Volcanic eruption took place in June or July

• Category: News
The severe volcanic eruption of Santorini happened in early summer, as deducted by a recent scientific research. Studying special data that had at their disposal, scientists concluded that the eruption took place sometime between 1,627 and 1,600 BC, still they couldn't figure out the exact month of the year.

In a recent article published in the magazine Naturwissenschaften, Mrs Eva Panagiotakopoulou and her research team support that, based on insect sediments found in a vase with sweet peas in Akrotiri Santorini, the eruption took place between June and early July. According to scientists, these are the only months, just after threshing, that this particular insect, a kind of beetle, would have the possibility to attack the harvest and end up in this storage vase.

This vase with the sweet peas was found in a room on the ground floor of the Western Residence, a multi-storey building on the north western side of Akrotiri that was used as a storehouse. Although the vase was excavated about 50 years ago, only recently the techniques on dating fossilized insects were improved and scientists managed to specify the month of the eruption.