Soils on Santorini at ∼1500 BC

Abstract

THE discovery and excavation of the Minoan settlement near Akrotiri, Santorini (Thera) was the outstanding achievement of the late Sp. Marinatos¹. Life in the town came to an abrupt end at ∼ 1500 BC with the volcanic eruption which was preceded by a major earthquake². An interesting palaeoenvironmental problem is the nature of the land resource base which supported such a culturally rich society. One key component of the physical environment would have been the soils as they existed in Minoan times. The usual situation in palaeopedological investigations is the lack of buried soils, but the distinctive geological evolution of Santorini has meant that the pumice and tephra of the ∼ 1500 BC eruption sealed the late Minoan landscape. We report here some results which describe the material immediately below the pumice. It is suggested that the Minoan soils like those of today were poorly developed, suffered from erosion and posed fertility problems to the Minoan farmers.