Thera

Thera [modern Santorini]. Southern Cycladic island clOO km north of Crete. During the Bronze Age there was a thriving settlement at Akrotiri, which came strongly under MINOAN influence, demonstrated by, for instance, the fine frescoes on the walls of the houses. At the end of the Late Minoan A period, c1500 BC, the settlement was abandoned as the result of an earthquake. Some time later an enormous volcanic eruption, greater than that which produced Krakatoa, buried the settlement under some 30 metres of ash and sent shock waves across the south Aegean Sea. Many authorities believe that it was this eruption that brought the Minoan civilization to an end. There is, however, a chronological problem: the destruction of the Minoan palaces on Crete seems to have occurred c1450 BC, some 50 years after the abandonment of Akrotiri and, although there would have been an interval of time between the earthquake and the volcanic eruption, it seems unlikely that it would have been as long as 50 years. Archaeologists and others remain divided on this issue.