The past of Santorini

Photo: Statue of an ibex found in 1999. Courtesy of Museum of Prehistoric Thira.
Santorini, in a Greek island group called the Cyclades, has an explosive history. The site of a massive volcanic eruption in about 1630 BCE, it was nearly blown out of the water. What remains today is the crescent-shaped remainder of what was once a much larger island. The isles of Thera, Therasia and Aspronisi form the outer rim of the group, and the middle contains the Kameini islands.

In his dialogue Timaeus, the Greek philosopher Plato describes the sinking disappearance of an island with a great and wonderful island culture called Atlantis, which may have been Santorini. As this happened long before Plato's time, however, his account of it is hearsay. It appears that Plato got his account from that of Solon, who in turn heard of it from Egyptian priests. According to How Volcanoes Work, the massive eruption that left Santorini a shell of its former self was caused by subduction of the undersea plates.

Archaeological finds on Thera demonstrate that Santorini was inhabited before the volcanic cataclysm, by the Minoans, whose culture thrived on the earlier form of the exploding island. Most likely they had expanded there from nearby Crete.