DESTINATION SANTORINI (THERA)
The name Santorini was given it by the Latin empire in the thirteenth century, and is a reference to Saint Irene. Before then it was named Kallistē ("the most beautiful one"), Strongylē ("the circular one"), or Thera.
Sunset in Santorini (Thera)
Thera remained unoccupied throughout the rest of the Bronze Age, during which time the Dorians took over Crete. At Knossos, in a LMIIIA context (14th century BC), seven Linear B texts while calling upon "all the gods" make sure to grant primacy to an elsewhere-unattested entity called qe-ra-si-ja and, once, qe-ra-si-jo. If the endings -ia[s] and -ios represent an ethnikonic suffix, then this means "The One From Qeras[os]". If aspirated, Qhera- would have become "Thera-" in later Greek. "Therasia" and its ethnikon "Therasios" are both attested in later Greek; and, since -sos was itself a genitive suffix in the Aegean Sprachbund, Qeras[os] could also shrink to Qera. (An alternate view takes qe-ra-si-ja and qe-ra-si-jo as proof of androgyny, and applies this name by similar arguments to the legendary seer, Tiresias. But these views are not mutually exclusive.) If qe-ra-si-ja was an ethnikon first, then in following him/her/it the Cretans also feared whence it came.
The Thera eruption was a major catastrophic volcanic eruption of VEI (Volcanic Explosivity Index) scale 6 or 7 and DRE (Dernce-rock equivalent) 60 km which is estimated to have occurred in 1628 BC ± 20 years. The eruption was one of the largest volcanic events on Earth in recorded history. The eruption devastated the island of Thera, including agricultural areas on nearby islands and on the coast of Crete.
The eruption seems to have inspired certain Greek Myths and may have caused turmoil in Egypt. Additionally, it has been speculated that the Minoan eruption and the destruction of the city at Akrotiri provided the basis to scientists, inspired Plato’s story of Atlantis.
On Thera, there is a 60 m (200 ft) thick layer of white tephra that overlies the soil clearly delineating the ground level prior to the eruption. This layer has three distinct bands that indicate the different phases of the eruption. Since no bodies have been found at the Akrotiri site, Floyd W. McCoy, Professor of Geology and Oceanography, University of Hawaii, notes that the local population had advance warning of the impending eruption, leaving the island prior to its destruction.
Recent research by a team of international scientists in 2006 revealed that the Thera event was much larger. Later research shows that this was up to four times what was thrown into the stratosphere by Krakatoa, Indonesia in 1883, a well-recorded event. The Thera volcanic events and subsequent ash fall probably sterilized the island, as occurred on Krakatoa. Only the Mount Tambora volcanic eruption of 1815 released more material into the atmosphere during historic times.
The event generated a 35 - 150 m (110 to 490 ft) high tsunami that devastated the north coast of Crete, 110 km (68 mi) away. Elsewhere in the Mediterranean there are pumice deposits which could have been caused by the Thera eruption. Ash layers in cores drilled from the seabed and from lakes in Turkey, however, show that the heaviest ashfall was towards the east and northeast of Thera. The ash found on Crete is now known to have been from a precursory phase of the eruption, some weeks or months before the main eruptive phases, and would have had little impact on the island.
Date
In 2006 two research papers were published arguing that new radiocarbon analysis dated the eruption between 1627 BCE and 1600 BCE. Samples of wood, bone, and seed collected from various locations in the Aegean, including Thera, Crete, Rhodes and Turkey, were analyzed at three separate labs in Oxford, Vienna, and Heidleberg Germany, in order to minimize the chance of a radiocarbon dating error. Results of the analysis indicated a broad dating for the Thera event between 1660 to 1613 BCE. Also that year the radiocarbon-indicated date of the eruption of Thera was narrowed to between 1627 and 1600 BCE, with a 95% probability of accuracy, after researchers analyzed material from an olive tree that was found buried beneath a lava flow from the volcano. Because the tree grew on the island, the results may have been affected by volcanic outgassing, which would have skewed the accuracy of the radiometric studies.
Although radiocarbon indicates a 1600 BCE eruption dating, archeologists believe that the date is contradicted by findings in Egyptian and Theran excavations. For example, some archeologists on Thera have found buried Egyptian and Cypriot pottery that is dated to a later period than the radiometric dates for the eruption. Since the Egyptian historical chronology has been established by numerous archaeological studies, the exact date of the eruption remains controversial. If radiocarbon dating is accurate, there would be significant chronological realignment of several Eastern Mediterranean cultures.
Climatic effects
Around the time of the radiocarbon-indicated date of the eruption, there is evidence for a significant climatic event in the Northern Hemisphere. The evidence includes failure of crops in China, as well as evidence from tree rings bristlecone pines of California, bog oaks of Ireland, England and Germany and other trees in Sweden. The tree rings precisely date the event to 1628 BCE.
Impact on Egyptian history
While it has been argued that the damage from this storm may have been caused by an earthquake following the Thera Eruption, it has also been suggested that it was caused during a war with the Hyksos, and the storm reference is merely a metaphor for chaos, upon which the Pharaoh was attempting to impose order.
Atlantis
Main article: Location hypotheses of Atlantis
Sources: Historic books, info from websites and Wikipedia