Monday, November 22, 2010

The End of the Minoan Civilization

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/secrets/episodes/sinking-atlantis/90/


If you ignore the distracting suggestions that Crete could be Atlantis, this is a very interesting documentary, setting forth very strong evidence that it was tsunamis created by the devastating eruption of the Thera volcano that ended the Minoan civilization. Scientists have estimated, by the evidence, that a tsunami 20 meters high crashed into the island at 10-20 mph and was, in fact, just one of a series of great waves generated by the blast. You can watch the entire program on your computer.
Meanwhile, I'm still of the opinion that some of the peoples of the Aegean had time to flee between the initial eruption and the cataclysmic one and were refugees in Egypt near the time of Ahmose I and that is why his mother was called "the mistress of the Hau-nebu", the foreigners who came from the islands of the sea.

2 comments:

Timothy Reid said...

Hi Marianne

Wonderful show about a beautiful Minoan civilization though I thought I saw the ivory snake goddess from the Boston Museum of Fine Arts in the coverage, the objects provenance claiming to come from the site. To my knowledge the carbon 14 test on that object says the ivory from whence it was carved came from the 15th or 16th century AD.

To my knowledge the prestigious goddess has been removed from display at that museum as a forgery.

Marianne Luban said...

So many forgeries. The latest issue of KMT has exposed yet another--a portrait of Queen Tiye as a sphinx carved from sard-stone. The article convinced me! I'm glad you liked the show and I hope you'll watch some others on the website. I missed a few when they aired on TV and this is a great way to catch up. The one about the "Silver Pharaoh" was especially interesting to me.