In the Aegean Sea, there is a chain of Cyclades islands, which includes islands large, small and very tiny. These are Kea, Aros, Kythnos, Ios, Milos and others. Some of them lie in close proximity to each other, others are separated by tens of kilometers. A special place among them is the island of Santorini, which in translation into Russian means "Saint Irina". Volcanic activity began here about a hundred thousand years ago. And before that, there were no volcanoes in the Santorini region, and he himself represented part of the mainland - the Aegeis.
Then volcanic masses rose above the sea surface and formed a purely volcanic island, which eventually merged with a rocky islet that had been here even before the eruption. The newly formed island had an almost perfect circle shape, hence its original name, Strongle, was born.
But once (about 25 thousand years ago - in the era of the last glaciation) gases and molten lava accumulated in the crater of the volcano almost at the very surface of the earth. When the gas pressure exceeded the strength of the rocks, a terrible explosion was heard. The volcano split open and huge masses of vapor and gas burst out. They raised a huge amount of ash to a height of 30-40 kilometers, and vast voids formed under the volcano. This, in turn, caused the collapse of the land adjacent to the volcano and the formation of a large caldera (literally "cauldron").
Gradually, this funnel began to fill with solidified volcanic lava, small islands merged together, and so the large island of Thira (Santorini) was formed. Scientists suggest that the entire interior of the island was occupied by a volcanic cone and about 3500 years ago a new catastrophic volcanic eruption followed.
The awakened volcanoes at first did not promise anything terrible to the inhabitants of the island, because the intensity of the eruption increased gradually. But then the magma escaping from the volcanoes filled the surface of the island, in the middle of it a gap formed, into which the sea waters rushed. However, having reached the bottom of the abyss, the stream rushed back and generated tsunami waves of monstrous size - up to a hundred meters, which destroyed cities and villages on the islands and the mainland. At the same time, a huge amount of incandescent ash fell out (its temperature reached 500 ° C), which scattered over an area of about two hundred thousand square kilometers.
The eruption of the volcanoes of Santorini continued, perhaps, for more than one decade. During excavations in the harbor of Akrotiri, a city destroyed by an earthquake was discovered. According to scientists, its area was one and a half square kilometers. But no victims were found! This circumstance gave scientists the opportunity to put forward the assumption that there was more than one disaster. In its first phase (about 1550 BC), the city was severely damaged. How many victims on the conscience of this eruption is unknown. After that, the inhabitants left the city, and in the second phase (about 1500-1450 BC) it was already deserted. It was covered with ash during a volcanic eruption, which after that itself ceased to exist. But the volcanic emissions left by it still cover the island to a height of 30-35 meters (the height of a ten-story building). And in some places they reach hundreds of meters.
The whole sea around the island during and after the eruption was covered with pumice. Probably, this is exactly what the priest of Sais had in mind when he noted that "after that the sea in those places became unnavigable." Even in our time, pumice deposits are found at a very significant distance from Santorini - in Asia Minor, on Crete and other islands. The energy of the volcanic explosion, according to the calculations of the Greek scientist A. Galanopoulos, was 350 times higher than the energy of the explosion of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima.
Scientists assume (or rather, they assumed until 1976) that the monstrous eruption of the Santorini volcano destroyed the flourishing Minoan civilization. Long before the Greeks, the Minoans developed blacksmithing and metal smelting, and they widely used metals not only in art, but also in everyday life. During archaeological excavations in Crete, many metal objects were found in tombs: cups, swords, masks, etc. It can be assumed that the famous "Mycenaean gold" also fell to the Greeks after the death of the Minoan cities.
Promotional video:
The Minoan power was located on the islands, so the fleet was as necessary as air. The sea was the home of the Minoans. Rocky islands and islets covered with mighty forests had no land, and only the sea fed the inhabitants there. They fished and traded in seafood. The sea routes connected Asia Minor, Crete, Cyprus and the Peloponnese with the center of the state - the Strongle island. All parts of this great power rocked on their waves, united, fed and exalted the Aegean Sea. Naturally, the Minoans were skilled shipbuilders and navigators.
The assumption of scientists that the residence of the supreme power of the Minoans was the Strongle island, is confirmed by many archaeological finds and their comparison with the culture of other peoples. At the turn of the 3rd-2nd millennia BC, Crete was settled by the Minoans from the Strongle island. They brought with them all the achievements of their older (and higher!) Culture.
Pottery also reached a high level. Pottery from the Strongle Island was delivered by ship to the most remote corners of the Aegeis. In ceramic vessels, taxes were transported from all lands: grain, olive oil, wine.
In all Minoan art (and in the art of the entire ancient world), an important place is occupied by the theme of proportions and a series of the "golden section". Until now, there is an opinion in science that "the Pythagorean school first began to study the connections between nature and mathematics" (that is, the Greeks). However, this statement seems to be erroneous, since long before Pythagoras (more than three thousand years BC) the doctrine of the cosmos and the laws of the "golden section" was known to the Minoans. The "Golden Section" was used in the construction of Minoan architectural ensembles and picturesque compositions.
The ancient Minoans were excellent astronomers who studied and knew space. They considered the laws of the cosmos as divine, secret knowledge. That is why everything that was associated with the construction of religious buildings and the image of the gods was the work of the initiated and the chosen, who knew the laws of the higher spheres (that is, the laws of the "golden section").
Crete, its history and inhabitants have become an integral part of Greek mythology. Almost all Greek gods and heroes were somehow associated with Crete. These include Talos, the hero of many Cretan legends. In some myths, Talos made by Hephaestus is called the brazen man, in others - the brazen bull. Talos was donated by Zeus to King Minos to guard the island. Three times a day the giant circled the island, and when the ships of foreigners approached, he threw huge stones at them. According to fragmentary testimonies of the ancients, the cart on which Talos traveled around Crete moved along the ruts cut in the rocky soil. From some of the remaining descriptions, scientists suggested that this was the very first similarity of a jet engine.
Much still amazes scholars in the study of Minoan culture. Their level of amazing knowledge in many areas of science and art was fantastically high!
In 1901, the English archaeologist Arthur Evans arrived on the island of Crete. He had other plans and other goals, but just a few days after his excavations, the legendary Labyrinth was revealed to mankind. It turned out to be a multi-storey palace with wide stone staircases and columns, bizarrely curved corridors, countless halls and priceless frescoes that revived the life of that era.
Excavations lasted almost thirty years, and every year new rooms, a huge number of storerooms, courtyards and utility rooms with human-sized pithos were opened. From the gray earth, from the depths of millennia, from the chaos of the remains of foundations and walls, the clear outlines of a palace city appeared.
Arthur Evans and his faithful followers were amazed at the abundance of murals and ornaments, vases, goblets and small libation vessels. They hastened to describe the Palace of Knossos as a place of almost daily feasts with performances by artists and musicians, poets and singers. The very walls of the palace and its columns radiated a splendor of incomparable luxury and fabulous wealth.
In the fresco painting on the walls of the Cretan palace, a string of various figures is presented: lovely flirtatious women, impetuous men, characters of ritual scenes and merrymaking. The world of plants and animals is full of life. Grasses and flowers sway in the breeze, butterflies and birds flutter in them, animals hunt or flee from pursuit.
Many discoveries have been made since the Cretan Labyrinth has been studied. And, as is often the case in science, new studies completely crossed out the old, it seemed, already unshakable statements. First of all, highly qualified construction experts announced: "The palace of Knossos did not die as a result of a natural disaster!" The builders took a closer look at the famous columns of granite and limestone. With strong aftershocks, the plates under them would surely collapse. However, there was not the slightest crack on them …
An examination of the columns in the courtyards of the Labyrinth showed that they fell by themselves and only because they had not been properly cared for for a long time.
Then the builders found that not all rooms of the Labyrinth are luxurious. In most cases, they were not built of precious material at all, so it is difficult to call them royal chambers.
Historians only had to shrug their shoulders. They invited experts to understand the specific causes of a particular disaster, and they "unearthed" completely new evidence. Those disturbing testimonies that asked scientists many questions made them look differently at a natural disaster, and in general at the entire Palace of Knossos …
Evans' colleagues talked about a giant fire that raged here nearly eighteen centuries ago. In their opinion, it was evidenced by the blackened gypsum plaster. However, the most careful analysis of gypsum particles showed that there was never a fire here.
What is the reason, if no traces of an earthquake, no traces of a military collision or fire have been found? Volcano? But the layer of ash flown from Santorini here could be only 3-4 centimeters. In addition to increasing the yield in the neighboring fields, volcanic ash could not produce anything here.
The Soviet scientist German Malinichev concludes that the Labyrinth is not a palace, but a huge … columbarium. And for a thousand years rulers did not live here, but priests "worked". It was a huge funeral church with internal tombs on the first floor and countless altars and memorial rooms on the second. The labyrinth was a complex cult center for all of Crete, and not a palace for a cheerful life. Therefore, it was never surrounded by fortress walls or ramparts. It was located on the outskirts of the city, as it should be for any necropolis in ancient times.
In the Knossos Labyrinth there was a rather large room with stepped stands, which was called the "court theater of entertainment." However, nothing funny can be seen in it. Fourteen priestesses in ritual poses stand on a rectangular stage. They are dressed in blue dresses, and blue and blue were the colors of mourning among the ancients. In the stands are women with white faces and men with brown paint on their faces. All this suggests that the relatives of the deceased have gathered and a funeral service is taking place here …
If Evans' colleagues had paid special attention to this in the first days of excavation, they would have found the remains of mummies. But the air, freed from the layers of earth and entering the premises of the Labyrinth, in an instant turned these remnants into the smallest dust.
Perhaps this is just a hypothesis that is still awaiting confirmation. However, from all this it already follows that the true palace of the rulers of the island has not yet been found. Then the cause of the death of the Minoan civilization could not have been a volcanic eruption on the island of Santorini. This means that scientists from all over the world are faced with the task again - to search! Indeed, it is possible that the ancient Greek myths about the so-called Deucalion flood are associated with this catastrophe. Just as the legend of the mysteriously disappeared Atlantis, perhaps, should also be correlated with the catastrophic volcanic eruption on Santorini. This is how closely geological events and ancient history were intertwined.
HUNDRED GREAT DISASTERS. N. A. Ionina, M. N. Kubeev