Table of Contents
The Maritime History Podcast walks through Bronze Age Akrotiri, on Thera, and asks whether that disaster can be Plato’s Atlantis. The host starts with the ship fresco in an upper room of the West House: ornamented hulls and a canopy over passengers in formal dress. Scholars, he says, disagree on the occasion. Collapsed stairs and cleared rubble imply the town had warning and left before the ash. Buried trees and traces in Greenland ice are set near 1600 BCE, with debris dozens of meters thick. A wave is then argued onto northern Crete, about 110 kilometers (68 miles) south, high enough to be likened to the Indian Ocean wave of 2004 and to wreck Minoan sea traffic. Atlantis comes after that. Crete’s Bronze Age was unknown before Arthur Evans. Plato puts the island beyond Gibraltar, nine thousand years before his own life, huge and ringed, so Thera is only a weak likeness. He leaves Fernand Braudel’s question: for Egyptians of the Eighteenth Dynasty the far west was Crete, and folklore may have merged the eruption with the end of Minoan power.
Key points
- The episode opens on Akrotiri’s ship fresco and the dispute over what ceremony it shows.
- Cleared rubble and collapsed houses are taken as proof that people had warning and left.
- Ash, tree dates, and Greenland ice are used to put the blast near 1600 BCE.
- A tsunami is argued onto northern Crete, high enough to wreck Minoan sea traffic.
- Plato’s island sits past Gibraltar, nine millennia earlier, and is far larger than Thera or Crete.
- Braudel’s suggestion is left open: Egyptian folklore may have merged the eruption with Minoan decline.
Short quotes
the village were focused on is a Bronze Age Minoan settlement that sits on the coast of Thera
Maritime History, Akrotiri, Thera, and the Atlantis question
The town under discussion is a Bronze Age Minoan settlement on the Thera coast. Watch at 8:38
beneath this canopy on each ship sit between 10 to 15 people who appear to be dressed in formal attire
Maritime History, Akrotiri, Thera, and the Atlantis question
The fresco ships carry a covered group of formally dressed passengers. Watch at 15:24
archaeologists also know that there must have been some type of forewarning to the volcano's eruption
Maritime History, Akrotiri, Thera, and the Atlantis question
Damage repaired before the ash fell is read as evidence of a warning. Watch at 20:12
the violent eruption on thira would have resulted in a tsunami that spread across the Aegean
Maritime History, Akrotiri, Thera, and the Atlantis question
The blast is said to have sent a wave across the Aegean. Watch at 25:59
he places the Atlantean Island beyond the pillars of Herakles
Maritime History, Akrotiri, Thera, and the Atlantis question
Plato’s island is located past the straits, which already parts it from Crete. Watch at 44:29
the Western limit of the known world would have been in Crete
Maritime History, Akrotiri, Thera, and the Atlantis question
For earlier Egyptians, the host says, the western edge of the known world was Crete. Watch at 49:47
Video by The Maritime History Podcast. Watch on YouTube.