Thera is an ancient name for modern Santorini, which are the remains of a volcanic island. Although it exhibited low-level activity in 1939-41 and 1950-51, it was in 1926 when it last erupted violently, destroying many hundreds of buildings in less than a minute. Eruptions of similarity intensity occurred in 1650, 1707 and 1866. It was also the site of probably the most powerful and destructive volcanic explosion in the Mediterranean during the Bronze Age. Although the exact date of this event is still the subject of some controversy the most recent evidence(a) indicates a date around 1613 BC ±13years, while archaeologists are more supportive of a date circa 1500 BC. Professor Floyd McCoy is currently planning an eighteen-month study of the matter in Greece, in the hope of resolving this dating conflict.
There was clearly a series of eruptions that ended with a final enormous explosion that has been linked to the ending of Minoan civilisation on Crete, the Plagues of Egypt and agricultural failures throughout the Eastern Mediterranean. For a geologist’s view of the island’s dramatic history, Walter Friedrich’s book[428] is hard to beat. His book supports a 1640 BC date for the eruption although he has subsequently revised this to 1613 BC.
The doctoral thesis of Dr. David Sewell explores the cultural effects of the Theran eruption and can be read online(h).
The volcanic ash deposited by the Theran eruption was centuries later to be used in huge quantities to manufacture cement for the construction of the Suez Canal.
It is claimed by many that a garbled Egyptian description of this devastating event was the basis for the story of the destruction of Atlantis. Auguste Nicaise, in the course of a lecture in 1885, was probably the first to publicly link the demise of Atlantis with the explosion on Thera.
Opponents of this theory counter it by pointing out that Plato describes the inundation of an island much larger than Santorini or Crete, located in the Atlantic following an earthquake, not a volcanic eruption many thousands of years earlier. Various attempts have been made to reconcile the Minoan Theory with these apparent inconsistencies with Plato’s text. They are discussed separately under
Date of Atlantis’ Collapse
It was announced(f) at the end of February 2010 that the BBC was about to air a dramatisation of the Theran disaster as well as a documentary on the eruption as its influence on the development of Plato’s story of Atlantis. June 2010 saw the historian, Bettany Hughes, front a disappointing BBC Timewatch Special, which also promoted the idea of the eruption on Thera as the inspiration for Plato’s story of Atlantis. The material introduced as evidence was highly selective and, for me, unconvincing. A few parallels between Thera and Plato’s description were trotted out, while the more numerous differences were ignored!
Another twist on the Thera explosion is offered by Andis Kaulins who suggests that there is a connection between that event and the Biblical story of Sodom and Gomorrah(g).
An extensive bibliography of books and articles on the subject can be found on the Internet(b) as can a discussion of the complexities on an Atlantis Rising forum(c).
(a) http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/April06/Bronze.age.AK.html
(b) http://clvl.cla.umn.edu/chloris/thera_0.html
(c) http://forums.atlantisrising.com/ubb/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=1;t=001611
(f) http://galileowasright.com/atlantis-%E2%80%93-end-of-a-world-birth-of-a-legend/
(g) http://www.lexiline.com/lexiline/lexi58.htm
(h) http://www.santorini-eruption.org.uk/
