The island is the site of one of the largest volcanic eruptions in recorded history: the Minoan eruption ( sometimes called the Thera eruption ), which occurred some 3600 years ago at the height of the Minoan civilization.

The eruption left a large caldera surrounded by volcanic ash deposits hundreds of metres deep and may have led indirectly to the collapse of the Minoan civilization on the island of Crete, to the south, through a gigantic tsunami.

The eruption occurred during the " Late Minoan IA " period at Crete and the " Late Cycladic I " period in the surrounding islands.

The most famous eruption is the Minoan eruption, detailed below.

The northern part of the caldera was refilled by the volcano, then collapsing once more during the Minoan eruption.

Before the Minoan eruption, the caldera formed a nearly continuous ring with the only entrance between the tiny island of Aspronisi and Thera ; the eruption destroyed the sections of the ring between Aspronisi and Therasia, and between Therasia and Thera, creating two new channels.

Satellite image of Thera, centre location of the Minoan eruption, one possible source of seventeenth century BC climatic disturbances

It might have been caused by the Minoan eruption of Thera or the Avellino eruption of Mount Vesuvius.

It might have been caused by the Minoan eruption of Thera which according to the Parian Chronicle occurred in 1627, or the Avellino eruption of Mount Vesuvius.

** Minoan eruption

* The 1628 – 26 BC climate disturbances, usually attributed to the Minoan eruption of Santorini

After the Minoan civilization was devastated by the Thera eruption, Crete developed an Ancient Greece-influenced organization of city states, then successively became part of the Roman Empire, the Byzantine Empire, the Venetian Republic, the Ottoman Empire, and the modern state of Greece.

By about the 15th century BC a massive volcanic explosion known as the Minoan eruption blew the island of Thera apart, casting more than four times the amount of ejecta as the explosion of Krakatoa and generating a tsunami in the enclosed Aegean that threw pumice up to 250 meters above sea level onto the slopes of Anaphi, 27 km to the east.

* Minoan eruption

* Minoan eruption

Some scientists correlate this event with a volcanic winter, possibly due to the Minoan eruption of Thera circa 1628 BC.

Later in some cults Zeus is united with the Aegean Great Goddess, who is represented by Hera, in a " holy wedding " ( hieros gamos ). At some point in their cultural history, the Myceneans adopted some Minoan goddesses like Aphaea, Britomartis, Diktynna and associated them with their sky-god.

Agate is one of the most common materials used in the art of hardstone carving, and has been recovered at a number of ancient sites, indicating its widespread use in the ancient world ; for example, archaeological recovery at the Knossos site on Crete illustrates its role in Bronze Age Minoan culture.

The earliest evidence for fist fighting with any kind of gloves can be found on Minoan Crete ( c. 1500 – 900 BC ), and on Sardinia, if we consider the boxing statues of Prama mountains ( c. 2000 – 1000 BC ).

By the late Bronze Age, however, a series of treaties had established safe passage for merchants around the Eastern Mediterranean, spreading from Minoan Crete and Mycenae in the northwest to Elam and Bahrain in the southeast.

The island is first referred to as Kaptara in texts from the Syrian city of Mari dating from the 18th century BC, repeated later in Neo-Assyrian records and the Bible ( Caphtor ) It was also known in ancient Egyptian as Keftiu, strongly suggesting some form similar to both was the Minoan name for the island.

The significant Late Neolithic and Early Bronze Age Cycladic culture is best known for its schematic flat idols carved out of the islands ' pure white marble centuries before the great Middle Bronze Age (" Minoan ") culture arose in Crete, to the south: these figures have been looted from burials to satisfy a thriving Cycladic antiquities market since the early 20th century.

Evidence of deforestation has been found in Minoan Crete ; for example the environs of the Palace of Knossos were severely deforested in the Bronze Age.

Arcadian cult to Demeter links her to a male deity ( Greek: Πάρεδρος, Paredros ), who accompanied the Great Goddess and has been interpreted as a possible substitution for Poseidon ; Demeter may therefore be related to a Minoan Great Goddess.

For Pasiphaë, as Greek mythologers interpreted it, Daedalus also built a wooden cow so she could mate with the bull, for the Greeks imagined the Minoan bull of the sun to be an actual, earthly bull, Daedalus was so envious of his nephew's accomplishments that he took an opportunity.

The Minoan goddess represented in seals and other remains, whom Greeks called Potnia Thēron ' Mistress of Animals ', many of whose attributes were later also absorbed by Artemis, seems to have been a mother goddess type, for in some representations she suckles the animals that she holds.

In Minoan times, before the Mycenaean Greek dominion, Linear A was the official script for the palaces and religious activities, and hieroglyphs were mainly used on seals.

The theory for the Luwian origin of Minoan, however, failed to gain universal support for the following reasons:

It is descended from the older Linear A, an undeciphered earlier script used for writing the Minoan language, as does the later Cypriot syllabary, which also recorded Greek.

Similarly, there are also groups for lesbians, like certain forms of Dianic Wicca and the Minoan Sisterhood.

The Minoan Brotherhood was founded in 1977 in New York by Edmund Buczynski, an elder in the Gardnerian, WICA and New York Welsh Traditions, in order to create a Craft tradition for gay and bisexual men — one that would celebrate and explore the distinctive mysteries unique to men who love men.

The most peculiar feature of the Minoan belief for the divine, is the appearance of the goddess from above in the dance.

Unlike the ancient Minoan civilization, the Mycenaean Greeks emphasized the need for fortifications alongside natural defenses of mountainous terrain, such as the massive Cyclopean walls built at Mycenae during the last half of the 2nd millennium BC.

By the Middle Minoan age a new set for seal forms, motifs and materials appear.

Sir Arthur John Evans FRS ( 8 July 1851 – 11 July 1941 ) was a British archaeologist most famous for unearthing the palace of Knossos on the Greek island of Crete and for developing the concept of Minoan civilization from the structures and artifacts found there and elsewhere throughout the eastern Mediterranean.

He insisted the artifacts be transferred back to the museum, negotiated for and succeeded in acquiring Fortnam's collections, later gave his father ’ s collections to the museum, and finally, bequeathed his own Minoan collections, not without the intended effect.

As early as the Bronze Age chalcedony was in use in the Mediterranean region ; for example, on Minoan Crete at the Palace of Knossos, chalcedony seals have been recovered dating to circa 1800 BC.

Minoan is the name given by modern historians to the people of ancient Crete ( c. 2800 – 1100 BC ), known for their elaborate and richly decorated palaces, and for their pottery painted with floral and marine motifs.

Board game with inlays of ivory, rock crystal and glass paste, covered with gold and silver leaf, on a wooden base ( Knossos, Minoan chronology | New Palace period 1600 – 1500 B. C., Heraklion Archaeological Museum, Crete )

** Minoan chronology

Hagia Triada, Minoan chronology | Late New Palace period ( 1450-1300 B. C.