The Minoan culture in Santorini sank into the sea following a tsunami, which occurred after a volcanic eruption. Even in the 16th century, an eruption destroyed the island. It could happen again, and the shockwaves could even reach the shores of Israel
Amnon Barzilai, Haaretz, Walla News!
The inhabitants of the island of Thera (Santorini) in the middle of the 16th century packed their valuables and abandoned their homes, following a series of earthquakes that hit the area. When the tremors subsided, groups of builders returned to the island, who began renovating the damaged buildings. But the builders had to abandon their work, because a volcano that emerged from the sea, in the heart of the bay next to the island, began to emit ash and gases. The builders and other residents who managed to sail to the heart of the sea saved their lives.
The volcano finally erupted and for 48-18 hours huge rocks erupted from its mouth, which were blown to a height of hundreds of meters, as well as volleys of ash and smoke mixed with toxic gas. According to estimates today, the volcanic material ejected in that eruption covered an area of 30-27 square kilometers. Shortly after the eruption, a black cloud covered the sky. Complete darkness prevailed in Tara and the nearby islands. When the volcano was emptied of all the volcanic material in it, it sank to the bottom of the sea. Where there was a void, but not for long. The sea water was sucked into it with force and a huge vortex was created. A huge tsunami wave flooded the island and the nearby islands. According to estimates today, the height of the tsunami was more than 60 meters.
The description of the natural disaster in the Aegean Sea is based on the research of the Greek archaeologist Christos Domas. Remnants of the volcano, which is still active today, are in the Gulf of Santorini. The huge ash cloud and the tsunami wave moved east, to the island of Crete. The height of the wave that hit eastern Crete reached about 50 meters. The volcanic eruption and the tsunami wave that followed caused the destruction of the Minoan culture that thrived on both islands.
Some researchers of the past associate Santorini with Atlantis, the island that disappeared into the depths of the sea and was first mentioned in Plato's writings. Crete and Santorini are about 2,000 kilometers from the coast of Israel. Dov Rosen, director of the Department of Marine Geology and Coastal Processes at the Sea and Lakes Research Institute in Haifa, says that there is no reason why the events that took place in Santorini about 3,500 years ago will not repeat themselves.
"If an earthquake with a magnitude of 7 on the Richter scale occurs in the Mediterranean Sea, it is quite possible that a tsunami wave will reach the shores of Israel. Geologists say that such an earthquake is expected in the next fifty years," says Rosen.
The height of the wave that will reach Israel is 4 meters
According to a preliminary estimate, the height of the tsunami wave that will reach the shores of Israel will be about four meters. According to Rosen, this assessment is based on Israel's location in the eastern basin of the Mediterranean Sea, an area where the water is relatively shallow compared to the water in the Indian Ocean. The length of the wave may be 250 km. However, the main question is the speed of the wave. Rosen estimates that it may reach 700 kilometers per hour. Near the coast, due to the shallowness of the water, the speed of the wave will decrease to 25 km/h. "We are talking about a speed of seven or eight meters per second. Keep in mind that the world champion runs at a speed of ten meters per second. This is a high speed, but we have seen that people can save themselves," says Rosen.
According to him, four events can cause the development of a tsunami wave: a volcanic eruption, which will cause a large amount of lava to erupt into the sea, an earthquake in the sea, which will create a wave that will move quickly towards the land, a continental earthquake that will cause a large block of land to collapse into the sea, or the fall of a meteor or an asteroid into the sea
According to Dr. Assaf Yasser-Landau from the Department of Archeology at Tel Aviv University, "There is no doubt that the volcanic eruption in Santorini wiped out the special population that developed on the island. But there is no proof that the tsunami was caused by the volcanic eruption. Certainly there is no evidence that the tsunami wave reached Israel as well. To establish that this happened, one needs to locate pebbles, concentrations of shells, remains of marine animals that originated in the Aegean Sea and washed up on the shores of Israel. Until now, not enough excavations have been done on the coastline to reach such conclusions."
In one matter - the intensity of the volcanic eruption - the researchers have no doubt. To this day, large parts of Santorini are covered in a layer of ash that is more than ten meters thick. Parts of the eastern island of Crete, about 100 kilometers from Santorini, are covered with tens of centimeters of volcanic ash.
The disaster destroyed a unique and egalitarian culture
Archaeological evidence of the disaster in Santorini was found thousands of kilometers from the Aegean Sea. A tombstone from the time of the Egyptian ruler Yahamas, who lived in the 16th century BC, depicts a scene of a violent storm, total darkness and bodies floating in the Nile. Researcher Jackie Phillips claims that the darkness in Egypt was caused by the volcanic eruption in Santorini.
The archaeologist Spyridon Marinatos, who was the head of the Antiquities Authority in Greece, excavated in the late sixties in Akrotiri in central Santorini. The findings confirmed that the Minoan culture that ruled the island and Crete was at a higher level of development than all other cultures of the period. Excavations at Santorini were halted in 1973, after Marinatos was killed in an accident at the site. By then, about three percent of the site had been excavated, but it was enough to meet the level of the Minoan culture. The excavators revealed a city with magnificent buildings, with small squares between its houses. The highlight of the excavations were the colorful wall paintings (fresco).
According to Dr. Yassur-Landau, who participated in the excavations in eastern Crete, the paintings reflected the placing of art and the beauty of the individual at the forefront of the Minoan culture. This culture developed in Santorini and Crete approximately 8,000 years ago, when small groups of settlers, probably from Anatolia, arrived on the islands. They held in a unique belief, in which there was no hierarchy among the gods in the central worship of Their belief even gave goddesses a higher status than gods.
Advertisement The equality between the gods and goddesses reflects, according to the researchers, the equality between men and women in Minoan society. "Minoan art is expressive, not frozen like in Egypt. The figures are alive, naturalistic, individual," says Dr. Yasser-Landau. "In Minoan painting, women's breasts are always exposed. There is a message of sexuality, highlighted by beautiful clothes, a shapely body and interesting facial features. The almost obsessive preoccupation with hairstyles and clothes probably stems from the need for social distinction between status and age groups."
The volcanic eruption in Santorini brought the Minoan culture to an end. In 1450 BC, about a century after the event, the Mycenaeans invaded Crete and opened a new era in the history of the island and the region.
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