Eruption of Thera (Santorini)
- Date
- c. 1600 BCE (debated)
- Category
- Environment & climate
- Region
- Thera/Santorini (Aegean, Greece)
- Era
- Ancient Civilizations
- Significance
The volcano on the Aegean island of Thera (modern Santorini) erupted in one of the largest volcanic events of the Holocene, ejecting tens of cubic kilometres of material and burying the prosperous Minoan town of Akrotiri under ash and pumice, preserving its houses and frescoes much as at Pompeii.
The eruption generated tsunamis and atmospheric effects felt across the eastern Mediterranean and is often cited as a contributing factor in the later decline of Minoan Crete, though the link is debated. The eruption's date is a central problem in Bronze-Age chronology: radiocarbon, tree-ring and ice-core evidence point to the late 17th or 16th century BCE (commonly cited ranges 1627–1600 BCE or c. 1609–1560 BCE), roughly a century earlier than dates derived from conventional Egyptian historical chronology. Because the ash forms a Mediterranean-wide marker horizon, resolving its date would synchronise Aegean, Egyptian and Near Eastern timelines.
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Empires active in c. 1600 BCE (debated)
- Old Babylonian Empire1894 BCE – 1595 BCE
- Hittite Empire1650 BCE – 1178 BCE
- Elamite Kingdom2700 BCE – 539 BCE
- Xia Dynasty2070 BCE – 1600 BCE
Related environment & climate events
- Decline and De-urbanisation of the Indus Civilisationc. 1900 BCE
- The 4.2-Kiloyear Event: Megadrought and the Collapse of the Akkadian Empire and Egyptian Old Kingdomc. 2200 BCE
- The Pleistocene–Holocene boundary and the start of the Holocenec. 11,700 years ago (c. 9700 BCE)
- End of the African Humid Period and Desertification of the Saharac. 3500–2700 BCE
- Eruption of Vesuvius buries Pompeii and Herculaneum79 CE (traditionally 24 August)
- Late Pleistocene megafaunal extinctions and the overkill-vs-climate debatec. 15,000 – 10,000 years ago
Further reading
The wider story
A New Green History of the World
The classic accessible account of how environment and climate have shaped human history.
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