The eruption of the Thera volcano in the Aegean Sea was one of the greatest disasters of the European Bronze Age. The eruption spat ash and smoke, triggering tsunamis that devastated the shores of the eastern Mediterranean. Archaeologists in Turkey have now for the first time discovered the bones of a person who died in this catastrophe around 3,500 years ago. The skeleton was found in a layer of tsunami rubble in the former coastal town of Çeşme-Bağlararası.
Around 3500 years ago, a catastrophe with serious consequences occurred in the Mediterranean: The Thera volcano in the Aegean Sea erupted and tore apart the island of Thera – today its remains form the Greek island of Santorini. In a first phase, the eruption ejected large amounts of lava and ash, then the volcano’s caldera collapsed, triggering hot, rapid streams of gas and ash and a tsunami. Researchers estimate that the tidal waves on the north coast of Crete reached a height of at least nine meters.
Eruption with far-reaching effects
“The Thera eruption in the late Bronze Age was one of the greatest natural disasters in human history,” explain Vasif Sahoglu from Ankara University and his colleagues. The eruption and its consequences must have been a decisive event for the high cultures around the Mediterranean at that time, because traces of destroyed buildings and ports as well as deposits of volcanic material and ash can be found in an area from Egypt to Turkey. The outbreak of Thera could even have been partly responsible for the decline of the first high culture in Europe – the Minoans.
“Despite the strength of this event, the remains of human victims of this disaster have never been identified, not even in the particularly badly affected area around Aktrotiri,” reports Sahoglu. Some archaeologists suspect that the inhabitants of most places were able to flee in time, others think it is likely that pyroclastic currents completely burned people in the vicinity of the volcano. The research team has now investigated in more detail what consequences the disaster had for the coastal town of Çeşme-Bağlararası on the west coast of Turkey in the Bronze Age. To do this, they carried out excavations in the once flourishing port and trading town, where they penetrated into the Bronze Age layers.
Bones of a dog and a man
The excavations revealed several layers with clear indications of strong tidal waves. Large, jumbled boulders and rubble, as well as the remains of marine animals washed up into the once fortified settlement indicate that this area was flooded by tsunamis at least four times in a row. Collapsed walls and parts of buildings, ceramic fragments and other artifacts all bear witness to the force of the tidal waves. Unlike an earthquake, the rubble is not distributed in all directions, but follows the path of the water. The boundary between the destroyed and the still intact zone spared by the flood can be clearly seen, as Sahoglu and his colleagues report.
Right next to the heavily damaged remains of a thick fortress wall, the archaeologists discovered the bones of a young man. He was surrounded by tsunami rubble and must have died when the wall collapsed, as the researchers explain. Radiocarbon dates of the find layer and the remains also indicate that this was a victim of the Bronze Age catastrophe. Not far from the man, the scientists also found the remains of a dog that had apparently been buried when a door frame collapsed. “The tsunami deposits of Çeşme-Bağlararası thus contain the first victims of the Thera eruption that have been found so far,” writes the team.
Four tsunamis in a row
The finds in the Turkish Bronze Age settlement also reveal a lot about the course of the Thera tsunami. Because the sequence of layers suggests that the site was hit by at least four consecutive tsunamis. The first two tidal waves followed just a few hours apart. “Then there was a break in which ashes were deposited on the tsunami rubble,” reports the team. After another, weaker tsunami, calm returned for several days or weeks.
During this time, the surviving residents of the area must have tried to recover the remains of their belongings as well as buried people or at least their remains. “This can be seen in the form of numerous, irregularly shaped pits,” the researchers say. They suspect that these holes were dug to get at those who were buried. In the case of the young man, however, this search was apparently unsuccessful: “The human skeleton was about a meter below such a pit. That suggests that it was too deep to be found and recovered at the time. ”Then the fourth tsunami wave hit and washed another thick layer of rubble over the already devastated area. The pits dug shortly beforehand were also flushed up again.
For the once flourishing coastal town of Çeşme-Bağlararası, this multiple flooding meant the end: “This place ceased to exist for at least a century,” report Sahoglu and his colleagues. “But Çeşme-Bağlararası was only one of the many settlement areas along the Mediterranean coast that were affected by the eruption and the associated earthquakes, tsunamis, fires and ashfalls.”
Source: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, doi: 10.1073 / pnas.2114213118