Tuesday, October 29, 2019

The Fall of Minoan Civilization

From The Daily Mail:
Experts once thought that the eruption of a volcano named Thera, on what is now the holiday island of Santorini, in around 1642–1540 BC had destroyed the Minoans. This eruption has been rivalled in modern times only by the colossal explosion of Krakatoa in 1883. It was thought to have triggered a tsunami that travelled south to Crete, destroying the Minoan port at the Bronze Age city of Knossos.

Evidence of destruction dating to around the time of the eruption has been found in various settlements on Crete — and was originally connected to the Thera disaster. However, the translation of unusual script on a set of tablets — the language was dubbed Linear B — on Minoan-era tablets helped overturn the end-by-tsunami theory. It took decades, but Linear B was identified as a form of ancient Greek. This gave evidence that the Mycenaean civilisation from the mainland had heavily changed, but continued, the Minoan culture. (Read more.)
Share

2 comments:

Hans Georg Lundahl said...

2600 BC - 1400 BC.

Presumably carbon dated, which means some dates are inflated, and "2600 BC" would normally be c. 1700 BC, when Joseph dies in Egypt.

"1400 BC" would be only a little more recent, if that, and would be during the era of the Judges, prior to Trojan war which seems to be correctly carbon dated if Troy VIa (or whichever it was) is the right level. By then the carbon 14 level had reached the present value of 100 pmC.

elena maria vidal said...

Fascinating!