The Troubled Island: Minoan Crete before and after the Santorini Eruption. By Jan Driessen and Colin MacDonald.

Problems of Dating Spread on Radiocarbon Calibration Curve Plateaus: The 1620–1540 BC Example and the Dating of the Therasia Olive Shrub Samples and Thera Volcanic Eruption

“…S1). This eruption is regarded as a key cultural marker horizon for the Aegean and East Mediterranean region, and its direct and indirect impacts on the Aegean region and the Minoan civilization of the nearby island of Crete have been much discussed (Driessen and Macdonald 1997;Manning 1999;Warburton 2009;Bietak and Höflmayer 2007;Doumas et al 2015;Höflmayer 2012;Manning et al 2014;Pearson et al 2018Pearson et al , 2023Driessen, 2019;Şahoğlu et al 2021;Manning 2022). Years of debate have contested the date of the eruption.…”

“…A number of sites offer radiocarbon dating evidence for a TAQ for the Thera eruption. This evidence either comprises (i) dating of the earliest attested contexts where there are Thera eruption products (pumice) present (likely from craft use): Tell el-'Ajjul in the southern Levant (Fischer 2009) and Tell el-Dab'a in the Nile Delta (Kutschera et al 2012), or (ii) a date that offers a TAQ for a Thera-associated tsunami (at Malia in Crete) (Lespez et al 2021), or (iii) the dating of archaeological contexts representing material culture phases that are known stratigraphically to be subsequent to the Thera eruption which is placed in the late Late Cycladic (LC) I or late Late Minoan (LM) IA or late Late Helladic (LH) I cultural periods (Warren and Hankey 1989;Driessen and Macdonald 1997;Manning 1999Manning , 2022Warburton 2009): thus subsequent LHIIA or LHII contexts at Iklaina (Cosmopoulos et al 2019), Kakovatos (Eder and Hadzi-Spiliopoulou 2021) (mainland Greece) and Kolonna on Aegina (Wild et al 2010) or subsequent LMIB contexts at Chania and Myrtos-Pyrgos on Crete (see Manning 2022Manning , 2009-the latter before the LMIB Final dates from Mochlos on Crete).…”

“…The Thera eruption has come to form a key time marker in the archaeology and history of the Aegean and East Mediterranean, directly relevant to the remarkable time-capsule buried at the Bronze Age town at Akrotiri on Thera (Palyvou 2005;Doumas et al 2015) and also many other contexts associated with Thera eruption products or impacts (tephra, pumice, tsunami episodes: e.g. Driessen 2019;Driessen and Macdonald 1997). Material culture and art-style linkages further tie the time horizon of the Thera eruption to archaeological sequences across the wider region (and hence much long-running debate, since the date for the Thera eruption has been uncertain: e.g.…”

“…1611 BC), and so an end for the LMIA period around or not long after this time (the eruption occurs late in the overall LMIA period and likewise late in LHI, but there are indications from some sites and data sets of a subsequent relatively brief final portion of LMIA and LHI, after the abandonment of Akrotiri and the shortly following eruption, and before the LMIB or LHIIA periods: Davis and Cherry 1990;Lolos 1990;Manning 1999: 18, 70-75, 331-332), means that the subsequent LMIB period must be very long and around a century or more in length, since this period does not come to a close until during the earlier-mid 15th century BC (Manning 2022(Manning , 2009Brogan and Hallager 2011). In particular: the considerable temporal extent of the LMIB period-a time period during which regional centrality begins to shift within the Aegean from Crete (Knossos) to various centers in mainland Greece (Knappett and Nikolakopoulou 2014: 31)-renders it problematic to see anything more than a very indirect relationship of the Thera eruption with the much later, or very much later, destructions in Crete that mark the close of LMIB period (Driessen and Macdonald 1997;Driessen 2019). The total evisceration of the island of Thera, which had previously formed a major port and focal communications center with widespread connections within Aegean and East Mediterranean networks, was undoubtedly traumatic to the Aegean regional economic, political and cultural systems (as suggested by the modeling of Knappett et al 2011).…”

Similarities of Minoan and Indus Valley Hydro-Technologies

“…A few wells were located at the northern part of the Minoan Amnissos, a settlement on the north shore of Crete, used as a port in the palace of Knossos. These wells, designated by the name "Villa of the Lilies", were most likely dug in the early late era and reconstructed with the use of ashlar blocks in later years [42].…”