One of the largest volcanic eruptions of the last 10,000 years struck the island of Thera, also known as Santorini, in Greece’s Aegean Sea. The blast sent ash across the eastern Mediterranean. Yet its exact date has remained in dispute, with estimates ranging from the late 17th to the late 16th century BCE. For archaeologists, the Santorini eruption is a key chronological marker, and the recent analysis of Egyptian artifacts is helping to refine its date.
Pinning down when the eruption occurred allows researchers to align Aegean events with Egypt’s royal timelines, offering clearer insight into how these ancient civilizations were connected.
Radiocarbon dates point to an earlier era
A new study by researchers at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev and the University of Groningen shifts the event to around 1600 BCE. The team reports that the eruption occurred before Egypt’s New Kingdom, in the Second Intermediate Period.
The findings, published last month in PLOS One, place the eruption earlier than many traditional models and narrow the gap between geological evidence and historical records.
Artifacts tied to Ahmose I anchor the analysis
The study links the new chronology to the reign of King Ahmose I, who reunited Upper and Lower Egypt and founded the 18th Dynasty. By securing the first radiocarbon dates connected directly to Ahmose’s era, the researchers provide a firmer anchor for synchronizing Egyptian and Aegean histories. The data indicate the eruption predates Ahmose’s rule, not coinciding with the early New Kingdom as some had proposed.
Museum sampling offers rare primary material
Prof. Hendrik J. Bruins of Ben-Gurion University’s Jacob Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research and Prof. Johannes van der Plicht of the University of Groningen received rare permission to sample Egyptian artifacts in London. Under museum supervision, they collected small samples from the British Museum and the Petrie Museum.
The set included a mudbrick from the Ahmose Temple at Abydos, a linen burial cloth associated with Satdjehuty, and six wooden stick shabtis from Thebes. These objects, tied to the 17th and early 18th Dynasties, supplied direct materials for radiocarbon testing.
Results support a low chronology for the 18th Dynasty
The radiocarbon results show that the Thera eruption is older than the dates from the Ahmose-linked artifacts. The outcome supports a “low chronology,” which places the start of the 18th Dynasty later than traditional assessments.
As Prof. Bruins noted, the results imply the Second Intermediate Period lasted longer than previously thought and that the New Kingdom began later.
Implications for Mediterranean history
This revised timing reshapes how scholars link Egypt’s dynastic sequence to a major geological event. A clearer date for the Santorini eruption helps historians reassess political and trade ties across the eastern Mediterranean in the generations that followed.
By aligning the eruption with the Second Intermediate Period, the study offers a tighter framework for interpreting how environmental shocks, shifting alliances, and cultural exchange unfolded around 1600 BCE.
