Skeletons of a young man and a dog who were killed by a tsunami triggered by the eruption of Santorini’s Thera volcano 3,600 years ago were recently uncovered at Çeşme-Bağlararası in modern-day Turkey. According to the research team, co-led by Dr. Beverly Goodman-Tchernov (Head, Dr. Moses Strauss Department of Marine Geosciences) and Dr. Vasıf Şahoğlu from Ankara University (Turkey), the area was rocked by at least four different tsunamis following the eruption of Thera. “This is the first time that victims of the Thera eruption have been discovered,” says Dr. Goodman-Tchernov. “As we analyze the volcanic ash layers at the site using advanced archaeological and sediment analysis methods, we hope to gain a better understanding of what happened to the area after the explosion.” The study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

MORE ON THIS STORY IN NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC

*Dr. Beverly Goodman-Tchernov of the Leon H. Charney School of Marine Sciences, inspects an ash layer at the Bronze Age site of Çeşme-Bağlararası, Turkey in 2015.| Credit: Vasıf Şahoğlu, Ankara University