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Bronze Age myths? Volcanic activity and human response in the Mediterranean and North Atlantic regions

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

Paul C. Buckland ,
Andrew J. Dugmore  and
Kevin J. Edwards
Paul C. Buckland
Affiliation:
Department of Archaeology & Prehistory, University of Sheffield, Sheffield S1 4ET, England
Andrew J. Dugmore
Affiliation:
Department of Geography, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh EH8 9XP, Scotland
Kevin J. Edwards
Affiliation:
Department of Archaeology & Prehistory, University of Sheffield, Sheffield S1 4ET, England
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Extract

A first rule of statistics is that the existence of a correlation does not itself prove a causal connection. This is the heart of the recurrent question in later European prehistory — whether in the Mediterranean or in the Atlantic northwest — about volcanic eruptions, their impact on climate, and then of the climatic impact on human populations. The burial under tephra of the Late Bronze Age settlement of Santorini is proof of a particular catastrophe: but is there the evidence to prove wider European calamity?

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Antiquity , Volume 71 , Issue 273 , September 1997 , pp. 581 - 593
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Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd. 1997 

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