All language subtitles for Lost.Treasures.of.Ancient.Greece.S01E03.1080p.WEB.h264-EDITH_track3_[eng]

[Narrator] In
Santorini, Greece,

a team of archaeologists
prepares to dive into the

remains of an
underwater volcano.

-You will start
from the depth of 30,

30 meters, up to 18.

[Narrator] They’re hunting
for clues to the fate of

a lost civilization.

-We are leaning towards
it being something that

is human made.

-Good luck.

[Narrator] And the truth
behind a volcanic mega eruption

100 times more powerful
than at Pompeii,

which transformed
the ancient world.

The wonders of
Ancient Greece are among

the greatest ever known.

Greece was the
birthplace of democracy,

and the cradle of western
engineering and architecture.

From inspiring inventions
to epic heroes and legends,

the legacy of Ancient Greece

still shapes the modern world.

Three and a half thousand years
ago the volcanic archipelago

of Santorini was home to one of
Greece's earliest civilizations.

Until one of the most powerful
eruptions in human history

brought it to a violent
end and transformed the shape

of the island.

-Even though the landscape is
magnificent, it’s fascinating,

it’s also dangerous.

[Narrator] The eruption has
been linked with the decline of

civilizations across the
eastern Mediterranean,

and even the myth of Atlantis.

But much remains unknown.

No one has found any of
its victims on Santorini,

or conclusive proof
for when it happened.

-We’ve been trying to date
this timing of the Santorini

eruption for decades.

[Narrator] Now, new discoveries
could shed light on this

sudden apocalypse and its
impact on the ancient world.

-In order to better understand
the deposits that we find far

away from Santorini,

you need to come
to ground zero.

[Narrator] When was this
catastrophic eruption

and what happened to
Santorini and the people

who lived there?

Santorini is a group of
islands in the Aegean Sea,

together they form the rim
of a cauldron-like crater,

and on the southern
coast lies Akrotiri,

one of the most remarkable
sites in Ancient Greece.

Akrotiri is a town
frozen in time,

and the only one ever
found in Santorini from

before the eruption.

Excavations began
here in the 1960s.

The buildings, protected
today by a huge canopy,

date back more
than 3,500 years.

Marine Geoarchaeologist
Beverly Goodman explores the

ruins to investigate
what became of this city

in the eruption.

[Beverly] Akrotiri’s been
referred to as the

Pompeii of the Aegean.

And on a certain level
that's true because we're

looking at a site
that's been totally buried.

But unlike Pompeii we
don't have the people.

[Narrator] In 79CE, the
volcano Vesuvius erupted

entombing the town of
Pompeii under 20 feet

of ash and pumice.

Akrotiri reached its
height much earlier,

around 1650 BCE,

nearly 800 years after
the Pyramids of Egypt,

and at the same time as a
similar Greek civilization

on Crete called the Minoans.

[Beverly] The people
that lived here are often

referred to as Minoan,

and this comes from a
broader culture that is seen in

Crete to the south,

unfortunately we
don't have the written records

to be able to
know how they saw their world,

so we have to rely on
these physical objects.

[Narrator] There may
be no history of the

ancient people here,

but the astonishing
preservation of their

settlement reveals an
insight into their society.

[Beverly] The people of
Akrotiri are characterized by

some really amazing
technological advances and

sophistication that isn’t
seen in early periods,

so we’re talking
about plumbing,

we’re talking about frescos.

[Narrator] Akrotiri was a
sophisticated town where around

2,000 people lived,

with multistory
homes and a thriving port.

Its artisans produced pottery
on an industrial scale.

Standardized designs point
to a thriving trade network

across the Aegean.

Some houses even boasted
flushing toilets,

using water to wash waste
into underground channels.

And many houses were
decorated with vibrant frescos

in a style unlike those
found on the Greek mainland.

The town's culture has
many similarities with

the ancient Minoans,

but exactly when
Akrotiri collapsed is unknown.

-If you go somewhere
like Pompeii you know when the

eruption happened because
people wrote about it,

because we have better
historical records,

but in this place
we don’t have that.

[Narrator] The fate of
Akrotiri is more than just

a Greek tragedy.

The fallout from the
eruption has been linked with

the decline of the
Minoans in Crete

and even the rise
of the New Kingdom

pharaohs in Egypt.

[Beverly] It’s not just
an academic curiosity,

it ends up influencing
everything we know about the

ancient Mediterranean world
from that same period.

[Narrator] Beverly is
determined to find out when

the eruption happened.

The problem is that it
drastically altered the face of

the island.

So at the shoreline
close to Akrotiri,

she teams up with
Marine Geologist Evie Nomiku

for an underwater investigation.

-How many?

-Let’s do eight, afterwards
I’ll take notes on it.

-Yes.

[Narrator] For Evi, exploring
this island is her life’s work.

-I was born in Santorini so from
the early age it was for me,

it was fascinating to
live in an active volcano.

And when I grow up
I studied geology,

and becoming a marine
geologist give me passion

to understand how this
volcano was working.

[Narrator] Beverly and Evi
think the answer to solving

Santorini's many mysteries
could lie with its unique

geology beneath the waves.

The azure waters at the center
of Santorini look peaceful,

but this is a caldera, the
flooded crater of an ancient

volcano, more than
1000 feet deep.

Hidden more than 10,000 feet
beneath that crater is a huge

network of chambers filled
with an estimated four trillion

cubic feet of molten rock.

Pressure from deep
inside the Earth pushes

this magma up through vents,

that surface on two eyelets
in the heart of Santorini.

The whole island is a huge,
active volcano system that has

erupted at least 12 times
over the last 360,000 years.

To understand the effects
of the ancient eruption,

the team wants to
find traces of the island

as it used to be,

and investigate if
Akrotiri really was the only

Bronze Age city here.

-It’s very important for
us to understand how was the

landscape of Santorini
before the Minoan eruption.

That eruption was a
catastrophic one so the

landscapes have
changed completely.

[Narrator] The first step is
to look beneath the waves.

Volcanic eruptions often
cause coastlines to sink

So Beverly and Evi
scour the seabed for

so called beach rock,

a type of rock that
is formed only at the coast.

It can form over centuries
and incorporate materials

like ash from
volcanic eruptions.

[Beverly] We know from other
sites that sometimes where we

have the submerged
area with beach rock,

it can blanket more or
less archaeological sites.

So you can have entire homes,

neighborhoods that
are covered in beach rock,

and it’s a wonderful thing
because it essentially seals it

in so we get that time capsule,
so a lot of potential here.

[Narrator] They wade out from
the beach and scour the seabed

for signs of beach rock.

Beverly finds some examples.

[thudding]

But it’s as hard as concrete.

They take some scraped
samples for analysis...

...and log the position.

The team emerges from the water
already excited at the findings.

[Narrator] Wherever they
find beach rock that includes

material from the eruption,

there could also be ancient

land and archaeological
evidence directly beneath.

Back on land,

Beverly assesses
the samples she took,

comparing their make up
with the volcanic layers of

rock on the island.

-We have the deposits here
that are from the later phases,

so we know from other
parts of the island and

these beach rocks,

you can see that it has
basically the same lithology,

the same materials so
we’re expanding the lateral

picture of the
eruption very quickly just

with these simple observations.

-That was very good, that,
a very good time.

-That was amazing.
-Yeah, good.

-Yay!

[Narrator] The existence of
beach rock underwater suggests

the land was extended
much further than

the current shoreline.

The team’s next step is to
find out what the interior

of the island looked like.

To do that they need
to head to ground zero,

when and where did
this eruption start?

[Narrator] The volcanic
eruption that destroyed the

island of Santorini

also buried much of the
evidence for what happened.

But clues about this ancient
disaster can be found far

beyond the island itself.

150 miles north east on the
coast of modern Turkey lies the

ancient settlement
of Liman Tepe.

Here, archaeologist
Vasif Sahoglu,

from Ankara University,

works closely with a
team on Santorini.

Vasif first dug at this site
as a student 33 years ago.

[Vasif] My first excavation,

archaeological
experience it was in here

in Liman Tepe
and not far like er,

I don't know five meters
away from this

particular point, right there.

Liman Tepe is an important
site in Turkish archaeology,

its continued occupation
since the 5th millennium BCE

acts as a key historical record.

The site kept continued to
be used as a settlement all

through time, so life never
stopped at Liman Tepe.

It started roughly 7,000 years
ago and continues

to be living.

[Narrator] Vasif wants to
find out how the eruption

might have affected
Santorini's neighbors.

This settlement was
a major trading hub,

it connected networks
from the east with busy

shipping routes
across the Aegean Sea.

-From the beginning
of the second millennium BC,

the Middle Bronze Age,

we now this time start to
see the rise of Crete with

is maritime power,

emerging from the
southern Aegean.

We then see a big Minoan
influence er, on these sites.

[Narrator] The challenge is
that he too must first pinpoint

exactly when the
eruption happened.

Back on Santorini itself,

Beverly and Evi explore what
the island looked like before

the eruption, so they
can narrow down its date.

Could there be what was
once dry land or even other

settlements now buried
beneath the waves?

Clues may lie in
this abandoned mine.

[Evi] This is my
favorite place,

you can distinguish
all the pumice layers.

[Narrator] A decade of
pumice mining here has cut

a sharp cross section through
the volcanic deposits allowing

them to see all the way
back to the first moments

of the eruption.

[Evi] So I think the mine is
the ideal place to understand

the mechanism of
the Minoan eruption,

the old mines of Santorini.

For us the mine is an
open geological museum.

Also it gives you the sensation
of the volume of the eruption.

These are the thin
layers, you can see,

the stratified pumice layers.

[Narrator] The exposed
hillside reveals there were

several phases of the eruption,

each dumping
enormous amounts or rock,

ash and lava over the island.

[Evi] Okay let’s
leave that here.

[Narrator] Evi and Beverly
hunt for the earliest phase.

-Look!
-Oh my gosh!

[Evi] This, here, here, here,
this is phase zero.

This is phase one, this
is pumice from phase one.

This is ash plume so the
height of the eruption

was almost 40 to 45 kilometers
in the stratosphere,

that was a huge eruption, huge.

[Narrator] 200 feet of ash
and pumice lie above the

pre-eruption ground level,

the sheer scale of
material illustrates just how

gargantuan the eruption was.

[Evi] This is the soil of
the pre-Minoan eruption,

the landscape,

and you can see a lot of
signs of oxidation over here.

[Beverly] This was the
surface of the Minoans.

[Evi] Exactly, the surface
of the pre-Minoan eruption.

[Narrator] During
the Bronze Age,

this would have
been the land where the

Ancient Greek people of
Santorini lived their lives.

What can these layers
tell us about the island

before the eruption?

Experts have been able to
estimate the total amount of

material the volcano ejected.

-The volume of the eruption,

of the Minoan eruption
was almost 40 to 44

cubic kilometers.

[Narrator] This enormous
volume of material would

take up much of the
modern water filled caldera.

[Evi] Before the
Minoan eruption,

the caldera was
almost the same shape,

but only the northern
part was filled by water.

[Narrator] Evi believes
that most of Santorini’s area

was dry land,
the eruption obliterated it.

And what was left
then collapsed into

this huge caldera.

It raises the possibility that
there were once other towns or

settlements across
this ancient island.

If so, what happened to
the people who lived here?

At Akrotiri,

Beverly explores the
beautiful houses and frescos

to find out.

[Beverly] All over Akrotiri
we see cracks in buildings,

broken staircases, some of
which have been repaired,

some of which have
not been repaired.

[Narrator] The presence of
repair work suggests that some

of this structural damage
occurred before the eruption.

-There's a disturbing
similarity between what we see

at Akrotiri and what
we see at Pompeii.

[Narrator] The city of Pompeii
suffered a large earthquake

years before its
volcano erupted.

The damage was repaired and
life carried on until the

eruption that destroyed it.

The timeline of events
here is much less clear.

-We can see at Akrotiri
that there were tremors,

there were earthquakes.

Whether or not the people
of Akrotiri understood that

they were sitting on a
volcano and that there was

the potential for
an actual eruption,

we can’t really know.

But by the time the
eruption itself happens,

the area would have been
impossible to stay in.

[Narrator] The
quakes and tremors,

cracked walls and
damaged buildings,

a first warning the volcano
under Santorini was stirring.

An initial eruption threw
debris six miles into the sky

and coated Akrotiri
in suffocating ash...

...and worse
was yet to come.

Weeks later the main eruption
showered the town in pumice,

a deadly rain of stone that
smashed through roofs and

buried it under feet of debris.

It’s possible that
Akrotiri’s residents had a

window to escape.

But even if they heeded
the early warning signs,

there’s no guarantee
they reached safety.

-The absence of evidence
for victims in Akrotiri

certainly does not mean
that there weren’t any victims.

[Narrator] At the Roman
town of Herculaneum,

most victims of the
Vesuvius eruption were

discovered at the harbor,

burnt to death as
they waited for boats.

-Perhaps in Santorini
we also have the

same sort of scenario,

but it’s much more
complex because when the

volcano is active,

we can have uplift,
we can have subsidence,

there’s all kinds of dynamics
going on that are changing

where the coastline is.

[Narrator] The huge volume
of rock and ash buried any

ancient harbor Santorini
might once have had,

and brought the island’s
thriving civilization

to a sudden end.

But exactly when this
happened is a mystery.

The answer could lie
with finding out how far

the devastation spread.

[Narrator] For decades,

the eruption of the
volcano on the Greek island

of Santorini has
baffled archaeologists.

Tests on wood preserved in
the island’s ash layer point

to an event that took
place around 1600 BCE.

But archaeological evidence
tells a different story.

At Luxor in Egypt,

Egyptologist Arto Belekdanian
investigates a broken

inscription found at
the Temple of Karnak.

It dates to the time of
Pharaoh Ahmose I who founded

Egypt’s New Kingdom
and reigned in the

16th century BCE.

It’s known as the Tempest Stele.

[Arto] This stele
was discovered between

1947 and 1951,
and it is estimated to have

stood nearly two meters tall.

In this text King Ahmose
recorded this exceptional

weather event.

[Narrator] According
to the stele,

the gods darkened
the sky in the west,

and the roar of the storm
was louder than the cries

of the masses.

Bodies of flood victims
floated across the burst banks

of the swollen River Nile.

Some believe the stele
describes the effects of the

Santorini eruption.

Volcanoes can
influence the climate,

ash clouds can cool
the atmosphere,

and particles fall out
of the clouds in rain.

And on Crete,

which lies between
Santorini and Egypt,

archaeologists have discovered
ash from the eruption.

[Arto] It is possible that
King Ahmose actually witnessed

the effects of this

powerful eruption
on Egyptian weather.

But there’s a problem,
the eruption is

generally seen to have
taken place around 1600 BC.

King Ahmose is believed
to have reigned roughly

50 years after.

[Narrator] If the Tempest Stele
indeed records the eruption,

that must mean that the
commonly accepted date of

around 1600 BCE is wrong.

This discrepancy has baffled
archaeologists for decades.

Could another dig site
far from Santorini help

solve the mystery?

At Liman Tepe in Turkey,

Vasif continues his
search for evidence of

the eruption
beyond Santorini.

The team peels away layer
after layer of the ancient site.

And one of Vasif's
assistant directors, Umit,

makes a discovery.

[Narrator] Umit's delicate
excavation reveals sections

of a broken pot.

-The good thing with
this one is we have the rim,

we have the base and
all of them are joining,

so we can clearly say
what kind of shape it is.

[Narrator] Archaeologists
can date ancient sites by

matching certain pottery
styles to specific time periods.

Finds like this
one are essential

to Vasif’s investigation.

[Narrator] This is
long before the period of

the Santorini eruption.

[Vasif] If there was an ash
layer here in Liman Tepe it

could have been from where
we stand upwards, up here,

but we didn't find
any in this site.

[Narrator] Ash clouds from
large volcanic eruptions can

spread for hundreds or
even thousands of miles.

[Vasif] We know from
other sites further inland

that there was ash,

so the ash must have arrived
to Liman Tepe for sure.

[Narrator] The absence of an
ash layer here suggests that it

was simply cleaned up,

meaning Liman Tepe
escaped destruction.

But clouds of ash are
not the only deadly fallout

from a volcano.

And Vasif has another
site to investigate for

traces of this
ancient apocalypse.

[Narrator] On
Santorini in Greece,

Beverly Goodman and Evi Nomikou

have moved sites to a beach in
the north of the island.

They're hunting for
deposits caused by the eruption.

-So it’s a mix.
-Yeah, all of this here.

-Yeah, so it’s a mix.

[Narrator] They find
some rock layers containing

churned up materials
mixed with small shells and

other sea life.

How did this strange
mix of volcanic pumice and

marine life get here?

They think the answer
lies with the next phase of

the volcanic eruption.

As the eruption peaked,

towering columns
of ash and gas rose

high to the sky.

Some eventually collapse
under their own weight

unleashing searing
hot avalanches of ash,

gas and rock called
pyroclastic flows.

They tore down the volcano
towards the sea destroying

everything in their path.

Evi has studied volcanic
deposits above and below the

waterline to estimate the size

of Santorini's
pyroclastic flows.

-We are sure that it is
approximately 42 to 44 cubic

kilometers because we
measure the onshore deposit

not also the offshore deposits
and this is very crucial.

-Yeah.

[Narrator] The pyroclastic flow
were not just bad news for any

people still on the island.

That much material
is enough to fill over

15 million Olympic
sized swimming pools.

Hitting the sea at speed,

it would have displaced a
gargantuan amount of water,

creating a tsunami that
could travel hundreds of miles.

[Beverly] That means that
there is a mechanism in the

Mediterranean that can produce
a tsunami that can impact the

shorelines throughout
at least the eastern

Mediterranean and Aegean.

[Narrator] Beverly examines
the remains of this tsunami,

a mix of shells and
rocks on the shoreline.

Archaeological evidence
reveals the tsunami reached

as far north as the
west coast of Turkey.

Experts have also found
tsunami deposits in Crete,

and as far east as Caesarea
on the coast of Israel.

Some scholars suggest the
devastation caused by this

mega wave is what
started the collapse of the

Minoan civilization on Crete.

-If the date of the
eruption doesn't match with

that societal collapse,
well then, you know,

the tsunami and the
eruption is innocent.

If the date does fit,

this changes how we
understand the experience and

the sequence of events
that led to where we are today,

so this is why
it's so important.

[Narrator] Dating the
material and artifacts found

in the tsunami
deposits on Santorini

is extremely difficult.

But might there be
dating evidence across the

sea in Turkey?

At Liman Tepe,

while the team
continues to dig,

Vasif investigates evidence
from further along the coast.

[Vasif] We are also working
on Cesme Baglararasi, which is

another site 50, 60
kilometers west of Liman Tepe.

[Narrator] Cesme Baglararasi
also sits on the coast and

crucially is closer
to Santorini,

towards the end of a peninsula.

Here, Vasif has found
evidence of a Tsunami deposit,

a mix of shells and rock.

And on top of it a
layer of Santorini ash.

-In Cesme, after
the Santorini eruption and

the arrival of the tsunamis,
life ended forever on the site.

So there was no more human
activity right at that location

that would destroy the
presence of the ash.

We managed to find it
sandwiched between these layers

in the settlement.

[Narrator] Finding the
Santorini ash layer preserved

within the tsunami
deposits is so important,

because it is the same ash
falling at the same time that

has also been found across
the eastern Mediterranean.

[Vasif] Imagine finding
this volcanic ash layer

in Cesme Baglararasi

and finding it in
a site in Egypt for example.

That means we are looking
at the very same moment

in time of human history,

there is no other line like
this in the history of humanity.

[Narrator] The holy grail
is to find an exact date

for the eruption

giving archaeologists a
precise marker to use in

working out the
timelines of their dig sites.

[Vasif] If we can manage to
date this layer of tsunami in

Cesme Baglararasi,
that would be a great,

great news for archaeology.

[Narrator] And deep
within the deposits,

Vasif’s team might
have found the key to

unlocking that date.

[Vasif] So as we were
excavating in a deeper area we

came across a skeleton.

[Narrator] Lying on their
side in the devastated city

is the first victim of the
eruption ever discovered.

If Vasif can date
these remains,

he could confirm when the
Santorini eruption happened.

[Narrator] The catastrophic
Santorini eruption has been

investigated for decades.

No evidence for any of its
victims has ever been found...

...until now.

In the conservation lab of
the Liman Tepe dig site,

Vasif works with anthropologist
Yilmaz to assess the bones.

The first clue
is the body’s pose,

lying on their back,
not curled on their side.

[Yilmaz] This is not the common
burial tradition in our region,

it cannot be an
intentional internment.

[Narrator] This person
never had a proper burial,

they were entombed in
rubble at the very moment

of their death.

-The morphological sex
looks like the male,

as you see on the pelvic area,

15 to 16 years old.

We saw one pre-mortem
or antemortem cut marks

on the knee.

If you have this type of
cut on your ligament,

you cannot walk.

[Narrator] This young man
was a teenager and his bones

reveal that he had
suffered earlier injuries

which prevented him
from fleeing the lethal waves

created by the eruption.

-This person couldn’t
run away from the effects

of the tsunami.

[Narrator] Fresh marks on
the bones hint at how he died.

[Vasif] This cut doesn’t
have any sign of healing,

and it means that it
might be done on or around

the time of death.

And there is also one
breakage on the left femur,

and these type of fracture is
named as butterfly fractures,

and these type of fractures
can only be done on the very,

the heavy trauma.

[Narrator] The tsunami smashed
into the Cesme shoreline,

pounding this victim
with water and debris.

[Vasif] We can guess that
this individual died due to

the wave of the tsunami.

[Narrator] When pyroclastic
flows from the eruption slammed

into the sea, they displaced
trillions of gallons of water,

triggering a series
of tsunami waves.

Of the many waves generated,

at least four were
powerful enough to tear across

the Aegean,
swelling into walls of water up

to 85 feet tall as
they neared land.

Loaded with ash and
volcanic debris,

they unleashed destruction
on Santorini’s neighboring

islands and the mainland.

The injuries on
these fragile remains confirm

this young man died in
the violent tsunami.

[Narrator] The critical
question is when.

Vasif hopes that if
these bones can be dated

by radiocarbon testing,

they might finally
solve the mystery of when

the eruption occurred.

Back on Santorini,

Evi and Beverly investigate
one more mystery while they

wait for Vasif’s results.

They travel to the
westernmost island, Thirasia.

[speaking in foreign language]

[Narrator] In search of an
intriguing underwater spot.

-There’s a feature
that looks like it could be an

ancient quarry of some sort,
but we’re not 100% sure.

So it’s a very exciting
area because it’s still a

question mark as far as
whether or not it was altered

by people or if this an entirely
natural geological formation.

[Narrator] A possible
submerged manmade structure has

an eerie echo of
one of the most famous

ancient myths of all time.

Some have argued
Santorini's eruption could

be the inspiration for Atlantis.

The Greek philosopher
Plato tells of an advanced

island city laid out in
perfect circular rings

of land and water,

a marvel of
ancient engineering.

But in a single day and
night of earthquakes and fire,

the entire city sank
beneath the sea,

vanishing without a trace.

It's thought that much
of Santorini's interior

was once land.

So could a kernel of
truth lie behind the mysterious

myth of Atlantis?

Beverly and her colleague,
Willy begin their dive...

...to find out what's
beneath the water.

[Narrator] In the crystal
clear waters off Santorini,

Beverly and her colleague,
Willy come face to face

with the strange,
rectangular structures.

The steps and blocks
look neat and square,

like quarried stone.

But when the team
tries to take samples,

something isn’t quite right.

Taking what they can,
and making notes,

they head back to the surface.

[Evi] But you tried to
touch the rocks, it,

it was hard to
take a sample, yeah.

-Oh yeah, yeah, it's...

-It, it is lava.
-It’s lava.

-It’s lava, okay.
-Nature can make sharp angles...

[laughs]

...very easily.

-Yeah, yeah, of course,
of course,

nature and especially,
especially this type of lava,

okay, especially
this type of lava.

-Absolutely.

[Narrator] The neat square
ledges might look manmade,

but they are natural
lava formations.

-What I hoped for was that it
would be definitively quarry,

that we would see
okay, this is manmade.

And unfortunately that’s not
what we saw and, and in nature,

just because you have sharp
angles submerged underwater

doesn’t mean that
humans had to make it,

because these are shapes
and formations that can

be created by nature.

[Narrator] But finding
lava here was still useful.

The undersea slope inside
the caldera was clearly much

steeper than on
the other side,

this is a sign of
a landslide on the island’s

newly formed interior,

and backs up Evi’s
model for what happened.

By combining all the evidence,

the team can reconstruct the
complete sequence of events.

An initial blast of ash and
pumice shot high to the sky,

reshaping the island and
forming a mountain of soft rock.

But pressure kept rising,

the volcano tore
through fresh vents,

ripping the island
apart from within.

Towering ash
columns collapsed,

sending waves of gas and
burning rock in every direction.

The city of Akrotiri was
buried, its harbor destroyed,

an avalanche of
debris surged into the sea,

unleashing tsunami
waves across the Aegean.

For a time only a
fragile ash mound stood

at the heart of the
collapsed island.

Then the sea broke through

and Santorini as we
know it today, was born.

Anyone still on the island
didn't stand a chance.

But understanding the full
impact of the eruption on the

ancient world depends on
knowing when it happened.

At Liman Tepe,

Vasif has received the results
from the radiocarbon tests to

determine the exact age of
the Cesme victim's remains.

He connects with Beverly in
Santorini to share his news.

-Hi Bev, how are you?

-I'm a little bit nervous
here Vasif...

[laughs]

I mean it's...

[Narrator] They run
the readings through

calibration software.

-Alright so I’ve got the
calibrations here, oh my God!

Okay.

[laughs]

[Narrator] To give
them the year BCE when the

tsunami happened.

[Beverly] Pffff, okay here
is the range, oh my gosh!

Woah!

-Wow!
-Vasif, am I understanding this?

-Ah, look at that.

[Narrator] The new
radiocarbon dating of the

Cesme victim's skeleton,

coupled with other
evidence around the find,

shows a date
close to 1500 BCE,

with only two
decades or so variability.

[Beverly] Oh my gosh, okay,
this means that basically,

on the age that we have,
fits with the relative dating,

it fits with the archaeology
and essentially the eruption

does in fact happen
at the time when we see

the massive changes.

[Vasif] Exactly, so
archaeological record

actually fits, fits
well with this date.

-Oh my gosh!

[Vasif] Wow!

-So, so essentially like now it,
it, things finally make sense.

[Narrator] These new
findings are almost 100 years

later than the
commonly accepted date of

around 1600 BCE.

They also
contradict the date of the

Tempest Stele from Egypt,

but crucially they fit
with the decline of the

Minoan civilization which
began over the next 50 years.

[Beverly] This is unbelievable.

You know, as a,
as a scientist,

I'm very excited about
solving this question,

as a person and a
mom I'm like oh my gosh,

you know it just,

it's, it's so sad
that you know,

that you know there's this
person who was basically,

like he was lost,

they never managed
to find him,

and like now we have and
not only is he found but

he's actually giving
us the answers.

[Vasif] He is changing
the whole picture.

[Narrator] The publication of
these results could transform

experts’ understanding of
the Minoan civilization.

They also form a baseline
for the precise dating

of Bronze Age sites
across the entire region.

-Dating this event is very
important for many reasons,

for correlating the
cultures and how life was going

in the Mediterranean
at that time,

it’s going to be like a
starting point for chronology.

[Narrator] For as long as
most of this island’s ancient

surface lies hidden
beneath lava and pumice,

the mysteries of
Santorini will persist.

But this season’s
finding reveal the

full scale of the disaster,

and could for the
first time indicate

when it happened.

The eruption changed
the shape of the island and

destroyed a vibrant culture.

The tsunami spread out
for hundreds of miles leaving

a trail of devastation and

transforming the ancient
world of the Bronze Age.

Today, underwater tremors
continue to rock Santorini.

They are a reminder
of what happened

3,500 years ago,

a culture ending catastrophe
and one of the most devastating

natural disasters
of the Ancient World.