Radiocarbon dates of Santorini volcanics

Abstract

THE caldera walls of the ring-islands Thera and Therasia, belonging to the Santorini Group (Fig. 1) in the southern Aegean, are built up of lavas and pyroclastics, among which pumice layers are particularly striking (Fig. 2). The top layer (Bo, abbreviated from the German term “oberer Bimsstein”¹) comprises air-fall pumice and ashes, overlain by thick pyroclastic flows^2,3. It was produced by the catastrophic outburst of the Thera volcano in late-Minoan time, which culminated in the collapse of the Santorini caldera⁴. The decline of the Minoan civilisation around 1500 BC has been attributed to these volcanic events⁵. The Upper Pumice Series buried late-Minoan settlements on Thera and Therasia, and an important settlement near Akrotiri in the southern part of Thera is still being excavated⁶. The Upper Pumice Series rests on an old soil horizon (black layer in Fig. 2) in which remnants of late-Minoan houses were found in 1869 (ref. 7). Wood from such houses found at the base of the pumice quarries south of the town of Fira has provided radiocarbon dates of 3,370±100 yr b.p. (ref. 8). This age coincides exactly with archaeological data for the destruction of late-Minoan settlements on Santorini⁶.