 When the volcano erupted on Santorini, known to the Greeks as Theda, it completely upset the entire region. This is known to have caused a societal collapse that we never really recovered from and in this sense we are still trying to understand this period in time, later referred to as the Bronze Age collapse. The massive eruption of the volcano beneath the island of Santorini in the middle of the Aegean Sea provides a fundamental piece of information for this point in history of the late Bronze Age civilizations of the Eastern Mediterranean. The archaeological remains excavated at Akkototiti includes impressive architecture, remarkable wall paintings, and large numbers of other finds that provide an unparalleled view of Aegean civilization in the middle of the 2nd millennium BC. The eruption occurred close to the height of power and influence of the civilization centered on the Minoan Crete. It was very apparent that chronology is of major importance for understanding the interconnections and influences between the ancient civilizations of the Aegean, Egypt, and the Near East. The eruption has been dated near to the beginning of the new Kingdom in Egypt by a range of archaeological evidence. The dating appears to be strongly supported by the presence and sequence of Egyptian artifacts found in the Aegean, as well as by large amounts of Cypriot pottery of various phases found both in Egypt and in one notable case also in the Thera volcanic destruction layer itself. It is also supported by the presence of pumice sourced to the Thera eruption in archaeological context in Egypt, the Near East, and Cyprus. The eruption of Santorini reached as far as the Great Pyramids. The eruption is said to be responsible for much destruction and this reached Egypt and immortalized in the Tempus Stila where it states that pyramids, temples, and tombs were devastated during a great and long lasting storm. The king after a period of time ordered the restoration to be carried out on many of Egypt's great structures that were devastated by the event. The fragmentary Stila recounts the devastations and reconstructions resulting from an extraordinary cataclysm, an early 18th dynasty in Egypt. While storms can be noted in Egyptian literature, Amos Tempus Stila is without parallel in extending the destructive effects to the entirety of the country. The remarkable nature of the event described in unprecedented detail is stressed by the text itself which attributes the disaster to divine displeasure while yet declaring that it was a greater than divine wrath and exceeded the gods plans. The Amos Stila, comprising multiple fragments recovered from clearance of the third pylon at Karnak, consists of a single text in horizontal lines copied on both sides of a calcite block that once stood over two meters tall. The side conveniently termed the face or front side had horizontal lines painted red with incised hieroglyphics highlighted in blue pigment and it tells a tale of devastation that happened in Egypt right after the time of the eruption. The text begins with a standard string of titles for Amos the first, including a reference to his divine appointment by the god Ra. Amos was residing in an Egyptian town, so reads the stone, and he traveled south to Theves to visit Karnak. After his visit he returned south and while he was traveling away from Theves a tremendous storm blew up with devastating effects throughout the entire country. The storm is said to have lasted for several weeks with billowing noises louder than the cataracts at Elephantine, torrential rainstorms and an intense darkness so dark that not even a torch could relieve it. The driving rains damaged pyramids, chapels and temples and washed houses, construction debris and corpses into the Nile where they are described as bobbing like papyrus boats. There's also a reference to both sides of the Nile being stripped bare of clothing, a reference that has lots of interpretations. The most extensive section of the Stila describes the king's actions to remedy the destruction, to re-establish the two lands of Egypt and provide the flooded territories with silver, gold, oil and cloth. When he finally arrives in Theves, Amos is told that the tomb chambers and monuments have been damaged and some have collapsed. He orders that the people restore the monuments, shore up the chambers, replace the contents of the shrines and double the wages of the personnel in order to return the land to its former state. Amos himself believed this storm was the result of the great displeasure of the gods for his leaving Theves, his rightful location for the rule over both upper and lower Egypt. It is necessary to emphasize that such a major natural catastrophe as the volcanic explosion under consideration would have seriously affected a wide range of civilization around the eastern Mediterranean. It would have remained in people's memories for a long time. That said, it is remarkable that we have no concrete records of accounts from anywhere in this region by people who had witnessed the Thera eruption more closely. An influx of new data and understanding is obliging us to revise the chronology of the Middle Kingdom, second intermediate period and the New Kingdom. It is now time to consider the possibility that the Tempus Stila is indeed a contemporary record of the Cataclysmic Thera event and a thousand years later, at the time of Plato, he tells of a time when a great civilization fell beneath the waves, a mighty empire that was gone overnight. Plato's Atlantis may have been Santorini, but what do you guys think about this anyway? Comments below and as always, thank you for watching.