the Evidence, Interpretive Frameworks, and Current State of the Debate . In: Manfred Bietak, Ernst Czerny (Ed.): The Synchronization of Civilizations in the Eastern Mediterranean in the Second Millennium BC III . Proceedings of the SCIEM 2000 - 2nd EuroConference, Vienna, 28th of May - 1st of June 2003. Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna 2007, ISBN 978-3-7001-3527-2 , pp. 101-138 ( dendro.cornell.edu [PDF; 425 kB ; accessed on April 2, 2012]).
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  36. ↑ Valmore C. LaMarche Jr. & Katherine K. Hirschboeck: Frost rings in trees as records of major volcanic eruptions. In: Nature 307, 1984, pp. 121-126. doi: 10.1038 / 307121a0
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  39. ↑ Håkan Grudd et al .: Swedish tree rings provide new evidence in support of a major, widespread environmental disruption in 1628 BC. In: Geophysical Research Letters 27 (18), 2000, pp. 2957-2960. doi: 10.1029 / 1999GL010852
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  43. ↑ Nicholas JG Pearce et al .: Identification of Aniakchak (Alaska) tephra in Greenland ice core challenges the 1645 BC date for Minoan eruption of Santorini. In: Geochem. Geophys. Geosyst. 5, 2004. doi: 10.1029 / 2003GC000672
  44. ↑ BM Vither et al .: Reply to comment by JS Denton and NJG Pearce on “A synchronized dating of three Greenland ice cores throughout the Holocene”. In: Journal of Geophysical Research 113, 2008, D12306, quoted from: Raimund Muscheler: 14 C and 10 Be around 1650 cal BC. In: Jan Heinemeier, Walter Friedrich: Time's Up! - Dating the Minoan Eruption of Santorini, Acts of the Minoan Eruption Chronology Workshop, Sandbjerg November 2007 . Monographs of the Danish Institute at Athens, Vol. 10, Aarhus University Press, 2009, ISBN 978-87-7934-024-4 , pp. 275-284.
  45. ↑ Newly dated - 100 years are missing from the ancient calendar . Scientists are well ahead of the Santorini eruption. Heidelberg Academy of Sciences, April 27, 2006, accessed on May 2, 2011 .
  46. ↑ Walter L. Friedrich: Fire in the sea . The Santorini volcano, its natural history and the legend of Atlantis. 2nd Edition. Spektrum Akademischer Verlag, Munich 2004, ISBN 3-8274-1582-9 , p. 86 .
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  48. ↑ For the method of analyzing individual annual rings and the merging of the data, as well as the exclusion of contamination with geologically old CO 2 of volcanic origin, see: Jan Heinemeier, Walter Friedrich, Bernd Kromer, Christopher Bronk Ramsey: The Minoan Eruption of Santorini radiocarbon dated. In: Jan Heinemeier, Walter Friedrich: Time's Up! - Dating the Minoan Eruption of Santorini, Acts of the Minoan Eruption Chronology Workshop, Sandbjerg November 2007 . Monographs of the Danish Institute at Athens, Vol. 10, Aarhus University Press, 2009, ISBN 978-87-7934-024-4 , pp. 285-293.
  49. ^ Walter Friedrich, Jan Heinemeier: The Minoan eruption of Santorini radiocarbon dated to 1613 ± 13 BC. In: Jan Heinemeier, Walter Friedrich: Time's Up! - Dating the Minoan Eruption of Santorini, Acts of the Minoan Eruption Chronology Workshop, Sandbjerg November 2007 . Monographs of the Danish Institute at Athens, Vol. 10, Aarhus University Press, 2009, ISBN 978-87-7934-024-4 , pp. 56-63.
  50. ↑ Paolo Cherubini, Turi Humbel, et al .: Olive Tree-Ring Problematic Dating: A Comparative Analysis on Santorini (Greece). In: PLoS ONE Volume 8, Issue 1 (January 2013): e54730. doi: 10.1371 / journal.pone.0054730
  51. ↑ Paolo Cherubini, Turi Humbel, et al .: The olive-branch dating of the Santorini eruption. In: Antiquity, Volume: 88 Number: 339 (March 2014), pp. 267–273
  52. ↑ Walter I. Friedrich, Brend Kromer, et al .: The olive branch chronology stands irrespective of tree-ring counting. In: Antiquity, Volume: 88 Number: 339 (March 2014), pp. 274–277 - see also the other contributions to the debate in the same issue of Antiquity, pp. 277–291
  53. ^ Raimund Muscheler: 14 C and 10 Be around 1650 cal BC. In: Jan Heinemeier, Walter Friedrich: Time's Up! - Dating the Minoan Eruption of Santorini, Acts of the Minoan Eruption Chronology Workshop, Sandbjerg November 2007 . Monographs of the Danish Institute at Athens, Vol. 10, Aarhus University Press, 2009, ISBN 978-87-7934-024-4 , pp. 275-284.
  54. ↑ Charlotte L. Pearson et al .: Annual radiocarbon record indicates 16th century BCE date for the Thera eruption. In: Science Advances Volume 4, Issue 8 (August 2018): eaar8241. doi: 10.1126 / sciadv.aar8241
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  56. ↑ Carl Knappelt, Ray Rivers, Tim Evans: The Theran eruption and Minoan palatian collaps - new interpretations gained from modeling the maritime network. In: Antiquity , 85, 329, pp. 1008-1023.
  57. ↑ Chronicon Parium , 4th Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archeology: The Parian Marble: Translation ( Memento of the original from December 25, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.ashmolean.museum
  58. ↑ J. Schoo: "Volcanic and seismic activity of the Aegean sea basin in the mirror of Greek mythology", in: Mnemosyne Vol. 3/4, pp. 257-294.
  59. ↑ Richard Hennig: Ancient Greek legendary figures as personification of earth fires and volcanic processes. In: Yearbook of the German Archaeological Institute 54, 1939, pp. 230–246.
  60. ↑ Barbara J. Sivertsen: The Parting of the Sea: How Volcanoes, Earthquakes, and Plagues Shaped the Story of Exodus . Princeton University Press, 2009, ISBN 978-0-691-13770-4 (online: excerpt from the topic ( Memento from January 22, 2013 in the Internet Archive ))
  61. ↑ W. Woelfli: Thera as the focal point of the Egyptian and Israelite chronologies. November 8, 2018 PDF; 128 KB, pp. 1-10
  62. ^ Angelos G. Galanopoulos, Edward Bacon: The truth about Atlantis , Heyne Verlag, Munich 1980. ISBN 3-453-00654-2 (see also James W. Mavor Jr .: The Minoan Atlantis of Dr. Angelos Galanopulos )

Coordinates: 36 ° 20 ′ 58 ″  N , 25 ° 23 ′ 58 ″  E

This article was added to the list of excellent articles on March 10, 2007 in this version .