CoChat
Sign Up
Cited by 22Maritime and Coastal ArchaeologyEarthquake and Tsunami EffectsMarine and environmental studies

Volcanic ash, victims, and tsunami debris from the Late Bronze Age Thera eruption discovered at Çeşme-Bağlararası (Turkey)

Open access
Şahoğlu, Vasıf, Sterba, Johannes H., Katz, Timor, Çayır, Ümit, Gündoğan, Ümit, Tyuleneva, Natalia, Tuğcu, İrfan, Bichler, Max +2 more·2022·Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
DOI 10.1073/pnas.2114213118PMC PMC8740722
Open this paper in CoChat — free account

Abstract

Significance: The significance of this study is multi-faceted, touching upon methodological advances in multidisciplinary approaches (earth sciences/geology–archaeology) as well as contributing to the historical and chronological understanding of the Late Bronze Age Thera eruption impacts. Our study presents physical evidence that very large, damaging tsunamis arrived even in the northern Aegean, an area previously assumed to be affected only by ash fallout. The tsunami deposits at Çeşme-Bağlararası contain the first victims (human and dog) ever identified related to the eruption and its immediate consequences. The work also introduces nine radiocarbon ages directly from the event deposit that will be of great interest and cause significant discussion amongst scholars, particularly given their context within a well-constrained, undisturbed, stratigraphic archaeological sequence.

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1073/pnas.2114213118

Cites

5 of 5 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Claims the paper makes

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

  • The uncalibrated dates for the Therasia shrub's outer-most bark and shoot samples are consistent with determinations from short-lived materials from the volcanic destruction layer at Akrotiri, Theran tsunami deposits at Çeşme-Bağlararası and Palaikastro, and contemporary mainland contexts marked by the sudden arrival of Theran pumice.

    “they are also consistent with determinations from short lived materials from the volcanic destruction layer at Akrotiri11 and from Theran tsunami deposits at Çeşme-Bağlararası, Türkiye40 (e.g., 3297 ± 19 14C years BP) and Palaikastro on Crete39, as well as with samples found in contemporary mainland contexts marked by the sudden arrival of Theran pumice37,38.”

    From Olive shrub buried on Therasia supports a mid-16th century BCE date for the Thera eruption (2023) · cites this paper as [40]

    The Results (General Description of the Sedimentological Horizons; page unavailable) identify radiocarbon-dated charcoal and seed samples in the Çeşme-Bağlararası tsunami horizons. The Discussion (The Age of the Eruption and Tsunamis; page unavailable) reports radiocarbon ages from that event horizon, but our copy does not give the cited uncalibrated value of 3297 ± 19 ¹⁴C years BP, so that specific determination cannot be verified. (LLM, conf=0.82)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured

  • There is increasing evidence for devastating Thera tsunami impacts in the Aegean.

    “increasing evidence for devastating Thera tsunami impacts in the Aegean [3, 45, 52-54, 56, 73]”

    From Second Intermediate Period date for the Thera (Santorini) eruption and historical implications (2022) · cites this paper as [45]

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

The self-check needs the paper’s full text.

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Research works printed but not linked: 19

  1. [1]C. Doumas ed., Thera and the Aegean World II: Papers and Proceedings of the Second International Scientific Congress (The Thera Foundation, Santorini, Greece, 1980).
  2. [11]J. Keller, “Quaternary tephrochronology in the Mediterranean region” in Tephra Studies, S. Self, R.S.J. Sparks, Eds. (Springer, Dordrecht, The Netherlands, 1981).
  3. [14]K. J. Evans, F. W. McCoy, Precursory eruptive activity and implied cultural responses to the Late Bronze Age (LBA) eruption of Thera (Santorini, Greece). J. Volcanol. Geotherm. Res. 397, 106868 (2020).
  4. [15]P. Nomikou, Post-eruptive flooding of Santorini caldera and implications for tsunami generation. Nat. Commun. 7, 1– 10 (2016). PMC5105177 27824353
  5. [16]J. S. Soles, “The impact of the Minoan eruption of Santorini on Mochlos” in Times Up! Dating the Minoan Eruption of Santorini, D. A. Warburton, Ed. (Monographs, 2009), pp. 107– 116.
  6. [18]P. Warren, V. Hankey, Aegean Bronze Age Chronology (Bristol Classical Press, 1989).
  7. [19]M. H. Wiener, “Dating the Theran eruption: Archaeological science versus nonsense science” in Israel’s Exodus in Transdisciplinary Perspective: Text, Archaeology, Culture, and Geoscience, T. E. Levy, T. Schneider, W. H. C. Propp, Eds. (Springer International Publishing, Cham, Switzerland, 2015), pp. 131– 143.
  8. [22]S. W. Manning, A Test of Time and a Test of Time Revisited (Oxbow Books, Oxford, 2014).
  9. [25]V. Şahoğlu, " Çeşme–Bağlararası: A new excavation in Western Anatolia" in Middle Helladic Pottery and Synchronisms: Proceedings of the International Workshop Held at Salzburg, October 31st – November 2nd, 2004, F. Felten, W. Gauss, S. Rudolfine, Eds. (Verlag derÖsterreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Wien, Austria, 2007), pp. 309– 322.
  10. [26]V. Şahoğlu, “Çeşme – Bağlararası: A Western Anatolian harbour settlement at the beginning of the Late Bronze Age” in NOSTOI: Indigenous Culture, Migration and Integration in the Aegean Islands and Western Anatolia during the Late Bronze Age and Early Iron Age, N. Stampolidis, Ç. Maner, K. Kopanias, Eds. (Koç University Press, Istanbul, Turkey, 2015), pp. 593– 608.
  11. [30]V. Şahoğlu, “Çeşme–Bağlararası” Dil ve Tarih Coğrafya Fakültesi 75 Yıl Armağanı Arkeoloji Bölümü Tarihçesi ve Kazıları (1936-2011), O. Bingöl, A. Öztan, H. Taşkıran, Eds. (Ankara University Press, 2012), pp. 83–90.
  12. [36]D. Vafidis, I. Drosou, K. Dimitriou, D. Klaoudatos, Population characteristics of the Limpet Patella caerulea (Linnaeus, 1758) in Eastern Mediterranean (Central Greece). Water 12, 1186 (2020).
  13. [37]B. N. Goodman-Tchernov, “Archaeological dating of tsunami and storm deposits” in Geological Records of Tsunamis and Other Extreme Waves, M. Engel, J. Pilarczyk, S. M. May, D. Brill, E. Garrett, Eds. (Elsevier, 2020), pp. 729– 739.
  14. [42]N. Yun, M. Hamada, A comparative study on human impacts caused by the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and disaster mitigation" in Proceedings of the International Symposium on Engineering: Lessons Learned from the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake (Pacific Earthquake Engineering Research Center, Berkeley, CA, 2012), pp. 1666– 1679.
  15. [43]Y. Ehrlich, L. Regev, E. Boaretto, Discovery of annual growth in a modern olive branch based on carbon isotopes and implications for the Bronze Age volcanic eruption of Santorini. Sci. Rep. 11, 1– 11 (2021). 33436660 PMC7804959
  16. [45]S. Wulf, Advancing Santorini’s tephrostratigraphy: New glass geochemical data and improved marine-terrestrial tephra correlations for the past ∼360 kyrs. Earth Sci. Rev. 200, 10.1016/j.earscirev.2019.102964 (2020). · DOI
  17. [50]L. Lespez, Discovery of a tsunami deposit from the Bronze Age Santorini eruption at Malia (Crete): impact, chronology, extension. Sci. Rep. 11, 15487 (2021). 34326405 PMC8322394
  18. [55]J. H. Sterba, A workflow for neutron activation analysis of archaeological ceramics at the Atominstitut in Vienna, Austria. J. Radioanal. Nucl. Chem. 316, 753– 759 (2018). 29725151 PMC5920120
  19. [56]E. Zirks, Redox evolution and the development of oxygen minimum zones in the Eastern Mediterranean Levantine basin during the early Holocene. Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta 297, 10.1016/j.gca.2021.01.009 (2021). · DOI

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Şahoğlu, V., Sterba, J. H., Katz, T., Çayır, Ü., Gündoğan, Ü., Tyuleneva, N., Tuğcu, İ., Bichler, M., Erkanal, H., & Goodman-Tchernov, B. N.
Affiliations
  • Ankara University (TR)
  • TU Wien (AT)
  • Israel Oceanographic and Limnological Research (IL)
  • Sivas Cumhuriyet Üniversitesi (TR)
  • Batman University (TR)
  • University of Haifa (IL)
  • Osmaniye Korkut Ata University (TR)
  • Center for Labelling and Isotope Production, TRIGA (Training, Research, Isotopes, General Atomics) Center Atominstitut, Technische Universität Wien, Wien 1020, Austria;
Corresponding author
  • Şahoğlu, Vasıf
  • Goodman-Tchernov, Beverly N.
ORCID
Venue
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Publisher
National Academy of Sciences
Published
2021-12-27
Volume
119
Issue
1
ISSN
  • 0027-8424 (ISSN-L)
  • 1091-6490
DOI
10.1073/pnas.2114213118
PMC
PMC8740722
OpenAlex
W4200323198
Cited by
22
References
5
Citations by year
2026: 4 · 2025: 2 · 2024: 6 · 2023: 7 · 2022: 3
FWCI
19.69
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
Locations
  • Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Archeology › Maritime and Coastal Archaeology
  • Physical Sciences › Engineering › Civil and Structural Engineering › Earthquake and Tsunami Effects
  • Physical Sciences › Earth and Planetary Sciences › Oceanography › Marine and environmental studies
Keywords
Thera eruption, Minoan eruption, Late Bronze Age, tsunami deposits, volcanic ash, tephra, tsunami victims, tsunami debris, Aegean archaeology, radiocarbon dating, sedimentology

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review