Precursory eruptive activity and implied cultural responses to the Late Bronze Age (LBA) eruption of Thera (Santorini, Greece)

The Late Bronze Age (LBA) eruption (ca. 1650 BCE) of Thera (Santorini) was one of the largest known in history, burying and destroying a thriving Theran (Cycladian) culture that occupied the island and surrounding islands. The consequent thick tephra deposit provides detailed information on the eruptive sequence and vent mechanics - it also provides details on that culture through burial of towns, farmsteads, and landscapes, the most prominent being the town of Akrotiri on the south coast of Thera. Here stratigraphic relationships between volcanic and archaeological deposits/constructions clearly indicate this eruption was signaled by seismic and minor eruptive events precursory to the main Plinian eruption. Because no casualties have yet been found beneath the tephra, inhabitants had advance notice of the impending disaster by a precursory eruption whose deposits are well preserved both within the archaeological site and in geological exposures throughout southern Thera island - and escaped by boat. Yet archaeological sites on nearby islands rarely record an influx of new arrivals at this time. Accordingly, it is suggested here that those escaping were incinerated at sea by pyroclastic density currents that swept across the ocean surface during the second phase of the Plinian eruption. (C) 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.