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Crete drowned 3.500 BP ?

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Boreas
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« on: April 23, 2007, 05:59:15 pm »


The wave that may have destroyed Crete

The legend of Atlantis may be more than just a myth. Research on the
Greek island of Crete suggests Europe's earliest civilisation was
destroyed by a giant tsunami. Until about 3,500 years ago, the Minoan
civilisation was flourishing in the Eastern Mediterranean. But around
1500 BCE the people who spawned the myths of the Minotaur and the
Labyrinth abruptly disappeared. Now the mystery of their cataclysmic
end may finally have been solved. A group of scientists have
uncovered new evidence that the island of Crete was hit by a massive
tsunami at the same time that Minoan culture disappeared.

"The geo-archaeological deposits contain a number of distinct
tsunami signatures," says Dutch-born geologist Professor Hendrik
Bruins of the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Israel. "Minoan
building material, pottery and cups along with food residue such as
isolated animal bones were mixed up with rounded beach pebbles and
sea shells and microscopic marine fauna. The latter can only have
been scooped up from the sea-bed by one mechanism - a powerful
tsunami, dumping all these materials together in a destructive
swoop," says Professor Bruins. The deposits are up to seven metres
above sea level, well above the normal reach of storm waves. "An
event of ferocious force hit the coast of Crete and this wasn't just
a Mediterranean storm," says Professor Bruins.
     
One of Minoans' largest settlements was at Palaikastro on the
eastern edge of the island, one of the sites where Canadian
archaeologist Sandy MacGillivray has been excavating for 25 years.
Here, he has found other tell-tale signs such as buildings where the
walls facing the sea are missing but side walls which could have
survived a giant wave are left intact. "All of a sudden a lot of the
deposits began making sense to us," says MacGillivary. "Even though
the town of Palaikastro is a port it stretched hundreds of metres
into the hinterland and is, in places, at least 15 metres above sea
level. This was a big wave."
     
But if this evidence is so clear why has it not been discovered
before now? Tsunami expert Costas Synolakis, from the University of
Southern California, says that the study of ancient tsunamis is in
its infancy and people have not, until now, really known what to look
for. Many scientists are still of the view that these waves only
blasted material away and did not leave much behind in the way of
deposits. But observation of the Asian tsunami of 2004 changed all
that.
     
The scientists have obtained radiocarbon dates for the deposits
that show the tsunami could have hit the Minoan coast at exactly the
same time as an eruption of the Santorini volcano, 70 km north of
Crete, in the middle of the second millennium BCE. Recent scientific
work has established that the Santorini eruption was up to 10 times
more powerful than the eruption of Krakatoa in 1883. It caused
massive climatic disruption and the blast was heard over 3000 miles
away. It is not clear if the tsunami could have reached inland to the
Minoan capital at Knossos, but the fallout from the volcano would
have carried other consequences - massive ash falls and crop failure.
With their ports, trading fleet and navy destroyed, the Minoans would
never have fully recovered.
     
The myth of Atlantis has had a hold on the popular imagination
for centuries. Perhaps we now have an explanation of its origin - a
folk memory of a real ancient civilisation swallowed by the sea.

Source: BBC News (20 April 2007)
http://tinyurl.com/28crvs
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