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Awe Inspiring Facts About the Bronze Age It’s Time to Talk About

Khalid Elhassan June 29, 2021 36 min

The Bronze Age Battle of Megiddo. Pintrest

The Thera Eruption roiled the Bronze Age. Brewminate

22. The Bronze Age’s Most Consequential Natural Disaster

Few natural disasters have ever had a greater impact on the trajectory of history and shaped the course of events than did the Thera Eruption, circa 1642 – 1540 BC. It took place in what is today the Greek island of Santorini and was one of the most powerful volcanic eruptions in recorded history, four times as powerful as the gigantic Krakatoa explosion of 1883. It sundered the island of Thera, and wiped out the flourishing Minoan settlements of nearby Akrotiri and surrounding islands.

However, that was not close to the entirety of its impact. The Thera Eruption and its aftermath also gave rise to the legend of the vanished civilization of Atlantis, which was doomed by a natural catastrophe and swallowed by the sea. Beyond legend, however, the eruption was one of history’s most impactful natural disasters. Its consequences outlasted its own era, had knock-on effects and set in motion a chain of causation that led directly to the world in which we live today.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.