0:00:02 > 0:00:053,500 years ago,
0:00:05 > 0:00:09the first great European civilisation collapsed.
0:00:13 > 0:00:15Desperate and bewildered people
0:00:15 > 0:00:19resorted to sacrificing their own children.
0:00:19 > 0:00:23What was it that brought them to this terrible end?
0:00:40 > 0:00:46This is the story of a glorious civilisation and its total collapse.
0:00:46 > 0:00:52The Minoan Empire was so rich and so inventive, it passed into legend.
0:00:52 > 0:00:58At its heart on the island of Crete stood mighty palaces.
0:00:58 > 0:01:02The largest of them all was Knossos.
0:01:03 > 0:01:08But, why, at its very peak, did the Minoans' world crumble?
0:01:26 > 0:01:31Floyd McCoy is a geologist determined to solve that mystery.
0:01:34 > 0:01:41For decades, he's been captivated by the haunting ruins the Minoans left behind.
0:01:43 > 0:01:473,500 years ago, Knossos stood invincible.
0:01:59 > 0:02:06Long before the Ancient Greek Empire flourished, Knossos was the biggest building in Europe.
0:02:06 > 0:02:12Here, Minoans lived in luxury with Europe's first paved roads and running water.
0:02:16 > 0:02:20From Crete, the Minoans controlled a vast trading empire.
0:02:20 > 0:02:26So powerful were their navies, they lived centuries free from invasion.
0:02:27 > 0:02:31But when mainland Greeks finally took over Crete,
0:02:31 > 0:02:35the Minoans wealth and power had disappeared.
0:02:35 > 0:02:39Their towns and palaces went up in flames.
0:02:48 > 0:02:54The mystery here is - how and why has this been destroyed?
0:02:54 > 0:02:57What has caused this devastation here?
0:03:00 > 0:03:05This investigation will take Floyd on a remarkable journey
0:03:05 > 0:03:08gathering evidence from other scientists.
0:03:08 > 0:03:13Where better to start looking for clues than at Knossos itself
0:03:13 > 0:03:17from an archaeologist who used to be a curator here?
0:03:21 > 0:03:29Colin McDonald has evidence of something never seen before in Minoan culture - sheer savagery.
0:03:33 > 0:03:39Whilst digging near Knossos, archaeologists came across the skull of a small child.
0:03:39 > 0:03:43Nearby, were the skeletons of four more children.
0:03:43 > 0:03:48When they studied these bones more closely, they came to a grim conclusion.
0:03:48 > 0:03:51The children had all been murdered.
0:03:51 > 0:03:57Those murders took place at the time when the Minoan Empire was collapsing.
0:04:07 > 0:04:13A remarkable aspect of these bones were the great knife marks -
0:04:13 > 0:04:15cut marks, slicing marks -
0:04:15 > 0:04:23on the bones themselves which indicate that meat was actually sliced off these human bones.
0:04:23 > 0:04:26There was also found a large storage jar
0:04:26 > 0:04:31and inside were bones with cut marks on them
0:04:31 > 0:04:35and an edible snail called the buburas snail.
0:04:35 > 0:04:43It's highly possible that these were actually cooked together and that we are talking about ritual cannibalism.
0:04:51 > 0:04:56What could make a civilised people devour its own children?
0:04:59 > 0:05:05Floyd believes he's searching for a culprit so powerful it shattered the foundations of this society.
0:05:05 > 0:05:10A disaster caused by a force the Minoans thought they understood -
0:05:10 > 0:05:13nature.
0:05:13 > 0:05:18It seems pretty clear that we're looking at a vast civilisation
0:05:18 > 0:05:22and suddenly it's gone - it's been done in.
0:05:23 > 0:05:27Something that big points towards natural causes.
0:05:27 > 0:05:31This natural disaster has become a quest -
0:05:31 > 0:05:36it's become something to look for that's hard to stop looking for.
0:05:43 > 0:05:46Floyd is familiar with natural disasters.
0:05:46 > 0:05:52He grew up in Hawaii, home to some of the most spectacular forces of nature -
0:05:52 > 0:05:55volcanoes.
0:06:12 > 0:06:16As a child growing up, I was surrounded by volcanoes.
0:06:16 > 0:06:22They were erupting every so often - in fact, VERY often - and they were wonderful to see.
0:06:22 > 0:06:29In high school, we would spend all night staring at the volcano erupting. It was part of my life.
0:06:42 > 0:06:49His experiences as a child inspired him to become a geologist and learn about all the world's volcanoes.
0:06:49 > 0:06:51He was drawn to one in particular -
0:06:51 > 0:06:57an ancient, mighty explosion that seemed on a scale like no other.
0:07:03 > 0:07:08That volcano lies 100km north of Crete.
0:07:08 > 0:07:13It's on a much smaller island called Thera - today, Santorini.
0:07:13 > 0:07:183,500 years ago, when the Minoan civilisation was at its height,
0:07:18 > 0:07:21Thera erupted, blasting the island apart.
0:07:33 > 0:07:36Despite its distance from Crete,
0:07:36 > 0:07:42Floyd feels sure the eruption of Thera is the reason behind the end of the Minoans.
0:07:42 > 0:07:46He has come to Thera to see the evidence for himself.
0:07:54 > 0:08:01We're at the top of a volcano. Here's a huge hole in the ground excavated by a tremendous eruption.
0:08:01 > 0:08:06In Hawaii, the volcanoes are as big in height but nothing like this.
0:08:06 > 0:08:10They are tranquil compared to what happened here.
0:08:12 > 0:08:17This is something of epic proportions - the stuff of legends.
0:08:18 > 0:08:25The eruption ripped the heart out of Thera, and the centre of the island crashed into the sea.
0:08:25 > 0:08:31All that remains is a necklace of islands surrounding a vast crater called a caldera.
0:08:31 > 0:08:36Today, the caldera is filled by a deep sea.
0:08:41 > 0:08:48The story of what happened that fateful summer is still written in the landscape.
0:08:51 > 0:08:59In this cliff face is a depiction of what happened during this eruption - the sequence of events.
0:08:59 > 0:09:04Each layer tells us such a story about how the eruption proceeded -
0:09:04 > 0:09:08the dynamics of it, the explositivity.
0:09:08 > 0:09:13To start off, the lower layer, that textured layer right at the bottom,
0:09:13 > 0:09:17that's a layer of pumice. This is pumice.
0:09:17 > 0:09:19Light stuff. Frothy material.
0:09:19 > 0:09:23It flew up...and then plopped down.
0:09:25 > 0:09:31The pumice was blasted up into the sky and it flew 36km high.
0:09:32 > 0:09:38It plummeted back to Earth, blanketing the island in a layer up to ten metres thick.
0:09:39 > 0:09:43Then the eruption dramatically changed character.
0:09:46 > 0:09:51Sea water enters the vent there - it becomes ultra-explosive.
0:09:51 > 0:09:56Out of the vent comes horizontal-sweeping avalanches of hot gas
0:09:56 > 0:10:00that push pumice and ash across the landscape at roaring speed.
0:10:03 > 0:10:11Deadly torrents of searing hot ash swept across the landscape, smothering the entire island.
0:10:15 > 0:10:18Up there, big rocks start to fly in.
0:10:18 > 0:10:24These are pieces of lava flows that are parts of the island that is now being blasted to bits.
0:10:47 > 0:10:50Then, up there, another change.
0:10:50 > 0:10:57Torrential rainstorms occur because there is lightning. Thunderstorms develop out of this eruption cloud.
0:10:59 > 0:11:05Torrential rain rains down on the landscape. The slope starts moving downhill.
0:11:05 > 0:11:08As it moves downhill,
0:11:08 > 0:11:15it leaves the larger rocks behind and that's what that layer is there. Then the eruption is over.
0:11:17 > 0:11:23How long did this take? From historic eruptions, the best estimate is four days.
0:11:23 > 0:11:29Given a day for each layer to happen, you get an idea of the intensity of what happened.
0:11:31 > 0:11:34Floyd knows the eruption was big.
0:11:34 > 0:11:40What he doesn't know is how it could have devastated an entire civilisation.
0:11:43 > 0:11:49This eruption happened about 3,500 years ago. 3,600 years ago, this eruption blew.
0:11:49 > 0:11:52The timing of the eruption
0:11:52 > 0:11:57is almost precisely when the Minoan civilisation goes into a decline.
0:11:57 > 0:12:00There has to be a connection.
0:12:00 > 0:12:03What could that connection be?
0:12:03 > 0:12:07The clues are beginning to emerge from the ash.
0:12:18 > 0:12:25This is Akrotiri - a town in Thera where the eruption claimed its first victims.
0:12:25 > 0:12:30Completely buried by the volcano, the memory of it vanished.
0:12:31 > 0:12:35It was only in the 1960s that Greek archaeologists
0:12:35 > 0:12:39began to realise what wonders lay hidden.
0:12:44 > 0:12:50A layer of pumice ten metres thick covered the town, creating a time capsule.
0:12:50 > 0:12:55Buildings up to three storeys high were beautifully preserved.
0:13:04 > 0:13:09But what of the people who once lived in these buildings?
0:13:16 > 0:13:23Although it is risky to estimate, with the extent of the excavation we have so far,
0:13:23 > 0:13:27I suspect, er,
0:13:27 > 0:13:33the estimate of the population is about 2,000 and 3,000 people.
0:13:34 > 0:13:38But there is a mystery about this bustling town -
0:13:38 > 0:13:41no bodies have ever been found.
0:13:41 > 0:13:48Christos Doumas believes the people were scared off by the first stirrings of the volcano.
0:13:56 > 0:14:00This is the thin layer of ash,
0:14:00 > 0:14:07and this is found all over the island - everywhere we have excavated.
0:14:07 > 0:14:12And after... Probably this was the warning for people to leave.
0:14:15 > 0:14:20Panicked by this first dusting of ash, the people must have fled Akrotiri,
0:14:20 > 0:14:24but did they escape the island of Thera itself?
0:14:24 > 0:14:26'They couldn't.
0:14:26 > 0:14:30'To remove so many people, you need a whole fleet.'
0:14:30 > 0:14:33So where did they go?
0:14:33 > 0:14:38Christos Doumas thinks they fled to this barren patch of land,
0:14:38 > 0:14:43desperately hoping enough boats would come and carry them to safety.
0:14:47 > 0:14:52This port is one of the harbours. It is the most obvious place.
0:14:52 > 0:14:58And, as an escape, what other place would be more convenient than the harbour,
0:14:58 > 0:15:02where they could have found means to escape?
0:15:05 > 0:15:10Then the pumice started to come pounding down.
0:15:10 > 0:15:16The avalanches of blistering ash that followed erased everything from view.
0:15:27 > 0:15:30It was a desperate situation.
0:15:30 > 0:15:36Crowds of people could have been cornered, frantically scouring the horizon for boats.
0:15:36 > 0:15:41But the eruption was unstoppable, and, on this very spot,
0:15:41 > 0:15:48Christos believes the people of Akrotiri were smothered by the ash - the first victims of the volcano.
0:15:51 > 0:15:56This is not the only time this kind of human tragedy has happened.
0:15:59 > 0:16:03These are the people of the town of Herculaneum.
0:16:03 > 0:16:07They, too, were waiting for boats that never came.
0:16:07 > 0:16:12The avalanches of ash that killed them froze their bodies in time.
0:16:22 > 0:16:29The first the Minoans on Crete would have seen was a terrifying sight on the horizon -
0:16:29 > 0:16:33a plume of ash 36km high.
0:16:33 > 0:16:37Fortunately, the winds blew the ash in the opposite direction,
0:16:37 > 0:16:42but the volcano had a lethal legacy they couldn't escape.
0:16:48 > 0:16:54Floyd believes that the blast hit the Minoans in three different ways.
0:16:54 > 0:16:58He believes the first blow would have come within days
0:16:58 > 0:17:05when Crete was hit by another terrifying force he knows all too well.
0:17:09 > 0:17:14In 1946, he watched as giant waves battered the island of Hawaii,
0:17:14 > 0:17:17killing scores of people.
0:17:19 > 0:17:23As a child, I saw my home town destroyed by huge waves.
0:17:23 > 0:17:27Those waves were 54ft high in front of our house.
0:17:28 > 0:17:33I was terrified later to find debris still left from that wave...
0:17:33 > 0:17:37that underneath there might be a body.
0:17:48 > 0:17:53The explosive power of eruptions can bring volcanoes crashing into the sea,
0:17:53 > 0:17:57pushing water up into giant waves called tsunamis.
0:18:09 > 0:18:14The waves can travel thousands of kilometres across oceans.
0:18:14 > 0:18:21When they hit land, the results can be cataclysmic as they were a century ago in South-East Asia.
0:18:24 > 0:18:26Krakatau in Indonesia, 1883...
0:18:26 > 0:18:3236,000 people killed by an eruption that was far less in intensity -
0:18:32 > 0:18:36less than half the intensity of this eruption here.
0:18:36 > 0:18:40Most people were killed by...tsunamis.
0:18:40 > 0:18:47This means then that we should perhaps be looking for tsunami deposits left by these large waves.
0:18:49 > 0:18:54Evidence of those deposits has eluded archaeologists for decades.
0:18:54 > 0:19:00Now Floyd has heard of an intriguing find that may be what he's looking for.
0:19:13 > 0:19:19In 1997, a team of geologists came to this salt-water marsh.
0:19:19 > 0:19:24They drilled deep down into the ground and removed a core of mud.
0:19:25 > 0:19:31At a laboratory in Britain, they started sifting through the core.
0:19:35 > 0:19:40After much work, Dale Dominey-Howes found what he was looking for -
0:19:40 > 0:19:44tiny fossilised shells called forams.
0:19:45 > 0:19:48The forams are actually very helpful to us
0:19:48 > 0:19:55as they live in a range of settings. Some live in marshes,
0:19:55 > 0:20:00others prefer estuaries and some prefer deeper water.
0:20:01 > 0:20:07They are actually very useful because each individual species looks very different.
0:20:07 > 0:20:12Under the microscope the difference between the shells becomes clear.
0:20:12 > 0:20:19The one on the right once lived in shallow water. The one on the left lived in deep water.
0:20:20 > 0:20:23As Dale examined the mud core closely,
0:20:23 > 0:20:26he found something peculiar.
0:20:28 > 0:20:32As you go through the core, you go back in time.
0:20:32 > 0:20:38All through the larger part of the core, we're finding no forams at all.
0:20:38 > 0:20:41At this point, something exciting happens.
0:20:41 > 0:20:47There is a very thin band or layer of sand. This sand is stuffed with marine forams.
0:20:47 > 0:20:54These forams are fully marine and come from deeper water offshore.
0:20:55 > 0:20:59This means something very unusual happened here.
0:20:59 > 0:21:02A very unusual, high-energy event
0:21:02 > 0:21:07that's brought these deep water species from offshore into the marsh.
0:21:07 > 0:21:12So I suspect that this shows that a tsunami flooded into the marsh.
0:21:18 > 0:21:21Dale's evidence suggests
0:21:21 > 0:21:27the volcano on Thera produced waves that travelled 100km across the open sea.
0:21:27 > 0:21:31Their effect would have been felt along the northern coast of Crete,
0:21:31 > 0:21:36but most of all, at harbour towns like Palaikastro.
0:21:38 > 0:21:42Floyd has come to Palaikastro to meet one man who can tell him
0:21:42 > 0:21:46how destructive those waves might have been.
0:21:50 > 0:21:54Costas Synolakis chases tsunamis around the world.
0:21:54 > 0:21:58As they break, he rushes to the scene to map the destruction.
0:21:58 > 0:22:021n 1992, there was a tsunami in Nicaragua...
0:22:02 > 0:22:04This time, Costas has come home.
0:22:04 > 0:22:07He was brought up on Crete.
0:22:07 > 0:22:10With his expert knowledge,
0:22:10 > 0:22:15he has built one of the world's most sophisticated computer models of tsunamis.
0:22:15 > 0:22:21Costas has spent weeks feeding data about the Theran eruption into his computer.
0:22:21 > 0:22:25Now he's ready to show Floyd the results.
0:22:25 > 0:22:31- Can we see the wave in motion?- Yes, let's try to get to the animations...
0:22:31 > 0:22:38- This is the initial wave... - There it is. - The eruption has taken place.- Yes.
0:22:40 > 0:22:43Oh, look at that!
0:22:44 > 0:22:46Oh, that's really neat!
0:22:49 > 0:22:56Costas's model shows the waves coming from Thera and hitting the coast of Crete.
0:22:56 > 0:23:02At Palaikastro, the bay is enclosed and the waves would have become trapped - their effect magnified.
0:23:04 > 0:23:09Look! The high water comes in, inundates things and stays there.
0:23:09 > 0:23:14Yes, it does. You have waves that are getting trapped inside this bay.
0:23:16 > 0:23:22Palaikastro is unique as you have the effect of the first wave coming in,
0:23:22 > 0:23:27but you have the effect of the waves trapped inside the bay.
0:23:27 > 0:23:33- So if one building wasn't destroyed, it will be destroyed. - Unfortunately, yes.
0:23:38 > 0:23:46The waves at Palaikastro would have formed a towering wall of water three metres high.
0:23:47 > 0:23:49What kind of damage would that do?
0:23:49 > 0:23:53A three-metre wave coming into a small harbour...
0:23:55 > 0:23:57..would have been devastating.
0:23:59 > 0:24:04All of the boats would have been strewn out on the coast everywhere.
0:24:06 > 0:24:10Here is a civilisation that depended on boats.
0:24:10 > 0:24:17One of the things that we find out in the field when we go there a week after a tsunami hits
0:24:17 > 0:24:22is we cannot find absolutely any boats to use in our surveys.
0:24:22 > 0:24:27- Because all of the boats are gone... - They've been destroyed.
0:24:31 > 0:24:34It wouldn't have been just the boats.
0:24:34 > 0:24:40The wave would have travelled upstream and would have flooded the area surrounding the river.
0:24:43 > 0:24:46Salt would have destroyed the soil.
0:24:46 > 0:24:49Yes. And there is the fact that
0:24:49 > 0:24:56all of their warehouses, storage areas, food supplies they were bringing in or exporting,
0:24:56 > 0:25:00would all have been destroyed... or wet.
0:25:13 > 0:25:16- All this by a three-metre wave?- Yes.
0:25:18 > 0:25:23The waves would have been even more destructive in other parts.
0:25:23 > 0:25:28In some places, they would have reached 12 metres high.
0:25:37 > 0:25:41Floyd is sure tsunamis devastated the coast,
0:25:41 > 0:25:46but the huge waves weren't enough to wipe out an entire civilisation -
0:25:46 > 0:25:48there must have been more.
0:25:59 > 0:26:03His hunt for the eruption's longer lasting impact
0:26:03 > 0:26:05begins with a fresco.
0:26:06 > 0:26:09We are extraordinarily fortunate
0:26:09 > 0:26:14that wonderful pieces of art were preserved in the ash that buried Akrotiri,
0:26:14 > 0:26:21and among that art is an image of what the island looked like before the eruption.
0:26:21 > 0:26:27And, in there, is a very nice depiction of an island
0:26:27 > 0:26:32sitting inside another island with a ring of water around it.
0:26:32 > 0:26:38But most extraordinary - it shows a huge city sitting on that island.
0:26:39 > 0:26:43All of that may represent the pre-eruption landscape.
0:26:43 > 0:26:49If so, then there were even larger cities sitting in that caldera,
0:26:49 > 0:26:54and all of that island city vaporised by the eruption.
0:26:55 > 0:26:59This evidence of another city on Thera is puzzling.
0:26:59 > 0:27:05How could an island this small support so many people in such luxury?
0:27:11 > 0:27:17Archaeologists are unearthing clues showing just how crucial Thera was
0:27:17 > 0:27:20as a source of legendary wealth.
0:27:26 > 0:27:30In this building alone, they discovered 400 pots.
0:27:30 > 0:27:35So many, they must have been produced on an industrial scale.
0:27:43 > 0:27:47Then they found a vast number of lead discs
0:27:47 > 0:27:52precisely cast to the Minoan standard for weights and measures.
0:27:52 > 0:27:54We have so far
0:27:54 > 0:28:01discovered here two-thirds of the total amount of lead weights
0:28:01 > 0:28:04found in the entire Aegean.
0:28:04 > 0:28:10So trade was the main activity which produced wealth,
0:28:10 > 0:28:17and therefore we could say that it is a kind of Hong Kong of the prehistoric Aegean.
0:28:17 > 0:28:23Archaeologists already knew that the Minoans' trading empire spanned three continents.
0:28:23 > 0:28:29Now they realised that Thera was one of the most important marketplaces in the Aegean
0:28:29 > 0:28:33where the Minoans came to buy and sell goods.
0:28:33 > 0:28:39When the eruption ripped the island apart, that marketplace was wiped out.
0:28:39 > 0:28:44The impact of this eruption on the Minoans...
0:28:44 > 0:28:49I mean, on Crete, suddenly their trading hub here is gone...vaporised.
0:28:49 > 0:28:53This core of their trade has disappeared.
0:28:53 > 0:28:56That had to have had a huge impact.
0:28:59 > 0:29:04Floyd now believes the Minoans suffered a series of blows.
0:29:04 > 0:29:08The people of Thera were engulfed by the ash.
0:29:09 > 0:29:13Huge waves wrought havoc on the coast of Crete.
0:29:14 > 0:29:18The marketplace of the Minoan empire was obliterated,
0:29:18 > 0:29:24but he thinks even this wasn't enough to destroy the Minoan civilisation.
0:29:24 > 0:29:30He is sure the volcano had another legacy - the most deadly yet.
0:29:34 > 0:29:41This part of the story starts back on Thera with a brainwave from one British geologist.
0:29:42 > 0:29:47Steve Sparks has spent decades studying the scale of the eruption,
0:29:47 > 0:29:52but, over the years, one piece of the puzzle refused to fit...
0:29:52 > 0:29:55algae.
0:29:58 > 0:30:05Fossilised algae lie high up on the slopes of Thera, but that doesn't make sense.
0:30:05 > 0:30:09This type of algae doesn't live on hillsides.
0:30:09 > 0:30:14Steve saw that the algae must have been blasted up here by the force of the explosion,
0:30:14 > 0:30:17but from where?
0:30:21 > 0:30:26It could only have been from a place where these algae DO live -
0:30:26 > 0:30:28a shallow sea.
0:30:28 > 0:30:33That means there must've once been a shallow sea inside the crater.
0:30:35 > 0:30:39A picture of the island BEFORE the blast was emerging.
0:30:39 > 0:30:42This is what the volcano
0:30:42 > 0:30:46might have looked like from above at that time.
0:30:46 > 0:30:50You can see this large caldera already exists.
0:30:50 > 0:30:54You can also see a large volcanic island which must have existed.
0:30:54 > 0:31:02This island was blown up during the Minoan eruption. There are bits of it in the deposit.
0:31:02 > 0:31:08This new picture with a differently shaped island and a shallow sea
0:31:08 > 0:31:12had startling implications for the scale of the eruption.
0:31:14 > 0:31:19I was walking along the caldera rim a few years ago, looking down into it,
0:31:19 > 0:31:25when it struck me that the existence of the shallow sea before the eruption
0:31:25 > 0:31:30may mean that the eruption was much larger than we had supposed.
0:31:31 > 0:31:35Could it be that all previous estimates were too low?
0:31:35 > 0:31:41The size of this eruption was estimated from the amount of ash that came pouring out.
0:31:41 > 0:31:47Steve now suspected that tonnes of ash may not have been counted
0:31:47 > 0:31:53because the shallow sea would have trapped that ash until it was filled to the brim.
0:31:53 > 0:32:00If this hypothesis is right, an enormous amount of volcanic ash was trapped within the caldera itself.
0:32:00 > 0:32:06When the caldera collapsed, this material would have been taken with it.
0:32:10 > 0:32:17The force of the blast brought the volcano crashing down and created the deep sea that exists today.
0:32:17 > 0:32:23Steve is convinced that at the bottom of that deep sea lies a thick layer of ash.
0:32:23 > 0:32:30Add this hidden ash to previous estimates and the real size of the eruption doubles.
0:32:38 > 0:32:45This would make it perhaps the second largest eruption on earth in the last 10,000 years.
0:32:49 > 0:32:54Up to 70 cubic kilometres of ash were blasted into the atmosphere,
0:32:54 > 0:33:00and with that ash came something else far more destructive - sulphurous gas.
0:33:00 > 0:33:07If we are right about the scale of the eruption, then it could have been very bad news for the Minoans.
0:33:07 > 0:33:11There would have been much volcanic ash in the atmosphere
0:33:11 > 0:33:16and large amounts of volcanic gas - in particular, sulphur dioxide.
0:33:16 > 0:33:24Large eruptions of this kind with huge amounts of sulphur dioxide can alter climate,
0:33:24 > 0:33:28and this may have had a big effect after the eruption.
0:33:28 > 0:33:32Steve's idea of doubling the size of this eruption on Thera
0:33:32 > 0:33:39now brings it up to the same category as the eruption of, for example, Tambora, 1815, Indonesia.
0:33:39 > 0:33:45That eruption was huge - the biggest in the last 10,000 years.
0:33:46 > 0:33:51It changed the global climate for years afterwards.
0:33:51 > 0:33:56The year after that eruption is known as The Year Without A Summer.
0:33:59 > 0:34:07There was frost. In New England, in England and Germany crops would not grow and it led to mass starvation.
0:34:09 > 0:34:15Might the Minoans on Crete have faced a climate change as severe?
0:34:16 > 0:34:21The answer may lie with climate modeller Mike Rampino.
0:34:25 > 0:34:32Large explosive volcanic eruptions put a lot of dust and fine ash up into the atmosphere,
0:34:32 > 0:34:35but they also put sulphur dioxide gas.
0:34:35 > 0:34:39This goes up into the atmosphere.
0:34:39 > 0:34:43It's converted into droplets of sulphuric acid.
0:34:43 > 0:34:49These droplets cut out the sunlight that would normally come in and warm the Earth's surface,
0:34:49 > 0:34:52causing the Earth's surface to cool.
0:34:53 > 0:34:59If Mike Rampino knows how much sulphur is produced by an eruption,
0:34:59 > 0:35:04his computer model can forecast how much the climate will change.
0:35:12 > 0:35:17We're using Steve Sparks' new estimate of the size of the eruption.
0:35:17 > 0:35:22He suggested the eruption was twice as big as we had thought.
0:35:22 > 0:35:28If we put that much volcanic aerosol into the atmosphere in our computer model and spread it around the world,
0:35:28 > 0:35:32we see a significant effect on the Earth's climate.
0:35:35 > 0:35:40We can see from the blue colours here a climatic cooling,
0:35:40 > 0:35:47especially concentrated in Europe, Asia and North America, of one to two degrees celsius.
0:35:47 > 0:35:51It doesn't sound much but that's the average ANNUAL temperature drop.
0:35:51 > 0:35:57The summer temperature - the most important for crops - will drop even more than the average,
0:35:57 > 0:36:02so the summer at these times will be especially cool and wet,
0:36:02 > 0:36:05and so the crops will suffer accordingly.
0:36:05 > 0:36:10Mike's model suggests years of ruined harvests,
0:36:10 > 0:36:16but without physical evidence, Floyd would have no more than an enticing theory.
0:36:17 > 0:36:21Proof has come from an unlikely source far away.
0:36:34 > 0:36:36The bogs of Ireland.
0:36:36 > 0:36:44Slices of trees from these bogs contain a record of climate stretching back over 7,000 years.
0:36:49 > 0:36:53Each year, the trees put on a ring of growth.
0:36:57 > 0:37:01During the good years, those growth rings are thick,
0:37:01 > 0:37:05in bad years, so small, they can be hard to measure.
0:37:06 > 0:37:11When Mike measured the tree rings in one particular sample,
0:37:11 > 0:37:13something made him take notice.
0:37:19 > 0:37:21This is a piece of Irish oak.
0:37:21 > 0:37:28It grew for about 300 years, then was buried in a peat bog and has survived to the present time.
0:37:28 > 0:37:34It was growing about 3,500 years ago. When you look at
0:37:34 > 0:37:38the exactly dated rings across this period,
0:37:38 > 0:37:45you find that the tree has been growing quite well up until 1628bc, which is this ring,
0:37:45 > 0:37:52and in 1627, there is no summer growth, nor in 1626, nor for about ten years thereafter.
0:37:52 > 0:37:56These are the narrowest rings in the life of this tree -
0:37:56 > 0:38:00the worst growth conditions of its lifetime.
0:38:03 > 0:38:07The trees can't tell us exactly what happened,
0:38:07 > 0:38:12but the logic is that they were probably responding
0:38:12 > 0:38:17to increased coldness or increased wetness or possibly both.
0:38:17 > 0:38:22In a peat bog, if you raise the amount of water in the peat,
0:38:22 > 0:38:28you're likely to cover up the roots of the trees and affect them that way.
0:38:28 > 0:38:36So, I certainly became interested in whether this environmental downturn, probably involving cold and wet,
0:38:36 > 0:38:39was due to the eruption of Thera.
0:38:58 > 0:39:03Proof that the Irish oak trees WERE stunted by the eruption of Thera
0:39:03 > 0:39:09has just been reported from a desolate part of the world.
0:39:13 > 0:39:19The ice sheets of Greenland have built up over thousands of years from annual layers of snow.
0:39:20 > 0:39:27As the snow falls, anything lingering in the atmosphere is swept up and locked into the ice.
0:39:27 > 0:39:32Sulphur from volcanic eruptions is trapped as sulphuric acid.
0:39:33 > 0:39:39The snow that fell 3,500 years ago is now over 700 metres deep.
0:39:42 > 0:39:48When Danish scientists tested the ice at that level, they found a layer of sulphuric acid.
0:39:48 > 0:39:53Embedded in that acid layer were tiny shards of volcanic ash.
0:39:53 > 0:39:58The shards have just been chemically fingerprinted.
0:39:58 > 0:40:02The unpublished results have convinced the scientists
0:40:02 > 0:40:05that the ash came from Thera.
0:40:05 > 0:40:11It's fantastic news because it gives us the final link in the chain.
0:40:11 > 0:40:15You've got Thera linked to the acid in Greenland,
0:40:15 > 0:40:20this acid occurs at the same time as the reduced growth in the Irish trees,
0:40:20 > 0:40:26so you're seeing direct environmental consequences of the eruption of Thera,
0:40:26 > 0:40:29and that is fantastic.
0:40:40 > 0:40:48Floyd is now convinced that the volcano's aftermath so damaged the climate, harvests failed.
0:40:48 > 0:40:53He's close to explaining how the Minoans were felled by the eruption.
0:40:53 > 0:40:59Yet there is one last problem that threatens to jeopardise his entire theory...
0:41:00 > 0:41:02..clay tablets.
0:41:02 > 0:41:06Many were written decades after the eruption.
0:41:06 > 0:41:13Covered with Minoan writing, they are proof that their culture survived well beyond the blast.
0:41:13 > 0:41:18It was 50 years after the eruption that a new script appeared -
0:41:18 > 0:41:24an ancient form of Greek - the language of the Minoans' conquerors.
0:41:31 > 0:41:38The problem we have is that the eruption itself can't be said to have wiped out Minoan civilisation.
0:41:38 > 0:41:44The civilisation continued, although it declined, for at least 50 years
0:41:44 > 0:41:46after the eruption itself.
0:41:46 > 0:41:52The Minoans had survived each successive blow from the volcano -
0:41:52 > 0:41:56the eruption itself, the tsunamis and the failed harvests.
0:41:56 > 0:42:00But these blows had gone deep.
0:42:00 > 0:42:05How deep would only become clear with the final piece of the puzzle.
0:42:20 > 0:42:24It was found near the royal palace of Knossos,
0:42:24 > 0:42:28buried amongst the bones of the five murdered children.
0:42:30 > 0:42:37The children's bones were found in this very, very small area here in a burnt destruction layer,
0:42:37 > 0:42:42and with these bones, which were in a state of disorder,
0:42:42 > 0:42:46were also found vases which we term "ritual".
0:42:51 > 0:42:56The striking thing about the vases is the way they were decorated.
0:42:57 > 0:43:00They are covered with sea creatures.
0:43:00 > 0:43:05Some have starfish, several are painted with octopus.
0:43:05 > 0:43:11The Minoans were painting the vases they used for religion with images from the deep.
0:43:11 > 0:43:14For Colin, the timing is crucial.
0:43:14 > 0:43:19He believes it's only after the eruption and the tsunamis
0:43:19 > 0:43:23that they started using this so-called Marine Style.
0:43:23 > 0:43:29This association of the Marine Style and ritual vases is very important,
0:43:29 > 0:43:35because it indicates to us a totally new awareness of the power of the sea.
0:43:35 > 0:43:42This was incorporated into their religion as a totally new aspect of their religion,
0:43:42 > 0:43:47probably to try and ward off future disasters
0:43:47 > 0:43:52which might have appeared to them to emanate from the sea itself.
0:43:55 > 0:44:02The pottery suggests the damaging aftereffects of the volcano were as much psychological as physical.
0:44:02 > 0:44:06Colin believes the Minoans began to see their natural world
0:44:06 > 0:44:09in an entirely different way.
0:44:12 > 0:44:17Before the eruption, the Minoans observed rigid hierarchy.
0:44:17 > 0:44:24At the top stood the kings in palaces like Knossos, revered as priests as well as rulers.
0:44:26 > 0:44:30They controlled the shrines to the gods.
0:44:30 > 0:44:35They were even deemed capable of controlling the force of nature.
0:44:38 > 0:44:43But a stunning archaeological find has convinced Colin
0:44:43 > 0:44:47that, after the eruption, all this changed.
0:44:49 > 0:44:51First, a glimmer of gold.
0:44:51 > 0:44:53Then, an ivory leg.
0:45:00 > 0:45:02Once they restored it,
0:45:02 > 0:45:07the archaeologists realised they'd found a religious statue.
0:45:11 > 0:45:15But what was so striking was WHERE it was found -
0:45:15 > 0:45:21far from the palace where the priest-kings presided, in a humble building in Palaikastro
0:45:21 > 0:45:24which lay beyond their control.
0:45:24 > 0:45:30Colin believes that this shrine shows Minoan society had fallen apart from within.
0:45:33 > 0:45:37After the eruption, communities such as Palaikastro
0:45:37 > 0:45:44no longer believed in the divine authority of the big, palatial centres like Knossos,
0:45:44 > 0:45:51and it is part of the fragmentation of society, seen in the 50-year period following the eruption itself.
0:45:51 > 0:45:55And this actually created a vacuum,
0:45:55 > 0:45:59and it was into this vacuum that mainland Greeks marched
0:45:59 > 0:46:04and ended Minoan culture and civilisation as we knew it before.
0:46:04 > 0:46:10Wonderful. This means the eruption had not an immediate effect
0:46:10 > 0:46:13but a prolonged effect on society.
0:46:20 > 0:46:25Floyd believes he's now worked out what happened to the Minoans.
0:46:28 > 0:46:35Nature in the form of the volcano, the giant waves and the climate change
0:46:35 > 0:46:38had betrayed them.
0:46:39 > 0:46:45Desperate to end these new terrors, the people turned away from their kings.
0:46:45 > 0:46:50They took their religion into their own hands - order turned to chaos.
0:46:58 > 0:47:04Perhaps this is what explains the dreadful fate of the five children.
0:47:04 > 0:47:10In desperation, some Minoans were driven to extremes to win back their gods.
0:47:10 > 0:47:13They sacrificed their children -
0:47:13 > 0:47:15the greatest offering they had.
0:47:28 > 0:47:31For Floyd, the quest is over.
0:47:31 > 0:47:37In the end, it wasn't only the physical damage that brought the Minoans to their knees.
0:47:37 > 0:47:41He is convinced that Minoan society finally fell apart
0:47:41 > 0:47:46when the world they thought they knew turned against them.
0:47:46 > 0:47:51Did these people have a sense of conquering nature?
0:47:51 > 0:47:58Did they have a sense that they could occupy this landscape and control it? ..Quite likely.
0:47:59 > 0:48:02We have the same notion today, I think.
0:48:02 > 0:48:07We think that we have conquered our environment and conquered nature.
0:48:07 > 0:48:10But nature can strike back.
0:48:10 > 0:48:15The cataclysmic event IS going to happen again.
0:48:20 > 0:48:26In the next programme, the tragic tale of the Maya in Central America.
0:48:26 > 0:48:321,200 years ago, one of the most glorious civilisations the world has known collapsed.
0:48:33 > 0:48:39Why magnificent cities were abandoned and millions died is a mystery that only now can be solved.
0:48:39 > 0:48:43That's next Thursday at 9.00pm.
0:48:47 > 0:48:51Subtitles by Caroline Tosh BBC Scotland - 2001
0:48:51 > 0:48:54E-mail us at subtitling@bbc.co.uk