Thera and the Devastation of Minoan Crete: A New Interpretation of the Evidence

Abstract

The latest pottery evidence from Thera indicates that the Akrotiri settlement was not abandoned until ca. 1470 B.C. The pottery assemblages in the so-called LM IB destruction horizon in Crete (at Mallia, Gournia, Pseira, etc.) are also consistent with a date ca. 1470 B.C. It is therefore possible to attribute both destructions to a "single-phase" eruption of the Thera volcano. The layer of humus over the Akrotiri ruins represents decayed mud-brick and roofing clay, and is not the product of a period of twenty to thirty years during which the town lay uninhabited prior to the great tephra eruption. The nature of the destructions at various Cretan sites is more consistent with the hypothesis of devastation by natural forces (shock waves, tsunamis, ash fallout) than by invaders. This position is strengthened by the recent finds of Thera ash in LM IB levels in Crete.

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