The Minoan Santorini Eruption and its 14C Position in Archaeological Strata: Preliminary Comparison between Ashkelon and Tell El-Dabca

Hendrik J. Bruins, Johannes Van Der Plicht

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

6 Scopus citations

Abstract

The volcanic mega event of the Minoan Santorini eruption constitutes a time anchor in the 2nd millennium BCE that is inherently independent of archaeology and political history. It was a geological event. Yet the dimension of time in geology is not different than in archaeology or human history. Why then does archaeological dating usually place the Minoan Santorini eruption in the 18th Dynasty around 1500 BCE, whilst radiocarbon dating of the volcanic event at Akrotiri (Thera) yielded a calibrated age of 1646-1603 cal BCE, a difference of more than a century? The crux of the problem lies apparently in the correlation between archaeological strata and political history. We present radiocarbon dates of Ashkelon Phases 10 and 11 in comparison to Tell el-Dabca and the Santorini eruption, based only on 14C dating. Tell el-Dabca Phase D/2 is slightly older than the volcanic event. But Phase D/1 or Phase C/2-3 could have witnessed the eruption. Ashkelon Phase 11 has similar radiocarbon dates as Tell el-Dabca Phases E/2, E/1 and D/3, all being significantly older than the Minoan eruption. It seems that the duration of Ashkelon Phase 10 includes the temporal occurrence of the Minoan Santorini eruption within the Second Intermediate Period.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1295-1307
Number of pages13
JournalRadiocarbon
Volume59
Issue number5
DOIs
StatePublished - 1 Oct 2017

Keywords

  • C dating
  • Egyptian history
  • Minoan Santorini eruption
  • Second Intermediate Period
  • archaeological dating

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Archaeology
  • General Earth and Planetary Sciences

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